Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 14:25:43 +0000, Geoman
>Jeff Wrote:
>> When I open Word, Excel, Internet Explorer or even the Start menu and
>> all the things within it, the letters/words look fuzzy. Even as I am writing
>> in this, the letters appear unrefined and hazy. They are not crisp and
>> clear. It seems as though the letters/words have a fuzz around them. It
>> is very noticable, especially on white backgrounds. Pictures are clear.
>I had a new 19"LCD Toshiba installed on an IBM Intel motherboard with
>on board graphics. I could not get the print to look good and tried the
>ClearType. I then bought a new board and the text turned out PERFECT.
>I then put the monitor on two other computers and the problem followed
>where there wasn't a dedicated video card.
>Just thought I would pass this on, especially when all the other forums
>thought my idea about the motherboard on line video was incorrect.
>It may be possible that you have a faulty vid card as someone
>mentioned. I suggest you borrow one and see if the problem subsides
>before you try ClearType.
Heh - this brings back memories, and if your problem was the same as
mine, the news may not be so good.
I had a client with an Intel 845G chipset motherboard, that had fuzzy
text and shimmering screen display. The fuzziness was typically not
the same all over the screen, e.g. worse at the lower half, smoothly
improving on the way up. The fuzziness was quite "hard", almost
looking like a pixellated mesh pattern.
The shimmer started later, and wasn't the whole-tube flicker of 60Hz
refresh or interaction with strip lighting. Then the same problem
started on other similar PCs in that site.
I added a cheap-ish (GeForce 4 MX4000) SVGA card, and the problem went
away. So I bought more of those cards and returned to fix the rest of
the PCs... and then I noticed they all had bulging motherboard
capacitors, as I described in this article:
http://cquirke.mvps.org/badcaps.htm
Replacing the caps fixed the graphics problems, leaving me with a
small stash of surplus SVGA cards :-/
Suspect this if your PC tends to lock up hard at odd times, needing a
reset button to get out, or if it doesn't power up when switched on
unless you try a few times, or press reset button to get it going. The
problem is progressive; total failure to power up is the end point.
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Tech Support: The guys who follow the
'Parade of New Products' with a shovel.
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