Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with screen

Surrounded by darkness...

ricochet biscuit — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:45:08 -0800

I have an Omnitech OM22WD monitor and I want to change the display. It is currently showing me a 4x3 aspect ratio (i.e. it is a wide screen and I am currently seeing two black bars bracketing the image) and I want to switch it back to full screen. I have misplaced the documentation. Any suggestions?

Stupid Blue Screen... Grumble Grumble.

Mastercheddaar — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:19:51 -0800

Problems with Kaspersky Anti-Virus and XP... Blue Screens and All! More inside. 1st I am on another computer that is right beside the one that isn't working.

I will start from the beginning. I uninstalled AVG 9.0 free so I could install Kaspersky 2010. Everything went fine there (or so I'm thinking), then during kaspersky's installation it stated that there was a "newer version" of the setup file and that it was recommended that I use that version instead. Not thinking I pressed yes. It uploaded the setup file and I got an invalid file message with the normal "Retry, Cancel, Abort, Ignore" I pressed Retry a few times and nothing happened so I pressed Ignore. After I pressed Ignore it seemed to work perfectly then it blue screened me. Now when I start the computer it runs through the BIOS perfectly then goes to the WINXP loading screen, looks like it's going to load up then goes to the blue screen.

I can start the computer in Safe Mode and I can put in the XP disk and start it in Windows Recovery mode. In windows recovery I have gone through the "ListSVC" and disabled anything that had to do with Kaspersky but I'm still blue screening when I exit and restart.

I have also tried to complete the installation of Kaspersky in Safe mode but it won't let me due to not having admin privledges.

I do not have a recovery point :( and everything worked fine before I uninstalled AVG and tried to install Kaspersky.

I'm on my 2nd cup of Strong coffee and my google fu is failing me. Help Obi One Metafilter you are my only hope!!!

Any ideas?

Help us recreate iconic film costumes for our holiday party

Unicorn on the cob — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:22:37 -0800

[CostumeFilter]: My company is having a Hollywood-themed holiday party in two weeks. Please help me think of a good costume for myself and my boyfriend. Difficulty factors: He has a beard, I'm short and curvy. The idea is red carpet moments, classic Hollywood, or memorable screen roles. Ideally this would be something highly recognizable, like the Marilyn Manson/Rose McGowan red carpet look (but nothing x-rated) or, say, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra. Unfortunately, I can't think of many "memorable" red carpet/Oscar moments that couples have shared, and I don't want to just buy a nice dress (boring!) when we could go full costume instead.

The couple with the best outfit wins a significant amount of spending money and a trip to Hollywood, so we are motivated; he is willing to shave the beard if it's worth it.

So far, we've kicked around the idea of going as young Obi-Wan and Padme Amidala or Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz (he'd make a reluctant cowardly lion) but we don't want to get TOO crazy on spending money and have a short amount of time to work on it, since the Thanksgiving holiday's about to start.

Both of us have black hair and he wears glasses, if that helps. The celebrities we most closely resemble naturally are Tori Amos (me) and a mix of Charlie Chaplin and Justin Long (him).

We don't have to go as a specific couple from the movie itself, just two characters from the same film will also work but I'm having trouble finding stuff like this by poking around on IMDB. Googling for Hollywood couples is equally unhelpful, since I'm trying to cross-reference roles and memorable looks. Thanks for any suggestions!

Am I being too uptight about my Macbook screen?

4ster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:46:59 -0800

I have an appointment to see the Mac Geniuses tomorrow regarding my Macbook's screen, which looks rather dim. However, I'm not sure if I'm asking too much, since I know the older displays dim over time. I have some photos inside comparing my Macbook to an almost identical model that is one year older than mine. Could you take a look at these pics and let me know what my chances are of getting a repair? Other stuff:

Both are 13.3" polycarbonate white Macbooks. Mine was purchased in spring of 2007, the other was purchased sometime in 2008.

I have AppleCare.

The Apple store is a 150 mile round trip.

I checked the color calibration settings, and they are the same.

Please let me know what you would do if you were me. Other experiences with dimming screens would be appreciated as well.

Thanks for your help.

Photos are here and here.

The first photo was taken in the dark and the second was taken with the lights on.

How to restore a glossy laptop screen?

bashos_frog — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:22:31 -0800

Is there any way to restore the glossy coating on a Macbook Pro screen? It seems that my keyboard has has transferred enough oil to my screen to permanently damage the glossy coating in spots (especially the line caused by the bottom edge of the keyboard). Is there any way to reapply some kind of coating, or restorative that will make the screen look new again?

Can I screen out the six legged bastards?

medea42 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:56:33 -0800

Would placing an additional window screen material on the outside of a vent cause ventilation problems? This summer I wound up locked inside my apartment in terror because a group of wasps elected a pipe in my a/c unit (located on my balcony) as their new home. Since my fiancee and I are both allergic to bees, and because we chose our apartment for its balcony, this is a source of serious frustration - especially since even after exterminators killed the nest and our maintenance guy removed it, the wasps continued to return to our balcony in particular. I'll be damned if I let six legs win.

My idea to prevent this from happening again is to make sure that there is no way they can crawl inside the outdoors-exposed vent that contains our heating and cooling unit. So I want to fix a screen that is tightly woven enough that bees can't get into it. What I want to know before getting happy with knives, screens and glue is whether the additional screen would cause any technical problem with ventilation, etc.? It doesn't seem so to me, but mechanical issues aren't something I'm well versed in.

Note: This is a rental, but I'm willing to take a deposit hit to avoid further bees.

Sharing video with Skype screen share feature

flod logic — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:39:24 -0800

Is there some way to share video over Skype with the screen share feature? I'd like to use the screen share feature in Skype so that another person and I can watch the same video (which is on my computer) and talk about it. Is this even possible? I've tried opening videos in VLC and mplayer while screen sharing is on, but all the other person sees is black where the video should be. Any suggestions? I'm using XP, if that helps.

On screen grid in Windows?

n3rt — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:52:35 -0800

Is there a Windows utility that will display an on-screen grid over all other applications with definable sizes? I use Fast Stone Capture's ruler utility all the time as a designer, but a grid would be immensely useful.

Will a 13.3 inch notebook screen give me eyestrain

PenDevil — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:46:47 -0800

Will a 13.3 inch notebook screen give me eyestrain? I've been thinking about getting a notebook and have been looking at a model with a 13.3 inch screen and a resolution of 1280x800. Considering I'll be staring at this screen for most of the day will it kill my eyes with eyestrain?

I'm not doing any graphics eye straining intensive work, I'm a Ruby developer and most of the time I'll be staring at a Vim window with some XTerms and a copy of Firefox. I am however shortsighted and wear glasses for this the whole day and at my last eye exam 2 years ago I was diagnosed with an astigmatism and had a new prescription given for that.

I have an external monitor at my home office I can use when I'm there but when I'm out at clients or just want to get out and work from the nearest coffee shop this probably won't be an option.

Help Using a Laptop Without a Backlight

Charmian — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:36:46 -0800

Today my laptop's backlight stopped working. The screen is visible, but very dim. I can't repair it immediately (if it's even worth it). Does anyone have any tips for lighting the screen to make it more visible? Shining a penlight didn't seem to help much, because the screen is so reflective. The laptop is a three year old HP Pavilion dv1000. It is no longer under warranty. I probably will get another computer instead, because I don't think I'm up to replacing a backlight myself, and it sounds like getting it done in a shop will cost more than the computer itself.

Squished picture on my TV set

polexxia — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:29:33 -0800

Is my (analog) TV completely borked? I have an analog TV set that is about two and a half years old (but I have digital cable, so the analog thing shouldn't, as far as I know, be a factor). Today, when I turned it on, there is a black band about 3 inches wide on the top of the screen, with a white border, then the picture starts. The picture is the complete picture, just compressed into the smaller area. Any ideas/suggestions about what might be causing this/how to fix it?

Macbook screen dimming, flicker!

spacefire — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:02:39 -0800

My Macbook Core Duo 1.83 GHZ experiences random dimming of the screen, like a flicker, from time to time. I just bought it from my sister in law and installed Leopard on it. She said she'd never had this problem while she was using it, when it had Tiger. I've been reading up on the issue on various Mac forums and some people say it's a screen power inverter issue, which is a hardware issue and would cost money to fix, since the laptop has long been out of warranty.
Others say that the automatic light sensor should be disabled, from somewhere in System Preferences/Display, but I don't have that option.

The dimming and brightening does not occur all the time, but still, it's pretty annoying when it occurs.

Is there a fix for this?

Thanks MeFi!

Does (screen) size matter?

murtagh — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:09:11 -0800

Why do movies (.avi files) look better when viewed using a DVD player than on a computer screen? Video files (.avi), especially lower-medium resolution videos, might look a bit pixellated when viewed on my computer (20" iMac). I'm assuming that that's due to the resolution/size of the video. But when I burn the same video(s) to a DVD (data DVD, same .avi format) and view them on the TV screen, they look extremely clear. Great quality, no blurring or pixellation, even though my TV screen is much larger than the iMac.

How does this work? Shouldn't it be the other way around, seeing as the TV screen is larger than the iMac screen?

Printage

Glendale — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:02:31 -0800

Silk screen printing: I have the blank shirts. I have the design in a PSD file. I need a printer that can print shiny silver foil... Any suggestions? I need a relatively fast turn around time as well.. I'd like to get the shirts back within two weeks of me shipping the blanks. Please cite whether you've personally used the company or not... Thanks :)

Increased productivity or neck injury?

special-k — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:11:11 -0800

Dual monitor annoyance: How do I make sure that dialog boxes/windows open in the same monitor? I have a dual monitor set up at work. When I click on a folder in the left monitor, it opens on the right (or the other way around). This also happens with application dialog boxes. For example, If Firefox is running in the second monitor, addons appear in the first monitor. Same with Thunderbird, iTunes and all other apps.
Is there a freeware program/trick to keeping each program (and associated dialogs/events) restricted to the same monitor?

Building better boundaries for bugs

catlet — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:49:28 -0800

DIY screen porch: now that it's heading into summer in Georgia, what should I know before I make a huge mess on my back deck? Although I'm on the first floor, the house is on a slope so my back deck is on the second story over a concrete patio, and the upstairs deck forms a roof. It's all wood with widely spaced uprights and a railing; . I'd like to enclose the portion that opens out from my bedroom (about half of the total deck), and I'd like the result to be secure enough that I can let my cats out there without worrying they'll slip through somewhere, or without building a giant catio that looks like a holding tank made of hardware cloth.

The easiest solution seems to be rolls of vinyl screen and a staplegun, but I think it would end up looking saggy and sort of bootleg. The guy at Lowe's told me about the Screen Tight system, which is a set of tracks screwed into the wood, into which the screening is attached with a spline tool. It sounds good, but I haven't seen it installed. Other ideas? Resources?

Please assume two people with basic spatial skills, and no power equipment other than a cordless drill. Also, I rent, but the landlord thinks this is a cool idea and says to do whatever I want. Thanks!

Ready to jump off a klif.sys....

DavidNYC — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:58:25 -0800

I'm getting a Blue Screen of Death on startup (Windows XP Pro) which says that the "problem" (whatever it may be) is being caused by a file called klif.sys. Googling around indicates it's a Kaspersky file, and I do indeed have their anti-virus software installed on my system. But I haven't found any solutions, and I can't get past this BSOD. Is there any hope for me? (More details inside.) A few days ago, Windows informed me that it needed to restart after installing some updates. (I don't recall what they were exactly, but I think most had to do with Office 2007. Not sure though.) I powered down my computer and went to bed. The next day, when I turned it on, my computer informed me that the file NTOSKRNL.EXE was missing or corrupt. I thought this was strange but couldn't get past this error message by trying "Last Known Good Configuration" or "Safe Mode."

So I followed some online solutions which explained how to restore that file from the original Windows CD, using the Windows Recovery Console. I then got a new message, telling me that still another file, ntfs.sys, was missing or corrupt. So I tried fixing that file, too.

At that point, Windows really jammed me up - it gave me no discernable error messages whatsoever, and just kept restarting after basically getting nowhere during the boot process. (Safe Mode and Last Known Good Config still would not work.) So I took what may have been a foolhardy step - I tried letting the Windows CD automatically "repair" my installation of Windows.

(Side note: One thing I didn't think about until later is the fact that my installation had all the latest patches and updates, meaning it was Windows XP Service Pack 3, but my CD only had as far as Service Pack 1a. Yikes?)

Well, needless to say, this repair feature didn't work. That's when I started getting the klif.sys BSOD, which I reproduce below the dashed lines in full. (At one point, Windows started telling me that yet a different file, system.sav, was corrupt, but I could not figure out how to try repairing that file. In any event, we're back to the klif.sys BSOD for no apparent reason now.)

As I mentioned above, klif.sys is apparently a file that is produced by Kaspersky. However, I can't touch that software or anything else on my system because, as I say, I can't get past this BSOD. The information contained in the BSOD itself is totally unhelpful (and I checked - my system's BIOS doesn't offer any of those memory settings that I can see).

In case any of this is helpful: It's a Dell laptop running Windows XP Pro. I had plenty of free hard drive space. Though the computer is almost six years old, the hard drive is less than two years old. Kaspersky Anti-Virus was up-to-date and as far as I know, I had no viruses or malware infecting my system. (If I did, they were clever enough to defeat Kaspersky.)

Are there any solutions which do not involve me wiping everything out and doing a fresh install of Windows? Obviously this is a scenario I'd like to avoid if possible. Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------
BSOD Below
--------------------------------------------------

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: klif.sys

The driver unloaded without cancelling pending operations.

If this is the first time you’ve seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000D4 (0xF66DD938, 0x000000FF, 0x00000001, 0x80512922)

klif.sys

Shattered Like My Heart

sourwookie — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:57:04 -0800

My iPhone 3G screen is shattered but still works. I need to get the glass replaced pronto. What are my options? --I'm about seven months away from my renewal period.
--Only the glass is shattered: the screen still displays and responds.
--There is no one local to do it.
--If I am to believe what others have told me, Apple won't do this, unless I want to pay full price for the phone.
--These guys come recommended. Any opinions?
--Would I be able to pop my SIM card out and stick it into a gas station phone while it's away?

So, Mefites, What would you do?

forcing resolution change - good/bad/otherwise?

Baby_Balrog — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:23:35 -0800

What kind of "hardware damage" are we talking about? Netbook screen resolution question inside - please help. I'm profoundly frustrated that I can't play Transcendence on my wonderful little Acer AspireOne. The screen res for my netbook is 1024x600 natively (800x600 is also available). This doesn't work for Transcendence. I tried doing it in -dx and /windowed modes, that didn't help.
I posted to their forums and they were almost less than useless.
I read this question and it left me with more questions.
FINALLY, I was messing around with my monitor settings. Under Advanced options in the screen Settings menu, there's a monitor tab. It contains a checkbox that says "hide modes that monitor cannot display." I unchecked it and VOILA all kinds of crazy-ass resolutions suddenly became available to me. I tried going one higher than 1024x600 (1024x768) and it worked.

However. Under the aforementioned checkbox is a dire warning that clearing that box may lead to an unusable screen and/or hardware damage.

I don't care how the screen "looks" - I just wanna play Transcendence, skewed pixels or whatever. Just need to see the buttons on the bottom of the screen.

But what kind of hardware damage are we talking about here? Am I gonna fry my little friend's monitor if I do this?

I've been struggling with this deeply personal issue for nearly four months now and I need some help. Thanks wise mefites!

MacBook screen replacement?

entropicamericana — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:16:40 -0800

I broke my MacBook's screen, and I'd like to get it fixed. A quick googling turns up several firms. Can anyone recommend a specific firm? TechRestore's work seems somewhat dodgy. (I've seen pictures of damaged bezels, etc.) Does anyone have experience with MacService? Any other firms that you would recommend?

Decent video screen cap with sound?

notsnot — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:40:14 -0800

Decent free video screen capture *with*sound*? I've been gifted a month on a training website with riches of lessons. There are a few instructors' videos which I would like to screen capture the lessons so I can watch them over and over without having to keep a subscription going (I'm cheap). Problem is, most screen cap programs seem to be designed for making training videos - "see, here, click this spot..." and thus record sound from your microphone, not the sound from the sound card.

I know they're using some sort of flash movie viewer, and I've trolled my cache for flv files to try and watch (even did a cache clear, to winnow down candidates), to no avail.

Phone should probably not resemble hypercolor.

epersonae — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:34:18 -0800

Can my phone's water-damaged screen be saved? Last spring, I dropped my phone (TMobile MDA) into a bag that also had a leaking water bottle. (That was a not-good day.)

I discovered it within a few minutes, and eventually, I got it working, mostly just by letting it dry out. HOWEVER...the screen has never been quite the same. It looks faded and streaking, tending towards pink, almost looks like a worn-out Hypercolor shirt.

I had pretty much resigned myself to it, but a few times over the winter the screen has gone entirely back to normal, sometimes for just a few seconds, in one case for over a week. I thought it had fixed itself, and I was sooo sad the day it went back to washed-out.

What the heck caused this, why might it have flickered back to life, and is there any hope of fixing it permanently?

(I probably should just buy a new phone, but I'd rather not right now. I'm holding out for a G1.)

Skitch like app for Windows?

Unsomnambulist — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:41:56 -0800

Is there a screen capture program or browser addon for Windows (Vista, ack) that is better than Gadwin Print Screen or as awesome as Skitch (Mac only, ugh)?

High quality hardware-based screen capture?

siclik — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:51:28 -0800

Trying to record a video card output (VGA/DVI) with this camera. What adapter do I need and how would you recommend setting it up? At this point, I only see two options - either use screen capture software (not preferred since I'm using a memory-intensive program) or just film the screen. I've been looking online and haven't yet found an adapter or converter, so if you know of anything, please chime in. The camera can record either an incoming composite video signal or DV video signal (through firewire).

I'm trying to record this in extremely high quality, because it is for a video that we are distributing to our customers.

Your help and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

No roast swan for me, thanks.

orange swan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:08:19 -0800

I would like some tips on how to find or make a fireplace screen that is no wider than 23" and no taller than 27" for under $100 or so. I've resolved the problem of what to put in my fake fireplace, and bought a gel fuel firelog set. Now I need a screen for the fire place. Gel fuel doesn't spark, but my concern is that if I leave the fire "open", especially when it's in such a shallow opening (6"), it will be all too easy for something like a skirt hem to swish in there. But I can't seem to find a screen in my budget and price range.

I've called and visited the main fireplace stores in Toronto and been told that standard screens are 30" inches wide or larger and that I can't even get one of those for $100, much less have something custom made.

So I'm thinking perhaps I could make one. Surely it would be possible to get some kind of decorative grill and clamp/solder it into some kind of "feet" so it's free standing? Alternatively, if I could get three small decorative grills, the could be fastened them together to make a folding free standing screen. I do stained glass and although a stained glass screen would look gorgeous with the firelight behind it, I do worry about extreme likelihood that it would get knocked over and smashed sooner or later.

So I turn to you people. Any thoughts on how to make or find a 23" fireplace screen for under $100? Where can I find decorative grills? I scoured Home Depot last night for naught.