Two Monitors of Verona

September 30, 2014 8:37 AM

I have two identical monitors, hooked up to a dual-HDMI graphics board. The board is a replacement for the previous, damaged board, and now one monitor clearly has display issues the other does not. In this link, the left image is the problem - note the white lines around the dark lines. Also, regular vertical lines vary in thickness on the left monitor, suggesting a resolution mismatch - but there's only one setting for that.

Swapping cables changes nothing - the same monitor has the problem. I've been through the monitor settings; all seems well there. I've downloaded and installed the latest graphics drivers for this board. One monitor is "DVI"; the other "DVI-2" (depending on the cabling), which also doesn't affect the problem.

(2) Samsung UN39FH5000 39'' LED 1080p monitors

(1) Visiontek 900333 Radeon HD 5770 Killer NIC Combo Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual-DVI, HDMI, Built-on Killer NIC E2100 (V261-5772 )

Any clues why the left monitor has such a shitty display?

posted by IAmBroom to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: Could be DVI instead of HDMI & using the analogue DVI connection instead of the digital one?
posted by pharm at 8:46 AM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Have you tried going into the Tools menu on the monitors themselves and doing a Picture Reset on both of them?
posted by sparklemotion at 8:46 AM on September 30, 2014

The white around the dark lines is the monitor applying sharpening in an attempt to, well, sharpen the image. Assuming the monitors are set to the same resolution, and are connected digitally, it could be sharpening settings in the monitor.
posted by zsazsa at 9:31 AM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: zsazsa: thought of that; settings are the same.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:51 AM on September 30, 2014

Assuming there is nothing wrong with the monitor, I would start with reinstalling your graphics drivers. Try each monitor hooked up solo and see if there is an issue. Try a different HDMI source (Blu-ray player/Console/etc) to see if there are any display issue.
posted by wongcorgi at 11:00 AM on September 30, 2014

You say you've switched cables, but have you actually switched the ports on the graphics card too?
posted by thewumpusisdead at 11:18 AM on September 30, 2014

I was going to say that looks like analog VGA signal ghosting, but looking closer it's as much vertical as horizontal, which IIRC doesn't happen with analog video signals.

I too am curious if it's the LCD screen causing the problem or the HDMI port on the graphics card.
posted by Nelson at 11:51 AM on September 30, 2014

Response by poster: Thank you, pharm, that was it. Wrong DVI plug.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:07 AM on October 1, 2014