Specifications

Maintaining Your Monitor
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■ Display the Microsoft Windows desktop to check for uniform focus and brightness. Are the corner
icons as sharp as the rest of the screen? Are the lines in the title bar curved or wavy? Monitors
usually are sharply focused at the center, but seriously blurred corners indicate a poor design.
Bowed lines can be the result of a poor video adapter or incorrect configuration of the moni-
tor’s digital picture controls. Before you decide to replace the monitor, you should first adjust
the digital picture controls to improve the display. Next, try attaching the monitor to another
display adapter. If the display quality does not improve, replace the monitor.
Adjust the brightness up and down to see whether the image blooms or swells, which indicates
the monitor is likely to lose focus at high brightness levels. You can also use diagnostics that
come with the graphics card or third-party system diagnostics programs to perform these tests.
■ With LCD panels in particular, change to a lower resolution from the panel’s native resolution using the
Microsoft Windows Display properties settings. Because LCD panels have only one native resolu-
tion, the display must use scaling to handle other resolutions full-screen. If you are a Web
designer, are a gamer, or must capture screens at a particular resolution, this test will show you
whether the LCD panel produces acceptable display quality at resolutions other than normal.
You can also use this test on a CRT, but CRTs, unlike LCD panels, are designed to handle a wide
variety of resolutions.
■ A good CRT monitor is calibrated so that rays of red, green, and blue light hit their targets (individual
phosphor dots) precisely. If they don’t, you have bad convergence. This is apparent when edges of
lines appear to illuminate with a specific color. If you have good convergence, the colors are
crisp, clear, and true, provided there isn’t a predominant tint in the phosphor.
■ If the monitor has built-in diagnostics (a recommended feature), try them as well to test the display
independently of the graphics card and system to which it’s attached.
Maintaining Your Monitor
Because a good 17'' or larger CRT or 15'' or larger LCD monitor can be used for several years on more
than one computer, proper care is essential to extend its life to the fullest extent.
Use the following guidelines for proper care of your monitors:
■ Although phosphor burn (in which an image left onscreen eventually leaves a permanent shadow
onscreen) is next-to-impossible with VGA-type displays—unlike the old TTL displays—screensavers are
still useful for casual security. You can password-protect your system with both the standard
Windows screensaver and third-party programs (although a determined snoop can easily thwart
screensaver password protection). Windows includes several screensavers that can be enabled
via the Display Control Panel. A bevy of free and inexpensive screensavers is available for
download from the Internet. Keep in mind, though, that add-on screensavers can cause crashes
and lockups if they’re poorly written or out-of-date and that many “free” versions available
online might install spyware (software that reports your Web-surfing habits to advertisers). Use
screensavers written for your particular operating system version to minimize problems.
Note
Phosphor burn is possible with plasma displays, so if you decide to connect a plasma display to your PC, be sure to use
a screensaver to protect your display.
■ To prevent premature failure of the monitor’s power supply, use the power-management feature of the
Display Properties or Power (Management) sheet to put the monitor into a low-power standby mode
after a reasonable period of inactivity (10–15 minutes) and to turn it off after about 60 minutes.
Using the power management feature is far better than using the on/off switch when you are
away from the computer for brief periods. Turn off the monitor only at the end of your com-
puting “day.”
Chapter 15
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