Probably not the best forum for this, but I thought I'd see what knowledgable people we've got on here first, before looking elsewhere.

I've just purchased myself a new (well, second hand) CRT monitor but it has a couple of problems. I've adjusted it as best I can and reduced/cured a lot of the initial problems, however I still had two annoying issus left:

1. The screen runs from clear at the bottom, to progressive blurred at the top.

2. Although I've adjusted the colours to that white matches on both screens, darker colours (i.e. anything darker than white) gets progressively red. I've attached a comparison photo of winamp that shows it up quite clearly.

So my question is, are these issues fixable (if I were to find a local monitor repair shop). And is there any way to cure these problems without spending money?

On a related note, both monitors will run to 2048x1536, at the same time, when in twin monitor mode. But when in dual output mode, I can't go higher than 3200x1200 (i.e. double 1600x1200). Is this just a limitation the driver? I know the Matrox TripleHead2Go supports up to 3840x1024, but that's only with nVidia cards, with ATI it drops to 2400x600. If so, then bah.

In my experience, when a monitor starts to show a particular hue like that it is not worth repairing (if you can find a tech that will consider it in the first place). Sometimes they come good for a while but the writing is on the wall. Before you get too dejected, wiggle the data cable a bit and see if the colour changes. If it does it might be a minor cable issue. Also try a degauss (though I doubt that will help really with colour, perhaps with the blurring).

Long shot: Electro-magnetic interference between two closely placed monitors can sometimes cause anomolies, try the monitor away from the other one first, to rule this out.

Hope this helps.

Or it's probably full of jaffa juice!!!

Quote from Gunn :

In my experience, when a monitor starts to show a particular hue like that it is not worth repairing

Damn.

Quote from Gunn :

Before you get too dejected, wiggle the data cable a bit and see if the colour changes. If it does it might be a minor cable issue.

Alas no, I specialy bought two high quality video cables to go with these beasties. My old 17" has a hardwired cable I can't replace that suffers from that really badly, I have to blue tack the cable at a certain angle or I get colour drop out. However it's easily noticeable because you can't get pure white - on this monitor I can. But the redness makes it look pretty poor, especially in dark scenes, and the blurring in the top half gives me a headache trying to read text.

I could try and send it back (it was an ebay purchase), but even if the guy agreed to give me a refund it would probably only just cover the postage.

Cheers anyway

I tolerated a slightly purple 21 inch CRT for nine months, but eventually it went blood red which was ok for command line but not for GUI or graphics.

I believe the prob can be fixed (91% sure), but with new monitors being so cheap nowadays (and monitor-fixing shops being short on space) it isn't cost effective. Try your nearest computer auction to pick them up for maybe 10-15 pounds each.

Quote from Bob Smith :

1. The screen runs from clear at the bottom, to progressive blurred at the top.

2. Although I've adjusted the colours to that white matches on both screens, darker colours (i.e. anything darker than white) gets progressively red. I've attached a comparison photo of winamp that shows it up quite clearly.

As Gunn mentioned - have you tried turning off the one monitor to see if the problem is still there. Is there any sort of high voltage electrical cabling anywhere near the wrong coloured monitor? Does degaussing have any effect?

You can try to manually correct this - although I don't particularly advise you to - with either a magnet or a coil. Put the coil close to the monitor , power it and then smoothly move it away from the monitor. With the magnet it's a bit trickier since you can't turn it off and you have to experiment to see at which distance it affects the monitor. The basic thing here is to be smooth with it (and ofcourse keep it away from any magnetic storage media [HDDs!] you got nearby).

One more idead: switch the monitors' places. Sounds stupid but CRTs are stupid

can you adjust the convergence on the new monitor ?

Quote from Shotglass :

can you adjust the convergence on the new monitor ?

That's a good point too - if the potentiometers aren't directly accessible (usually with a flat-head screwdriver) in the rear of the monitor you'll likely have to open it up.

Yep, I've played with both horizontal and vertical convergence, and thorougly cleaned off the grease and managed to turn it from totally blurred into half blurred. The text at the bottom is spot on but settings at either extreme don't cure the blurring at the top. I've tried turning the other monitor off, and in a gargantuan feat of strength, picked it up and moved it away, but it had zero effect. I suspected as much since there is a 17" on the other side of it which is also unaffected.
I will point out I have a non-magnetically shielded speaker near it as well, but I tried removing that also to no affect.
Degaussing doesn't help with the blurryness.

I'll try swapping them round. :S

Jeez, that's long than my setup guide, even. Will read, cheers.

why type of monitor is it anway ?

CRT, as said in the thread title.

If you want more specifics, I have 2x Compaq P1210 22" monitors, google the specs if you're that interested (they cost £750 new) with a third arriving this week. Still got some old 17" too.

Aha, some success, decided to have another fiddle, I'd been focussing on get the bottom, well, in focus, so wondered what I could do about the top (at the expense of the bottom):

Vertical convergence at 0%, Horizontal 60% - bottom text clearest, top blurry
Vertical convergence at 100%, Horizontal 0% - bottom text blurry, top clearest

And after further fiddling...

Vertical convergence at 75%, Horizontal 55% - by no means perfect, nowhere is the screen crystal, but nowhere is too badly blurred either. Is about the best compromise I can manage. Still not ideal but at least I can read text without getting instant eye strain.

Red hue persists....

Third one arrived, this time with a (subtle) green hue. Just no winning is there. At least it's not blurred.

i have 2 sharp 15" TFT`s

the same model number, but the colours are slightly different on one, even when fiddling with the preset colour options, i can only assume that these things are not "calibrated" very well in manufacturing

your monitor looks knackered tho

Quote from Sticky-Micky :

i have 2 sharp 15" TFT`s

the same model number, but the colours are slightly different on one, even when fiddling with the preset colour options, i can only assume that these things are not "calibrated" very well in manufacturing

are both connected via dvi or vga ? ie not one on dvi and the other one on vga

in case you still have then
arent those rebranded sonys ? if they are you should check if theres a 4 pin connector or a din connector somwhere on the back (might only be accessible if you take the cover off) if it has one you should be able to fix them without muching about on potis