CRT problems - lines, blurriness

I've got 2x Dell P1130 21" trinitron monitors which I've had for just over a year, both are run by my 6800GT @ 1600x1200. One of them is perfect. The other one is starting to have some problems...

Blurriness
It's as though everything on the monitor is ever so slightly blurred, it's hard to make out 1 pixel wide lines as I can on my other one. This doesn't seem to change at different refresh rates, though obviously it does at different resolutions. However, this isn't my main concern.

Brightness
When the screen is showing normal things of a medium-brightness colour, like aqua blue, it is fine. However, when I maximise a blank IE window (white background) or indeed put any other large amount of white on the screen everything noticeably darkens. When it is maximised everything fades slightly so that overall it isn't so bright, as though the gun can only put out so much power. This doesn't happen with my other screen. When it returns to dimmer colour it fades back up to normal again.

Lines
All the time, though particularly noticeable on dark colours, there are a series of (blue, I think - colourblind) lines going diagonally across the screen. They're very fine, probably 1 pixel wide. There are ~16 of them and they are closer together at the top of the screen than at the bottom. They start on the left then go up to the right at around 5 degrees elevation. They are present at all times, during POST, games, etc. In addition to this, I have another machine using this monitor through a KVM switch - it happens on that machine too, so it isn't my card.

Degaussing doesn't fix either of the problems.

Does anyone know what could cause these problems? Or how I can fix them?

try swapping it to the port that the good monitor is on, and if the vga cable is removeable on the CRT, u can try that too. Usually when I see those things, the monitor is on its way out.

terran2k said:

try swapping it to the port that the good monitor is on, and if the vga cable is removeable on the CRT, u can try that too. Usually when I see those things, the monitor is on its way out.

Click to expand...

As I said I use 2 machines on this monitor. I said a KVM switch for simplicity, but in reality I use the dual-inputs on the back of the monitor and a switch on the front to switch between them.

Swapping the DVI port it's connected to won't do anything, as it happens when it's driven by my main machine's graphics card and when it's driven by the graphics card on my second machine, meaning it's not the port.

Again, swapping the monitor lead won't do anything because it happens with either machine, both of which are using different VGA leads.

But I do appreciate your response.

I'd take a guess on Hardware Failure there. White colours on the screen require the tube to project high intensity (on all R,G,B tubes) on the same spot. I believe you might have a Monitor PSU shortage of some kind, but I might be wrong. If you know how to, I suggest checking the status of the capacitors inside the monitor, but BEWARE because it is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

i would say goodbye to that monitor as it is on its way out the door

Anjow, can you take a pic of the blurry mon in action?

Anjow said:

Lines
All the time, though particularly noticeable on dark colours, there are a series of (blue, I think - colourblind) lines going diagonally across the screen. They're very fine, probably 1 pixel wide. There are ~16 of them and they are closer together at the top of the screen than at the bottom. They start on the left then go up to the right at around 5 degrees elevation. They are present at all times, during POST, games, etc. In addition to this, I have another machine using this monitor through a KVM switch - it happens on that machine too, so it isn't my card.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a common fault with various sony monitors, if the black levels are weak (grey'ish) on this monitor even with the brightness set on 0 then you need to lower the G2 level via sony windas software & serial data cable, this will get rid of the diagonal lines and improve black levels dramatically.. I did this to a Sony G400 with great results (link here).

however the Brightness problem you speak of isnt a symptom ive heard of even with a raised G2 level... makes me wonder if something else is wrong as well.. it might not even be worth the trouble of lowering the G2 level but could be worth a try... Tough call there.

It may be your video card drivers.

I was having a problem with the latest Nvidia drivers (for my 8800GTS) with my Gefen DVI/USB switcher; every time I would switch to one system, I would get a weird blur on the screen such that my monitor was rendered useless unless I rebooted.

After reviewing Gefen's forums, I found the solution that required me to access the OS services (in XP MCE) and turn off an Nvidia service that automatically launched at boot. Once the service was turned off, the blurriness never came back.