woogie
06-01-2002, 12:15 AM
I'll try to lay this out fully if I can. I just built a new computer and the fonts are fuzzy. It almost seems as if you can see dots in the print. I realize now that this is true for ALL programs, including word, various desktop publishing programs, etc. I have been trying everything I know but can't seem to correct it.
Here are the particulars (let's call this COMPUTER 1).
ABIT KR7A mobo (non-raid)
Athlon XP 2000+
Matrox G5500 32MG Video
KDS Rad-5 15" LCD monitor
Windows XP
I have 2 other computers, one I'm phasing out (Dell PIII 450, ATX 16MB video, Windows XP, using same KDS monitor). Let's call the old one COMPUTER 2. The fonts look clear on the Dell. No problem there.
My first inclination was to switch video cards with the computer I'm keeping. Let's call that COMPUTER 3. The components for COMPUTER 3 are very close to the new one I built:
ABIT KR7A mobo (non-raid)
Athlon XP 1800+
Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB Video
KDS Rad-5 15" LCD monitor
Windows XP
Okay, I took the Nvidia card out of COMPUTER 3 and installed it in new COMPUTER 1. It made absolutely no difference. Then I tried switching monitors with COMPUTER 3 (same brand and model). Again, no change.
Then I checked every setting in Windows XP I knew how to check. I made certain they were all the same:
Display Properties: desktop position, customize, screensaver: power and power schemes, appearance: (font size normal) effects: (fade-not checked, standard or clear type-made no difference, ALSO TRIED CLEAR TYPE DOWNLOAD, show window contents, hide underlined letters) settings: (1024 x 768, high color 32 bit) advanced (DPI 96, ALSO TRIED 120, "ask me" checked, monitor 75HZ, ALSO TRIED 70. Still, no change.
The only other possibility I can think of is perhaps I screwed things up when I built the system. I bought the same ABIT motherboard because I'd had success with it before for the XP 1800+. And it was listed as being good for Athlon up to XP 2100+. What I didn't know was that to get above XP 1900+ I would have to update the BIOS. Of course I had no idea that I could cause serious problems if I flashed the BIOS incorrectly (my 1st time). It seemed as if it went ok, but I know I tried to start the machine with the jumpers set to clear CMOS...bad! bad! bad! Perhaps I made other mistakes as well, but the rest of the system seems to be working well. Could I possibly have damaged the mobo or cpu which might have caused the video problem?
I'm out of ideas. Do you have any?
Here are the particulars (let's call this COMPUTER 1).
ABIT KR7A mobo (non-raid)
Athlon XP 2000+
Matrox G5500 32MG Video
KDS Rad-5 15" LCD monitor
Windows XP
I have 2 other computers, one I'm phasing out (Dell PIII 450, ATX 16MB video, Windows XP, using same KDS monitor). Let's call the old one COMPUTER 2. The fonts look clear on the Dell. No problem there.
My first inclination was to switch video cards with the computer I'm keeping. Let's call that COMPUTER 3. The components for COMPUTER 3 are very close to the new one I built:
ABIT KR7A mobo (non-raid)
Athlon XP 1800+
Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB Video
KDS Rad-5 15" LCD monitor
Windows XP
Okay, I took the Nvidia card out of COMPUTER 3 and installed it in new COMPUTER 1. It made absolutely no difference. Then I tried switching monitors with COMPUTER 3 (same brand and model). Again, no change.
Then I checked every setting in Windows XP I knew how to check. I made certain they were all the same:
Display Properties: desktop position, customize, screensaver: power and power schemes, appearance: (font size normal) effects: (fade-not checked, standard or clear type-made no difference, ALSO TRIED CLEAR TYPE DOWNLOAD, show window contents, hide underlined letters) settings: (1024 x 768, high color 32 bit) advanced (DPI 96, ALSO TRIED 120, "ask me" checked, monitor 75HZ, ALSO TRIED 70. Still, no change.
The only other possibility I can think of is perhaps I screwed things up when I built the system. I bought the same ABIT motherboard because I'd had success with it before for the XP 1800+. And it was listed as being good for Athlon up to XP 2100+. What I didn't know was that to get above XP 1900+ I would have to update the BIOS. Of course I had no idea that I could cause serious problems if I flashed the BIOS incorrectly (my 1st time). It seemed as if it went ok, but I know I tried to start the machine with the jumpers set to clear CMOS...bad! bad! bad! Perhaps I made other mistakes as well, but the rest of the system seems to be working well. Could I possibly have damaged the mobo or cpu which might have caused the video problem?
I'm out of ideas. Do you have any?