I have a Compaq P1210 monitor. In windows, the thing works fine. As soon as I fire up a game however, it gets dim. REALLY dim. As in you can't see anything unless you turn your in game flashlight on. (HL, HL2) I had it hooked up to an old computer, and at first I thought it was because the video card was ancient. (ATI Rage) Its still dim with my X1800XT. Any ideas as to why this is happening? Any way for me to fix it without frying myself?

(P.S. Hey mods, why is this called Graphic & Displays? If I have to choose a subsection, where is the monitor section???)

Hmm, Thats odd. It at least we know its the moniter, and not the video card. Try starting a game, then mess with the gamma and brightness settings. see if that helps.

It's definately the gamma setting. You can turn it up for "everything" using the driver controls, and most games also let you turn it up for just the game itself.

If its the gamma settings, why does everything work fine on my other monitor?

I'll play with the gamma settings tomorrow when I have time, please keep any other ideas coming in.

could it be a different refresh rate/screen rez? on the games vs your desktop? I have seen some funky things when running a unsupported setting on older screens.

Also some screen save the settings for each rez. so maybe its set too dark for that screen rez.

Just covering the basics.

Games often have reduced gamma to help accentuate the darkness. Most games that are "screwed up" by default like that have gamma correction in the game's display settings.

with that said. maybe trying a game that supports windowed mode and see if its still that dark...

First, thanks for the gamma tip. It seemed to have made quite a bit of difference in Lost Coast. It didn't seem to help much in Team Fortress 2 however. There is a gamma setting, and it was 3/4ths of the way to dark. Moving the slider all the way over to light seems to have helped, but not that much. Playing with the driver gamma settings seems to have made no difference at all. I haven't tried windowed mode, its on my to do list.

I don't think its a refresh rate problem, while the monitor is "old", its new enough to support decent sizes/refresh rates. According to the quickspecs chart on HPs website, I should be able to do 85Hz all the way up to 1600x1200. Beyond that, I should be able to do 75Hz. 1024x768 @ 75Hz should be a walk in the park.

I even went ahead and installed the driver for it. I haven't rebooted since installing it, maybe that will help. (I've never installed a monitor driver...)

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products [...] 07_na.HTML

There is an option for gamma in games only(In the CCC), thats the one you need to play with. i will have to install it to try and get some screens of it.

GRRRRRR, you are correct. In CCC in the color "tab", there is a drop down box I didn't notice. It was on desktop, I just moved it to "full screen 3D" (which sounds more like gaming then the desktop...) I haven't tried it yet, will post back with more info when I get a chance.)

Thank you all, please keep any other ideas coming. This monitor is much nicer/bigger then my old 17"

Your monitor is most likely dying. If you have gamma up all the way, and its still too dark, chances are its dying. This thing had a good life. These are the dates of possible manufacture: May 21, 2001 --- Retired on January 27, 2003. Direct from Compaq/HP's website.

Nope, not dying. After seeing the pull down box, I turned the "full screen 3D" gamma settings up. TF2 is now fully playable. The colors are off compared to my other monitor, but its playable again. (no more getting killed by people hiding in the "shadows" )

Different games seem to respond differently. GTA:VC looked really washed out, while TF2 looked almost normal. I guess I'll have to set it for the worst game in the drivers, then adjust it as needed in each game. A bit of a hassle, but for all the extra room I have now...

Your graphics looked washed out because your gamma is cranked up to compensate for your monitor dying. Eventually youll run out of gamma, and the screen will just get darker. Turning up the gamma is nothing more than a bandaid. I had a Princeton 19" CRT I babied along for over a year like this, then it finally burned out.

You can easily pick up a nice 19" LCD for under $200. Well worth it.

I don't like LCDs, thats why I'm looking at using this CRT. I got it for free, so if it doesn't work out, or it dies, then no worries. (I got it several years ago. It was a display model and has a tiny chip in the glass that you can't see while playing games.)

I've tested it out on Diablo 2, Treadmarks, and Star Wars, Galactic Battlegrounds. All of them were fine.

Good to hear you got it working....well more or less.

If its bright in windows. then its not dying....just that some people like games brighter then what the dev's start with..