Windows XP - Optimizing the monitor

Do you have a fairly new monitor/graphics card combination and are complaining about a blurred display (particularly noticeable with fonts)? You can't work under these circumstances because the unsteady font puts too much strain on your eyes. What can you do?

1. Go to Control Panel > Display > Settings - "Advanced" > Monitor. It is possible that the refresh rate is set too high. Some monitors display the image with a significant loss of sharpness at the maximum values. If possible, you should reduce this to 85 HZ. Values below this are perceived by the eye as clear flickering and are just as damaging as a blurred display.

If 85 Hz or even less is already set here, you have no choice but to lower the resolution to 800 x 600. Here you can then go up to 90Hz on most monitors For me, the following values have always proven to be a good compromise between resolution, sharpness and refresh rate:

15 inch monitor: 640*480, 85Hz
17 inch monitor: 800*600, 90Hz
19 inch monitor: 1024*786, 100Hz

If the devices are of good quality, you can always go up a level

2. Check whether the connection cable to the monitor has kinks, is not plugged in correctly or is even damaged.
If your monitor has such a connection, you can switch to BNC (Bayonet Chell) cables, as these have better image definition. There should be 5 silver sockets on the back of your monitor.

3. The graphics card is rarely to blame, as most new cards support resolutions and frequencies that no standard monitor can cope with. If the blurring also appears in DOS or on the monitor's on-screen menu, for example, the monitor is probably to blame.

I hope I was able to help you with this little monitor guide

NOTE FOR NEW PUBLICATION: This article was produced by Sandro Villinger and comes from the Windows Tweaks archive, which has been built up since the late 1990s.