The NEC monitor on my home computer is fading; the picture has separated almost an inch along the top of the screen, and the text and graphics are getting slightly blurred.
My brother, who sent me the hardware in February 2002 (it was altready well-used then), said that if I hook up another monitor to the console (flat-top Compaq Deskpro 4000) I may need to concern myself about a “drive.” How does “drive” apply to installing a monitor? : confused:
I think you probably mean driver, and if so, it doesn’t usually matter. Windows has drivers for generic monitors of all resolutions, and you can probably use one of these. If the monitor has special features, such as a USB hub or software-controlled settings, you may need to install the driver from the manufacturer to access these features. Usually, though, you can just plug any relatively modern monitor in and go.
I should also have added this: If when you change monitors, you get no signal, you can enable VGA mode until you get the driver sorted out. To do this, reboot your computer. Start banging on F8 until you get a menu of boot options. Select “Enable VGA Mode” or something similar to tell Windows to use the VGA driver. This driver works with virtually all monitors.
You shouldn’t have to do anything in the way of video drivers. Your PC is probably set up with the monitor type as “Generic SVGA” “Plug and Play Monitor” or something along those lines.
What you do need o be concerned with is the resolution and refresh rate. Go to Display Properties (right click the desktop, or find it in the Control Panel) and at the Settings tab, set your screen area to 1024 by 768 pixels. Then click Advanced and find Refresh Frequency - it’s usually on the Monitor tab. Set that to 75 Hz. Apply / OK your way out and back to the desktop.
The reason for doing all this is to ensure you’ll get a picture when you turn off the PC and swap monitors. If you have the resolution or refresh rate set to spmething the new monitor can’t handle, you’ll have an unviewable image when the PC starts up.
Once you’re back up and running with the new monitor, you can go back to Display Properties and increase the resolution and refresh rate. If at this point, you pick something that doesn’t work, you’ll have a scrambled screen for 15 seconds. If you can’t click “OK, I like the new settings” they will automatically revert to whatever they were.
Originally posted by gotpasswords
If I understand you aright, this is something I do with the old monitor before shutting it off and hooking a replacement monitor up.