LCD Hurting My Eyes

[NDENT]

Got a 17" Dell lcd yeah for about a year now. Well recenty the pic starting hurting my eyes. When i look into the moniter its like blurry. I'm not sure if its my moniter or maybe the video card turning bad. I also read something about refresh rates. Im running xp home. I also sometimes get headaces from the eye straining. plz help me on how to fix this problem. i got an old 32mb tnt vid card btw.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Can't be a refresh issue as LCD's don't "refresh" like a CRT does. Pixels on the LCD are either on or off. Try turning brightness down a little if you in a somewhat dark room or turn on some lights so that the monitor is not blaring you in the face.. You could also try another vidcard if you like.. Are you by chance running any extensions to the video cable (to get more length out of it)? I tried an extension cable on my wife's LCD panel to get more length out of the cable and it made text all dithered and somewhat blurry..

 

[Bozo Galora]

a tnt 32 vid card??
you need a new card - one that has a DVI output and that uses latest drivers
what is your eyesight worth man?

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: NDENT
Got a 17" Dell lcd yeah for about a year now. Well recenty the pic starting hurting my eyes. When i look into the moniter its like blurry. I'm not sure if its my moniter or maybe the video card turning bad. I also read something about refresh rates. Im running xp home. I also sometimes get headaces from the eye straining. plz help me on how to fix this problem. i got an old 32mb tnt vid card btw.

hmm weird, usually my eyes get strained because my LCD is too bright. I had to tone down brightness down to the negatives for me to not get eye strain.

 

[NDENT]

Gonna order a new vid card & try to firgure out how to tune down the brightness. Anybody know a good vid card for no more then $40 ? im on a tight budget at the moment. Also does my moniter support dvi ?

 

[Bozo Galora]

depends if its the ultrasharp 1704FPV
http://accessories.us.dell.com..._id=210&first=true

 

[Chadder007]

Running the monitor at 1280x1024?? Otherwise it could look blurry too.
Try turning the contrast down a bit. Also Ive had mine look blurry before with Windows XP's Cleartype turned on.

 

[NDENT]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
Running the monitor at 1280x1024?? Otherwise it could look blurry too.
Try turning the contrast down a bit. Also Ive had mine look blurry before with Windows XP's Cleartype turned on.

Yeah it started getting really blurry right when i turned that cleartype thing on. also im running it at 1024x768 not 1280x1024.

 

[DaveSimmons]

LCDs often look blurry if you run them at anything except their "native" resolution.

Make sure you are running at the native resolution. If the screen looks too small, adjust the font magnification in Windows or go get your eyes checked you might need glasses or a new perscription.

Yeah it started getting really blurry right when i turned that cleartype thing on

So did you try turning it off!?

 

[SirOblivious]

Maybe you're going blind and need glasses 🙂

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: NDENT
Got a 17" Dell lcd yeah for about a year now. Well recenty the pic starting hurting my eyes. When i look into the moniter its like blurry. I'm not sure if its my moniter or maybe the video card turning bad. I also read something about refresh rates. Im running xp home. I also sometimes get headaces from the eye straining. plz help me on how to fix this problem. i got an old 32mb tnt vid card btw.

Make sure your room is well lit and you can see the bezel of your display while looking at the screen - if you can't see the bezel then the screen is too bright or the room is too dark and you will get strained eyes. (which are not nearly as pleasant as strained peas). This is especially a problem with black-bezel LCD's like Dells. I never have this problem at work (silver bezel) but I do at home with my Dell 2001fp black bezel.

Ideas to reduce eye strain:
- Make sure your head is far enough away from the screen - at least one arm's length away. If your keyboard is now too far away, push your LCD back away a bit or get a keyboard tray.
- Add more light to your room
- Make sure the LCD isn't in a shadow (like in a computer hutch or something)
- Decrease the LCD's brightness
- Deliberately look away for 2 minutes ever 15 minutes. Try reading a magazine, getting a glass of water, etc. Don't use your 2 minute break to surf the web 🙂