PC Monitor Losing Its Sharpness? Weird...

[dj_mocok]

I've just noticed this recently, seems like my monitor (19" Hyundai CRT) is becoming blurry and not as sharp as it used to. If you view it from 45cm distance, it still looks ok, but I can still notice it. Viewing it from 25cm distance, its blurry as if you need a glasses or as like when you are viewing through out of focus camera.

I've never experienced this before, this is so weird, the colour and all that seems fine, but when you look at small things like words, they aren't so focused. I've never known a monitor can be out of focus. It's only more noticeable when reading, but looking at big pictures, or watching DVDs, it's not so obvious.

You guys had this experience before? I wonder what causes this. And it's not my eyes, I checked with other monitor, and it looked fine.

 

[JaGWiRE]

More details needed - is this a lcd or crt? How long has it been used for? What model and make is it?

For crt's, it wouldn't surprise me, and older generation LCD'S possibly (although I doubt it.)

 

[pawlowski6132]

You may need some more monitor toner.

 

[3DCadman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawlowski6132 You may need some more monitor toner.

lol

 

[dj_mocok]

Sorry it's a 19" Hyundai CRT monitor.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok Sorry it's a 19" Hyundai CRT monitor.

And how old is it, and how much use has it gone through? For a CRT, this thing really isn't that uncommon I believe, I have read lots of stories of people with CRT'S experiencing large degradements and eventually unusability with their monitors (unforteuntly.)

 

[dj_mocok]

Say, 2 or 3 years old? As far as I remember, I thought CRTs are bullet proof, you can do whatever you want with it, and it hardly breaks and lasts forever?

 

[smeggy]

IIRC CRTs have a focus adjustment system inside, if it's a really old monitor it'll just have focus adjuster pots inside at the back of the tube that adjust the voltage. In newer ones they have dynamic focus circuits. If yours has a failed circuit then it may have defaulted to fixed focus. There is usually some discrepancy between center and edge focus as the beam has different distances to focus on, this is why old CRTs used to be like fishbowls, to even out the focus, with flat screens thay need to do some jiggery-pokery to make it all sharp. Looks like yours is dropping out of adjustment.

DO NOT DELVE INSIDE WITH A SCREWDRIVER UNLESS YOU LIKE NEW EXCITING AND ELECTRIFYING EXPERIENCES!

Have it serviced or replace it.

CRTs actually have a fairly limited life if you hammer them. They usually lose brightness and contrast before losing focus. Our big Viewsonics have a typical 2-3 year lifespan before they are essentially useless for anything critical. They still work but not anywhere near new spec.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok Say, 2 or 3 years old? As far as I remember, I thought CRTs are bullet proof, you can do whatever you want with it, and it hardly breaks and lasts forever?

Eh? Man, I've been on some computer forums for a few years, and their is an ocassional thread where some guys CRT is slowly dieing on him, and it's becoming unreadable. I don't know, maybe it's a problem with only some CRT'S, I thought that was the general consensus as well, but their have been previous problems from what I have read.

 

[dj_mocok]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy IIRC CRTs have a focus adjustment system inside, if it's a really old monitor it'll just have focus adjuster pots inside at the back of the tube that adjust the voltage. In newer ones they have dynamic focus circuits. If yours has a failed circuit then it may have defaulted to fixed focus. There is usually some discrepancy between center and edge focus as the beam has different distances to focus on, this is why old CRTs used to be like fishbowls, to even out the focus, with flat screens thay need to do some jiggery-pokery to make it all sharp. Looks like yours is dropping out of adjustment. DO NOT DELVE INSIDE WITH A SCREWDRIVER UNLESS YOU LIKE NEW EXCITING AND ELECTRIFYING EXPERIENCES! Have it serviced or replace it.

Focus adjustment eh? My monitor is a flat screen crt, I think it still can be considered a "new" version CRT. Don't think I will risk my life poking around inside of monitor. It won't be a video card (again????) problem right?

 

[Trippytiger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok Say, 2 or 3 years old? As far as I remember, I thought CRTs are bullet proof, you can do whatever you want with it, and it hardly breaks and lasts forever?

CRTs definitely have a finite lifespan. When they go, they go in different ways (my last one just went very very dark all of a sudden, and a number of the iMacs at my old high school started to lose whole colour spectrums), but they certainly go. It sounds like yours is going. Did I mention that they go?

It's probably time to start looking at a replacement.

 

[smeggy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok Focus adjustment eh? My monitor is a flat screen crt, I think it still can be considered a "new" version CRT. Don't think I will risk my life poking around inside of monitor. It won't be a video card (again????) problem right?

Video cards can't affect focus, only display frequency and resolution. You can try adjusting the display scale on your monitor, adjust the display width and height so the picture is smaller, that may help overcome focus problems as a temporary measure. Try it and see.

 

[dj_mocok]

I tried it, but unfortunately it didn't work, it just showed the same blurry words but smaller. I'm afraid this is one problem that we can't really fix by ourself? What a shame because I really like my CRT..

 

[smeggy]

Sadly it looks that way, just the luck of the draw. Still, even good CRTs are reasonbly priced these days. If you do go for a LCD, just make sure you spend enough to get a good one as they vary wildly in quality. The biggest LCD problems for me at the low end are
a) they are analogue
b) they have very limited viewing angles
c) they are low res

I'd rather have a decent cheap CRT than a crappy cheap LCD.

 

[Fitz]

The focus adjustment trimpots are usually in the back left corner and easy to access without going near anything too dangerous, if you do feel like poking around. Typically there will be two trimpots: coarse and fine focus, or focus and gamma. This is pretty easy to do if your monitor has them where they should be, especially compared to other manual adjustments (nothing says fun like fixing convergence on a monitor manually with no digital controls), but if you don't feel comfortable doing it, then you can either get it serviced or buy a new one, depending on how much your monitor is worth.