Steve Krause Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Question by Reader :: Ask MrGroove Email Form Have two separate computer issues. 1. I have a monitor that is used for two towers, when on the internet one of the towers shows the font as very, very light and rather unreadable. The only way to read the screen is to highlight the page. A friend told me to configure the display (or graphics) chip, do you know how I get into those settings to do that. The computer os is Windows 2003 server service pack 1. 2. On a different computer. upon boot up my monitor will go black, the power for the monitor remains green/on, just the screen goes black. This will happen again once the computer has booted, again a few minutes later, and will repeat 3 times. After the 5 or 6th time it won't happen again until the computer boots up again. I lowered the res to 800x600 and had no black outs, it happens on res 1024x678. The monitor and computer are several months old and this just started happening. Do you know a way to stop this at the res 1024x678? The os is XP service pack 3. Monitor is a Compaq FP 17. -Matthew Hi Matthew! Welcome to the site. Let's see if we can't give you a hand here. 1) I'm not sure what you mean by "Monitor used by 2 towers" but I'm going to assume you have 1 monitor plugged into 2 different computers? So, the first thing I would suggest is manually setting the CONTRAST and BRIGHTNESS settings on the monitor. Hopefully this improves the text a little. Another thing you can do is go into the Display Settings (Right Click on Desktop and Click Properties). Click Appearance and play with the different settings here and under the Effects and Advanced Buttons. [attachment=0]monitorhelp.png[/attachment] Hmm... But does the problem only occur when your surfing the internet on ONE the boxes? It could also be a goofy video card issue..? 2) I think this has more to do with a Hardware issue than Software. Is this a tube monitor? Those are classic for this type of behavior (in my experience). I would check first the cable, then the Monitor then the video card in that order. By checking, try to swap them out with other hardware if possible. * Use a cable from another machine and see if you still have the problem * Plug the monitor into another computer and test * Swap out the video card and test Hope that helps. Keep us updated! Anyone else out there have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest matt6869 Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 1 monitor plugged into 2 different computers. The computer with the issue is not the primary computer and therefor will not let me change display properties. When I try on the primary it does not change the other computer. When on the internet one of the towers shows the font as very, very light and rather unreadable. The only way to read the screen is to highlight the page. Does anyone know how to get the settings for the video chip set on a Windows 2003 server? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexmvp Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 1 monitor plugged into 2 different computers. The computer with the issue is not the primary computer and therefor will not let me change display properties. Hmm... Not sure I understand what's going on here Matt. I have a monitor that I share between computers also. My Laptop plugs in via the VGA port and my Workstation is plugged in via the DVI Port. I can only see 1 port at a time so I manually switch the monitor over depending on which computer I want the monitor on for. When I adjust settings on either from the display properties, it changes the monitor. Not sure what this doesn't work for you? Do you have the monitor configured with Picture in a picture? Displaying both computers on 1 monitor at the same time? Why is it you can't change the settings? Anyway - did this just start happening? (light unreadable font) or did you just configure this? Does anyone know how to get the settings for the video chip set on a Windows 2003 server Normally you can only do this if you install the Video Card Drives and Utilities. If it's an NVidia Video Card for instance, you should be able to download the latest drives or install pack. This should also install a control panel which allows you to play with the various Video card settings. Normally you access it by right-clicking on the desktop and click "Nvidia Control Panel" or something like that. Or through the Start -> Programs menu items. Being that it's Server 2003...... it might be a server class Video Card that does not offer up any kind of tuning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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