Display Issue

JohnK

I've developed a bit of a strange issue with my main display just over (I think) the last few days where if there's movement, the top of the screen is slightly out of alignment with the rest of the screen and takes a noticeable amount of time before it catches up to the rest of the screen. Its kind of like lag but only effecting a portion of the screen and its happening everywhere so on the desktop, watching videos & playing games but its more really only apparent when watching video or playing games, on the desktop you'd have to be watching for it to really notice which is why I'm a bit unsure as to when it actually started.

I cant take a screenshot of the issue because the screenshot shows the image as it should be but I've tried to simulate what I mean in the attached picture, if you look at the area in the red box you'll see what I mean and it stretches across the entire display.

Now for a weird bit - it only seems to be happening if I'm outputting to the display over dvi and not over hdmi. Unfortunately I can only use hdmi for my tv so have to use the dvi for my monitor.

Anyone got any ideas what could be the cause or if theres a way of fixing it?

I'm running Windows 7 ultimate with a "Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express" graphics card if thats any help.

Thanks.

riclad

Switch around, graphics card thats connected to monitor, for a few hours.
Make sure drive c has at least 3gig free space.
i presume one graphics,card is for tv, 1 card for monitor.Or try connecting to monitor
thru vga in.
ie connect tv card to monitor.
set graphics card to 60hz ,refresh rate, even if monitor,accepts 75 mhz signal.

JohnK

Its a single graphics card with two outputs (1 dvi & 1 hdmi). Theres 176gb free on the system drive so that shouldnt be an issue. Both the tv & monitor are using a refresh rate of 60hz. I tried running the monitor off the hdmi for the day and that was grand but once I switched the monitor back to dvi the same issue cropped up again.

riclad

USE dvi to hdmi , adaptor on monitor,
or set monitor refresh rate to 50mz, or 75mhz.
try lived mint 9, to see is it an os issue,
32BIT version fits on 1cdr.

riclad

Also try 1024x768 resolution,
or safe mode,VGA mode, does the display look better ,no slowdown.

JohnK

I dropped the resolution but the only difference it made was the line being lower down the screen. I did discover something interesting though, if I set it up so the desktop is extended over the two displays rather than mirroring then there doesnt seem to be an issue on the monitor, even when its running over dvi. The down side of that is watching any video on the tv is like watching a stop motion video due to what looks like frame loss. That only seems to happen when the tv is designated as the secondary monitor though so its all a bit strange.

riclad

IF you had win xp,you can use powerstrip program to set refresh rate to 50mhz,
OR TRY running a livecd .eg mint linux, or ubuntu, 32bit.
older version ,8 , or 9 fits on 1 cdr, 650meg iso.
just run from cd, see if display looks better .
Whats your os,win7 ?

riclad

if You have a cable try vga in, on the tv.

ED E

riclad wrote: »

Make sure drive c has at least 3gig free space.

Totally unrelated riclad.


OP can we get the full build spec(Mainly PSU)? What model is the monitors?

Are you mirroring displays normally?

JohnK

Yeah I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate.

I dont have vga out on the graphics card so cant try that.

Will give ubuntu a go once I find a blank disc.

The full spec of the machine is in this post: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=82433970&postcount=17 think I ended up getting slightly different ram though as the one I initially wanted was out of stock at the time.

The monitor is a Dell S2309W that I've had for a few years.

riclad

You could try dsl,damn small linux, 140meg, burn iso image to cdr, boot from cd,
USE Imgburn ,burn image,iso file,4x speed,
Ubuntu has much more advanced options,re graphics settings,will detect the latest videocards .,than dsl, dsl is a very basic linux distro.
IF ubuntu works ok,it means theres a software,windows problem, video driver issue.

JohnK

Just gave ubuntu a go and the results are a bit unexpected.

Over dvi there were similar types of issues to what I'm seeing in Windows but in a much lower position on the screen, approx 3/4 the way down rather than at the top of the screen - however - when I switched over to hdmi the playback was exactly the same. Given that I know the hdmi works under windows I'd almost be inclined to think the playback issues in Ubuntu were just Ubuntu/driver/live cd related rather than a hardware (either gfx, cable or monitor) issue since the top of the screen was ok. So I'm guessing this means either a Windows or a Driver issue?

riclad

TRY a different driver,older version, maybe a beta driver,
did you try Safe mode,vga, or even 1024x 768 mode.
refresh rate,change to 75mhz.
if your monitor takes 75mhz,input.
CAN you put in a different graphics card,
or even use a cheap graphics card that has hdmi ,or dvi out for tv viewing
is there a spare pci slot,
not pci -express on the motherboard?

riclad

SEE http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/ati_tray_tools
maybe change pci latency,
or underclock card by 5 per cent,
SEE
http://www.jabcreations.com/blog/amd-radeon-underclocking

IT might be easier to buy a pci graphics card 30 euro, with hdmi .

See http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500262
i had to buy one in peats in 2010,
for old pc, amd 2.0ghz cpu, no pci -e slot.just agp or pci.

riclad

IF you install ubuntu , on 7gig partition,
you can make various changes,to graphics settings.Refresh rate.
IF it doesnt work, remove ubuntu,delete partition.

linux doesn,t save settings to drive c;. unless its installed on a partition.

riclad

SEE http://askubuntu.com/questions/59621/how-to-change-the-monitors-refresh-rate
I opened up Startup Applications

I clicked Add

I typed a name and the following in the command field:

xrandr -s 1280x1024 -r 75

TRY
xrandr -s 1280x1024 -r 60,
OR
xrandr -s 1280x1024 -r 50 last number is refresh rate

From, menu ,terminal

OR look in menu,settings, video settings advanced

JohnK

After some swapping around of wires I discovered something else weird, the issue with the dvi only occurred while something was plugged into the hdmi port - even if that device was powered off or the other end of the hdmi cable wasnt plugged into anything.

After that bout of weirdness I just said feck it and uninstalled everything graphics related and installed all drivers from the original cd again and now it seems to be working but no doubt I'm soon to be plagued with notifications telling me I should update the bloody drivers.

Hopefully thats it now. Thanks

riclad

IT sounds like monitor signal level is less than 100 per cent,
when hdmi is connected, under the latest driver,
Therefore older driver is better.