Very ODD problem with monitor

[bluesman_peich]

Hi! the thing is that I plugged an old monitor (my computer's crashed), and now I see THREE images of the screen (like a vertical sandwich). when I start up in fail-safe mode the displaying is ok, as the initial res. is 640x480, but when I change it back to 1024x768 I get these slices... (in 800x600 I get a double and rather poor image)...

Someone told me I have to change the horizontal refresh freq, but i can't find this (I don't know even if this is the right way to proceed). my OS is Win XP, I have an ATI Radeon 7000 and the monitor is TATUNG TM3401 (very old thing...)

does anyone know how to fix this problem? Thanks in advance.

(excuse my poor english)

[pangea33]

There are two things that can be corrupting your video display. I believe that both the refresh rate and the resolution could be a potential cause of your problem. You don't give us enough detail about this monitor to know for sure. Do you have more details? If not, how big is it? I recall a good rule of thumb used to be 14" monitor - 640x480, 15" - 800x600, 17" - 1024x768.

Start by selecting the monitor settings from your display properties, and choosing 60hz refresh rate. You've already established that 640x480 works in safe mode. Does 640x480 work after a normal boot? Windows XP won't allow you to pick anything lower than 800x600 from the regular display properties, but you can select something else manually. Do to diplay settings, click advanced button, select adapter tab, click "List All Modes." 640x480 should be available from the screen that pops up. If this works, select 800x600 at 60hz next. If this looks like a good image, you can increase the refresh rate. If this already looks bad, you're running the monitor at a setting it can't handle.

[pangea33]

Oops, by the way...

Welcome To PCGuide!!

Forgive me. I'm so bad at remembering to do that. :eek:

[bluesman_peich]

I just had to change the frequency to 56 Hz and it's solved!

Thank you very much!

[pangea33]

Glad that I could at least help get you going. What resolution are you using the 56hz refresh at? I believe that means it must be interlaced. Is the screen tolerable to look at? I really hate looking at any refresh rate lower than 75hz.