dark viewsonic

[toonces]

i just got a used viewsonic 17ps from ubid.com and the picture is almost too dark to play games on. i've tried calibrating the display using colorific and 3deep, even all the settings on the mointor. the color saturation is really great but the thing is too dark.

this is what i'm running.
amd k6/2 450mhz.
128 mg. pc-100
13.6 gig maxtor 7200rpm hdd
16 mg. riva tnt (creative)
2, 12 mg. voodoo2's in sli
SB live! xgamer
kenwood 52x truex cdrom
generic 56k modem
250 watt ps

any ideas as to what the problem is?

 

[Guest]

I'm not particularly fond of 3Deep. Try changing
your color management settings...

Go to Control Panel, Display and click on the Color
Management tab...check your color management profiles(perhaps a new driver from the manufacturer will include
a new/already existing color profile designed specifically
for your monitor) If not, then I'm at a loss.

 

[toonces]

for some reason, the optimized setting thing was under the colorific tab and it wasn't available until after i calibrated the monitor. but it's fixed now.

thanks

 

[Guest]

The 15" trinitron I am staring into right now is also very dark. I sometimes can't see pictures online, and playing some games. I'm at a loss. It is about 5 years old so, I just figured it was burning out. Is there a way I can brighten this thing up?

 

[toonces]

i don't know about burnout. but i got mine working. i right clicked on the desktop to bring up the display properties window. then i clicked on the colorific tab. this may vary depending on the video card that you have and if you even have the colorific utility. anyway, go to the tab that allows you to control the RGB settings on your monitor. on that screen you should have a tab that says "optimized settings" that dropdown menu should allow you to change it so your screen will lighten up, depending on the setting you use. otherwise you can recalibrate your monitor using any utilities that came with your video card.

also has your monitor always been like that or just lately?

 

[Guest]

It's been like this for a while. I have a crappy 2 meg integrated graphics card. I have no such colorific tab.

I am probably out of luck. I am custom building a new computer soon, so I'll be all right soon.

 

[Kodiak]

Don't know if this helps, but I know some monitors are rated as Ultra Low Radiation or similar, I guess mostly for office work, but not very good for games. We had HP monitors at work last year, both 15" and 17" -- they are fine if somewhat dark in office applications, but when we tried playing Master of Orion II over the LAN, none of us could see a darn thing... I mean literally, it was too dark to see where your mouse or planets are...didn't matter what we tried adjusting (and we tried I'm pretty sure EVERYTHING), the darn thing is just built that way from the start... if that's the case with your monitor... sorry, you're outta luck

 

[JoeHead]

first take off the shades. oh thats me.

serious 1) change your refresh rate (adapter default usually works for me) DO NOT GO BEYOUNG YOUR SCREENS CAPABILITY!!!
2) adjust your color settings: brightness, contrast ...

hint: for games brighten your settings so they look sh@#$y on your desktop but you can see in the dark in games like Counter Stike!!!! cool ... now fragg at will

 

[Ncogneto]

I get alot of used monitors at a local university. Lately I have run across quite a few mag monitors(never buy a mag they are built like sh**) dated '99. They all expeirance the same darkness problem you describe. After playing around with them (they were free) I found the problem to be in the high voltage power adjustment. To get to this you have to take off the back cover of your monitor, find the high voltage power supply (it is easy, usually incased in black plastic with a red wire running out of it) and tweak the voltage a bit. Be carefull it only takes the smallest of turns. Sometimes elsewhere there is a fine tune setting for the same thing. If all else fails and you are ready to get rid of the monitor give this a try.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!