Anyway to tweak a CRT to be darker?

OnEMoReTrY

Senior member
Jul 1, 2004
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I just picked up a free 20" CRT from my office and I set the lowest brightness to 0 and it is still insanely bright. Black's look like greys and doom 3 looks like absolute crap. Is there any way to somehow either hardmod it or some way to fix that?
 

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
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Well, you knew there had to be a reason why you were able to snag a 20" monitor for free, right? :D

Seriously though, maybe some of the other settings are way out of whack. Like the contrast -- I'd check that first. And most monitors have a "reset" option that returns all the settings back to the factory preset values. I'd start there (if you haven't already) and then try adjusting things again.

If these things fail, get the manufacturer's phone number off their Web site and give them a call Monday morning and see what they say. That's what I'd do. CRTs getting a bit dimmer after a few years is fairly common, but it's rather unusual to have one get brighter. You could also have a driver issue and/or a video card issue or compatibility thing going on. Shouldn't be too difficult to pin down.

Good luck. :)
 

OnEMoReTrY

Senior member
Jul 1, 2004
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Turns out there is a LOT of users with this dell p1110 or w/e its called and they all have the same problem, the fix is to cut one of the 10m ohm resistors and replace it with something lower like a 6.8, so I'll give that a shot monday.
 

Ken90630

Golden Member
Mar 6, 2004
1,571
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As I said, there was a reason you got it for free. :D But if all it needs is that resistor mod, sounds like you scored a nice deal. Way to go!

So how'd you find out about that fix? Did 'ya call them, or find out about it on Dell's Web site, or ???? Just curious.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
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81
I just picked up a free 20" CRT from my office and I set the lowest brightness to 0 and it is still insanely bright. Black's look like greys and doom 3 looks like absolute crap. Is there any way to somehow either hardmod it or some way to fix that?

Simple fix for that since I had the same problem( on my Samsung 1100DF which is on zero brightness) go into ATI/Nvidia Control panel and lower the gamma and brightness .
 

konakona

Diamond Member
May 6, 2004
6,285
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Originally posted by: Mem
I just picked up a free 20" CRT from my office and I set the lowest brightness to 0 and it is still insanely bright. Black's look like greys and doom 3 looks like absolute crap. Is there any way to somehow either hardmod it or some way to fix that?

Simple fix for that since I had the same problem( on my Samsung 1100DF which is on zero brightness) go into ATI/Nvidia Control panel and lower the gamma and brightness .

mem, i had a similar problem on my KDS av-195tf and its nothing gamma control could fix. i managed to bring it to halfway acceptable level, but ended up upgrading to a 22'' diamondtron :)