Top third of LCD monitor blurry, but screenshot clear


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Have a Viewsonic VA1930WM 19 in. monitor, running in Vista x64 w/ EVGA / nVidia GT 240 GPU.

Anyone know how I can troubleshoot the top third of 19 in. LCD monitor being blurry? Maybe some free utilities or other tricks of the trade?

Today, very close to top one third of screen is blurry & washed out color.

I replaced Viewsonic monitor drivers w/ Vista generic, but no change. Reinstalled Viewsonic drivers - no change. Correct resolution & frequency is chosen for the monitor.

But, if take a SCREENSHOT of the blurry section (see pics), AND then move THAT screenshot - of a blurry section - down into "clear" area, the screenshot taken of the blurry area will display clearly.

Only hint of impending problems was the monitor didn't seem to want to wake up from sleep. It would eventually, maybe 30 sec? after hitting keyboard or moving mouse. Normally, woke up immediately.

Further, on a page, longer than monitor height, when roll a part of screen in the "clear" area upward, it becomes blurry & color "washed out."

Like if scroll down the list of topics on Neowin, text in clear lower 2/3 of screen moves up & becomes blurry.

There is no flickering, but cursor disappears while moving it in blurry area. It reappears when movement stops, but cursor is blurry as rest of screen.

On SOME screens, cursor movement in blurry area leaves a "trail" - that takes a couple secs. to disappear.

Also, as scroll a screen from clear to blurry area, takes couple sec for previous text in blurry area to disappear & be replaced by the text (or images) just moved into blurry area. Like using "fade" effect from one Power Point screen into another.

At home, only other computers to try it on, have VGA only - which may / may not pin point anything? The monitor has DVI & VGA ports.

On Larger pic, top 1/3 screen was blurry when I took the screenshot. Obviously, screenshot prgms aren't affected by what I'm visually seeing displayed. Smaller pic was taken from entirely blurry section. Seems no way I can take a screen that shows what I'm actually seeing, other than a camera.

Thanks.

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post-194730-0-76737100-1344377721.jpg

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If it is not in screenshots, its probably the cable or LCD

Have you tried it on another machine / with another cable ?

Have you reset the LCD from the settings on the monitor itself ?

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If it has both ports, just plug into VGA as long as you have a VGA cable on any computer, same result, then it is the monitor going bad.

Does this also blur when booting the computer from power on during POST or windows logo?

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Have you got another computer, or laptop you can connect to the monitor?

Or try using a different cable/input method.

Sounds like the monitor is on the way out, but these tests should prove it for sure.

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If the monitor has an on screen display for it's settings, see if you can move it over the affected area. I would assume the screen is faulty if it were to still be blurry at that point.

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Seriously.... if you take a screenshot and move it down to the clear part... the blurry part is now clear?! this is gold... you cant write this stuff.

You realize the monitor is just taking the input and displaying it.. the video card is rendering the screen, and the screenshot comes from the video card.

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No, haven't tried VGA cable - wasn't sure that would be diagnostically helpful. But will.

Yes, as said, also have another computer & laptop - BOTH have VGA only.

I "believe" I reset the monitor itself. Maybe something on Viewsonic's site, but "manual" has no actual instructions. There are buttons "1" & "2", & an up & down arrow, to move thru menus. In main monitor menu, "auto adjust image" is grayed out (don't recall if was always that way).

Also from main monitor menu, has selection "Memory Recall," that when pressed, acts much like pressing # 2 button - screen goes black a few sec & reappears, but no change in display size, quality - & still have blurry top 1/3 of screen.

If press # 2 button (w/o any menu OSD), screen goes black for few sec, as if resetting - but not positive.

On monitor main menu, under "manual image adjust", there are 4 options, but the up / down arrow doesn't move through other 3 selections. Other 3 are are NOT grayed out any more than the default selected one (sharpness). Regardless, not sure those 3 options would adjust / affect this problem, anyway. The screen size FITS monitor perfectly - just blurry / washed out at top.

I'll try VGA cable & ALSO another PC - to make sure it's not my GPU (doubt it is, but can't hurt). Will post back. Stay by your computers, even if it takes till midnight!!! :D

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No Joy. Switching to almost new VGA cable, both on same PC & another laptop - w/ ONLY VGA - made no diff in 1/3 of screen being funky. Made sure monitor was set for VGA input.

Yes, the blurry top 1/3 appears during post. Not quite the same as in windows, but obvious there's a line at ~ 1/3 down & text looks diff in top 1/3 vs lower 2/3 during post.

Swoosh - yes, I did move monitor OSD over blurry area as suggested & small OSD menu is NOT blurry (least, not washed out color), as long as OSD is active. More of DOS looking colors. Least, not NEARLY as blurry as browser window, etc. Don't know what that means, because the OSD isn't coming into the monitor as same type signal as that from GPU, so MAY not be processed same way (by the monitor). Dunno. Never thought about it or heard of it as any diagnostic tool (if it is). What da ya think?

B. Slob - thanks - I guess you confirmed the problem isn't w/ the GPU. Of course, you were correct about the captures. And yes, actually I can write this stuff. I do part time comedy writing. :)

Any other suggestions before I donate this one for recycling?

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Give it a good "whack" or a swift "kick" out the window. Threaten it with a hammer. If that doesn't help, hit it a few times with that hammer until it becomes obedient?

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Failed Monitor, probably something with the TFT Matrix, never really seen too many partially blurred LCD's.

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EDIT To TEST W/ MONITOR OSD: I moved monitor OSD split between blurry & clear area. OSD does EVENTUALLY reach full color & is clear, but takes

Did further OSD testing - positioned part on blurry area, part on clear.

1) when open OSD, section over "clear" screen reaches full brightness immediately. OSD over blurry area takes ~ 5 sec to reach full brightness.

2) when close OSD, section over clear screen disappears immediately; section over blurry area takes ~ 10 sec to fade away. Looong after glow.

3) So, OSD EVENTUALLY reaches full brightness, but takes while to reach it & longer to disappear.

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Hello,

Does the problem occur if you connect a different monitor the same computer using the same video cable?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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get it to service or get a new monitor. If the osd acting weird too on the blurry area, then the screen is faulty.

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