Monitor Troubleshooting; Please Help

Not sure how to fix THAT monitor, but the good news is that perfectly fine still-working CRT monitors are so cheap they're often free. Check out your local freecycle or craigslist or whatever. I love my 21" CRT monitors (cost: free to as much as $20, and they were four-digit-price items only ten years ago), though the newfangled things are getting pretty cheap and a lot easier to move around.

I've noticed my netbook screen shows different colors and can even show a "negative" image depending on what angle I set it at. I suppose you're seeing something similar. Does it help to adjust the angle of the screen?

Sound like a POS. Was it cheap?

I lurve my big oxy CRT. I've gone through several used ones. I've seen both good and punky in laptops. That color changing makes me spit.

Could the problem have anything to do with this?
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170467
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170484
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170482

Nah, I think this thread was started a couple of hours before the AW color scheme went weird.


Not sure, but is there a refresh rate associated with flat screen monitors? Or maybe there's something on the Display setting for the computer which needs to be modified.

It can't hurt to futz around and change the resolution and stuff, especially with it currently as bad as you describe it. To change things, go to (this is for XP but other Windows versions should be similar):

Start->Control Panel->Display->Settings

If the Color Quality isn't set at "Highest (32 bit)", set it to that. If that's not an option, then change the Screen Resolution setting and try it again. For that size screen I'm guessing the "right" resolution is something like 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. When you press the menu button on the monitor it usually says the "best" resolution for it.

Whenever you change resolution, be sure the Color Quality is set at highest. If it won't do that, your computer won't give the full color quality at that resolution, and you probably want to switch to a lower resolution where it does.

Also, press the Advanced button and click on Monitor. Set the Screen Refresh Rate for the highest number available (mine is at 100Hz). If it's set at 70 or 60Hz, it can cause flickering that a lot of people find annoying or that can give a headache.

ETA: What model computer is this, and what OS (version of Windows) is it running?

Refresh rates can do odd stuff. My first (old, dying) CRT gave me hallucinations. When I'd been at it for hours, I would see little hairy things appear out of nowhere and scuttle out of sight.

There's a little flatscreen at work that hates certain video cards. It's fine with most, but it drove me to screaming with one computer. All scriggly and shivery, jagged edges, gahhh.

Have you checked to make sure you have the right drivers installed for the monitor? If you have a CD that came with the monitor I would suggest inserting it and updating the drivers. Or search google for the correct driver. Even though most items are considered plug and play, the drivers can make a huge difference.