[RESOLVED] New Wide Screen....Old Computer

Hiya....

Just wondering about something. I have an old homebuilt that is over 8 years old. The hard drive is newer and so is the DVD drive....but motherboard, and graphics card are original. During it's first couple years, it ran CRT monitors and always did well. The last few years it ran a standard size Samsung 19-inch LCD....and again good results. The 19-inch LCD died recently, so I bought a 23-inch Acer wide screen. Now after playing with monitor controls and graphics controls for a day now....I can't get a really good picture and am starting to wonder if computer hardware from 8 years ago, which was berfore wide screens were mainstream, just can't produce a good wide screen image. I have a Geforce3 that Nvidia doesn't even make new drivers for anymore. Last driver update was from 2006....so I am "current" if you can call it that.

For the most part the problem is I am unable to get a crisp and sharp image for either text or pictures. Messed with contrast, resolution (settled on 1600x900), brightness, focus etc. Can't get happy with it. Sitting right next to it is my new windows7 HP with it's 21-inch wide screen....which is clear and sharp.

So I am left wondering if my computer hardware and graphics drivers were simply not designed to feed a wide screen. Is there such a thing? Reminds me of when you buy a HDTV and are really impressed by the HD image from HD channels, but then try to watch a standard def channel and start thinking you actually got a better picture before you got a HDTV...ya know?

The specs on the monitor:

H233H bmid 23" wide-screen TFT LCD; 1920 x 1080 resolution; 40000:1 dynamic contrast ratio; 160°/160° horizontal/vertical viewing angles; 2 x 1.5W integrated speakers; VGA, DVI (HDCP), HDMI connectors; 300 cd/m2 brightness; 5ms response time; black color

With LCD screens you have to run them at their native resolution to get the best image. So in your case you need to run it at 1920 x 1080. If your graphics card cannot support that, which is what it sounds like, that is where the trouble lies. As you cannot update the driver, there really isn't a lot you can do about it apart from replacing the card.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know about that native resolution thing. Maybe I will swap monitors. The HP native appears to be 1600x900. I will have to play around a bit...

Then again, maybe I should retire this old girl....LOL

Just an update. I swapped the monitors. The 23-inch is much happier running at 1920x1080 on the Win7 HP....and the HP 21-inch is working fine on the old relic machine at 1600x900. No manual calibrations needed....just auto adjust and native resolutions. Thanks.

You're very welcome, I'm glad you got it sorted out :)