Windows 7 - fuzzy fonts with Intel G35 based mobo

[Deep Blue]

Hello,

I have the P5E-VM HMDI motherboard connected up to a Sony Bravia HDTV with HDMI and I have a wierd issue with the fonts in Windows 7 (32 bit). Please see the attached screenshot.

Basically all the fonts have a fuzzy white halo effect. It is really annoying and looks horrible. You can see the halo effect round the blue text in Excel, and also in the ClearType box to the right. Every piece of system text in Windows appears the same.

I have updated to the latest drivers from the Intel site for the G35 and it made no difference (though it did fix a tearing issue on video playback). The driver version is 15.12.75.4.1930 (2nd October 2009)

I have also messed around with ClearType and turned it off/on and tried all the settings to no effect. I've also played around with all the Performance settings (turned them all on/off), and all the Themes.

I have also put a separate graphics card in (an ATI one) and it works fine - no halo/shadow around the fonts at all. I have searched the Net for a few hours without shedding any light on this issue...

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful!!!
.

 

[BernardP]

I have also put a separate graphics card in (an ATI one) and it works fine - no halo/shadow around the fonts at all

You have your answer

You have done what you can. Time to stop fighting with Intel integrated graphics and get yourself a discrete GPU.

 

[postmortemIA]

intel graphics are known for this, to have poor even 2D quality.

 

[Deep Blue]

Thanks for the info guys. I kind of half suspected this!

The only problem I found with another GPU is that the TV won't process the sound signal... it has phono sockets in, next to the HDMI input marked AV4. I connected up the stereo jack to this, but with the HDMI cable from the new graphics card inserted it ignores the phono inputs entirely. If I unplug the HDMI cable, the sound starts immediately.

There must be some signal in the HDMI cable that causes the TV to ignore the phono jacks but I am buggered if I can find it. I went through the TV menus and there is nothing that lets me select this sound channel discretely.

I am shocked that a relatively modern Intel graphics card can have this level of poor image quality..... very shocking.

 

[blanketyblank]

Modern ATI cards can send sound through hdmi. Just select hdmi from the play back devices menu in windows. You may need to update your drivers or get a driver from realtek to get it to work though.
Sounds like the problem is your TV is autodetecting sound or something though I'm surprised that hdmi with the intel doesn't cause that problem. My TV has an option in its audio menu for "other adjust" where you can set the hdmi audio to auto, digital, or analog. Not sure if can disable just the sound in your PC since usually switching the playback device to another connection stops sound from coming through the hdmi anyways. You may also want to explore the bios settings since there may be settings for the integrated hdmi influencing the audio.

 

[postmortemIA]

Thanks for the info guys. I kind of half suspected this!

The only problem I found with another GPU is that the TV won't process the sound signal... it has phono sockets in, next to the HDMI input marked AV4. I connected up the stereo jack to this, but with the HDMI cable from the new graphics card inserted it ignores the phono inputs entirely. If I unplug the HDMI cable, the sound starts immediately.

There must be some signal in the HDMI cable that causes the TV to ignore the phono jacks but I am buggered if I can find it. I went through the TV menus and there is nothing that lets me select this sound channel discretely.

I am shocked that a relatively modern Intel graphics card can have this level of poor image quality..... very shocking.

Often TVs do special processing for HDMI computer signals to make picture look alike it is displayed on PC monitor. See if you have 'PC' or such profile for your video options, or if you can name your connection as 'PC'.

I've tested 4500HD which is laptop integrated graphics. It looks good on TV.

 

[Deep Blue]

Modern ATI cards can send sound through hdmi. Just select hdmi from the play back devices menu in windows. You may need to update your drivers or get a driver from realtek to get it to work though.

Thanks... how would the separate graphics card pick up the audio? The audio controller is on the motherboard. I checked the graphics card and there is no input on the card for audio that I could see... I assume I would need to connect it up for the card to mux in the audio with the video.

Sounds like the problem is your TV is autodetecting sound or something though I'm surprised that hdmi with the intel doesn't cause that problem.

The sound is passed through the HDMI when I use the HDMI connection from the motherboard (onboard intel graphics and onboard sound).

My TV has an option in its audio menu for "other adjust" where you can set the hdmi audio to auto, digital, or analog. Not sure if can disable just the sound in your PC since usually switching the playback device to another connection stops sound from coming through the hdmi anyways. You may also want to explore the bios settings since there may be settings for the integrated hdmi influencing the audio.

Yeah, I checked the the TV settings thoroughly for such a connection, without any luck! Don't think the BIOS will help since the HDMI connection was coming through the graphics card..

 

[tcsenter]

I assume you have updated to the latest ASUS BIOS for P5E-VM HMDI, since the BIOS defines mode-setting support for the Intel display driver (which can impact things like resolution, overscan, underscan, et. al.)?

 

[Deep Blue]

Good suggestion! I just updated it but no difference in the display quality.

 

[tcsenter]

Try uninstalling the Intel display drivers, restarting, then reinstalling the latest Intel drivers again (after BIOS update).

If that still doesn't resolve it, its probably one of those funky mode-setting issues that Intel's drivers are known to have with TVs.