I went back to my old monitor, but now it doesn't look right.

I have been using an old CRT monitor for years. I recently bought an LCD monitor, but didn't like how it looked. So I switched back to my old CRT. The problem is, now the CRT has some of the LCD's settings. I changed all the settings I know of (Screen Resolution, AMD Vision Control Center settings, monitor brightness/contrast settings) back to the correct settings for the CRT. But now, it has ugly, "digital-looking" (for lack of a better term) text, just like the LCD did. My old CRT used to have beautiful, very readable text. But now it has the thin, pixelly text that I had never seen until I got the LCD (especially on web-pages). Also, all the text on my CRT now looks a little blurry (before I got the LCD, it always looked as sharp as a pin). And I can't put my finger on it, but some things look a little darker than they used to, and some things look a little too bright (some white web-pages look too bright, some photos look too dark, even though I have set my monitor brightness and contrast settings back to normal, and didn't and still don't have any brightness and contrast settings from the software end of things). It can't be that my eyes got used to the LCD, because I didn't use it long enough for that to happen.

The only thing I can think of is that some of the drivers for my graphics card (an integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200) may have somehow locked on to certain settings optimized for the LCD screen, and just won't let go of them now that I have started using my old CRT again.

Does anyone know what this problem could be, or how to fix it?

carwiz said:

I don't know what brand of LCD monitor you bought but to compare a LCD to CRT is like 10 to 0 for color, clarity and contrast. But folks choose what they like.

That depends. A good high-quality CRT can be excellent. There are CRTs that have super-flat screens (ie, not just flat on the front but curved on the inside) and high refresh rates that reduces visible flicker to zero. My old CRT is one of those. High-quality CRTs have such good picture quality that some professionals who work with photography, video, etc, still use CRTs. There are several companies that make high-end CRTs that cost thousands of dollars especially for these professionals.

Of course, a low-quality CRT can look awful. But the one I have is pretty top-notch. The reason that I decided to get an LCD was that my CRT, after many years of use, started making sizzling noises and other such irregularities. The LCD I bought is a Dell from around 2009. From what I've gathered, LCDs with a constant backlight all look pretty bad for anything beyond reading text. There are some high-end OLED and IPS LCDs that I've heard are about as good as a good CRT, if not better, but those aren't in my price range.

Did you run the Clear Type routine for LCDs? It's an option on the Display menu. This should be run to adjust how the text appears on the screen.

Yes. I ran it when I was using the LCD. I disabled it when I started using my CRT again.

But, I would suggest removing the ATI drivers, reboot then install them again with the CRT attached.

That's a pretty good suggestion. If the brightness/contrast issues continue to be a problem, I might try that if i can't find anything else that seems to help.

I discovered that the text problem could be solved by closing the browser tab then opening a new tab and going to the same address. It appears that only tabs that I had used when I was using the LCD were effected.

Britton30 said:

With sizzling sounds how long is the CRT going to last? I suspect it's on the way south.

That's why I bought the LCD: I'm not sure what's causing the sizzling, and don't want it to go out without a replacement ready. Today, I used a vacuum cleaner on the CRT, hoping that getting dust out of it might help. So far, it hasn't been sizzling since then. I don't yet know whether the sizzling will start again or not.

What is the brand/model of the CRT? I did some quick Googling and find there are/were some pricey good CRTs available.

It's a KDS XF 7S manufactured in September 2002.

Since you apparently bought a 5 year old LCD used it's like a not very good at all.

It's a Dell 1708FPt. I thought it was from 2009, but looking at the owner's manual, it appears to be from 2006 or 2007. I got it because it was the most affordable LCD I could find that had a DVI input (I wanted to upgrade to something HDCP compatible). It also has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which few LCDs made these days have. (I don't like a widescreen aspect ration for monitors because I like a lot of vertical space when viewing web pages.).

Modern new ones do very well and one does not need a fancy IPS panel. I do lots of graphic work on a TN panel LCD with CCFL backlighting.

Does it have problems showing black? One thing I love about my CRT is that it portrays inky black perfectly. In my experience, every LCD screen I've ever seen (monitor or television) shows black (and even darker areas of the screen in general) in an irritating backlit cloudy greyish way. From what I've previously heard, only screens with a special LED backlight that dims the LEDs directly behind the dark portion of the picture off, IPS screens, and the like have solved this problem.

You said the Dell LCD you had made the text "pixely", mine displays text as sharp as a finely printed page.

It depends. There's some text that shows up clearly on it, and some that doesn't. Generally, the bolder the text, the better it shows up. I'm not sure that it's a problem with the monitor itself, as I still had the problem when I switched back to my CRT, until I figured out how to solve it.

Britton30 said:

The Dell 1708FPt looks a bit clunky from the pics I found and may have a huge lamp or lamps behind the LCD panel.

It probably does. At its default settings, it's so bright that it feels like staring into a car headlight. Adjust the brightness and contrast so that the light isn't headache-inducingly bright, and everything other than text on a white background looks too dark and murky.

An LED monitor is generally edge-lit with a row of white LEDs at the top and bottom of the screen.

I'm aware that most LED backlit monitors only have LEDs around the edges. However, there are some that have LEDs behind the entire panel, and those directly behind a dark portion of the picture dim. That gives the monitor the ability to have near-perfect contrast. Unfortunately, they are expensive.

The text display may be due to not using the native resolution, even CRTs look better with native. If you want vertical space an LCD monitor that swivels 90° would be great for you. Instead of 1920x1080 you can have 1080x1920, really tall with a wide screen. There are also a few LCDs available with a 16:10 ration, the extra 120 vertical pixels make a huge difference.

I'm not interested in swiveling my screen. I don't want that much vertical space. I think that 4:3 is perfect for most computer tasks. 16:10 might be worth looking into, though.

Can you recommend any good LCDs with great contrast, that will look great for reading internet articles, viewing and editing photos and videos, and can be found used or refurbished for less that $150? Preferably with a 4:3 or 16:10 aspect ratio (but I could maybe learn to tolerate a 16:9 if that's all there is that fits the description).

AddRAM said:

Does it have a factory reset on it ?

When I first hooked it back up to my computer, I reset all the settings to what they had been before I got the LCD.