Wide Screen Monitor woes...

[ahhaa]

I just picked up a AOC (Envision) 19" widescreen LCD monitor from Officemax; it seems sweet but I'm having ongoing wierd troubles setting it up perfectly...

the saga so far:
By the time I got to the store, the 193FWk was both Sold Out & Back Ordered. I had a choice of pre-paying and waiting out a backorder, or taking the display unit. The price being mighty good I took the display.
The clerks first gave me the wrong box, so it wouldn't ring up at the sale price. Then they'd misplaced the manual & driver disk. Ok I could deal with that- I thought.
I went online to d/l the driver.
The AOC website had some serious problems. Eventually I got to the XP drivers link, but the package (d/l'd on another machine to get it onto a disk), once unzipped did not contain drivers for this 193FWk model.
So I called the 800 number in the readme. Got an ad for a s*xchat line. hmmm
I went to the parent Envision site & got a different phone number.
Long wait on hold- (why don't one of you guys invent some software that waits on hold for you?)

A nice tech emailed me the right (I hope ) driver, but included this comment:

This model is a wide screen monitor you may need to update your Video Card driver or Upgrade your Card. For the Monitor driver we recommend using Plug n Play driver.

Right now, pre-install, I've found some XP res modes that give me the extra screen real estate I needed. The video card in the machine is an old 4X/8X AGP DVI unit that hasn't seen an manufacturer's update in a while. I'm once again outta my depth!

Any of you guys had some experience with the which & the why of these new-fangled monitors?

[ROF]

Mistake number one, accepting a display unit. Mistake number two, accepting a product that failed to include all equipment. Mistake number three, not returning the product after being misrouted by the manufacturer.

I would return this product.

[Bjs]

Rof said it ... but you should have got a reasonable discount for not getting the original box ..

I normally on a $300 product , if box is not available ... around $65 discount ... though I get in writing from them as to why ... just incase of warrantee issue develope's over why original packing was not used .

Most manufacture's specify if it screw's up it must be returned in the original packing ... that supplied by the company that made and distrubuted the unit .

If you have not had it for more than a week or so ... you should have no problem with the return of the unit .

As for the video driver ... what is it , you didn't list as part of your computer's stat's ... update's might be available ... just depend's on what the chipset is , not who's brand is on it .

Ie , card from msi ... chip is nvidia ... example of my geforce 5x5500 card ... go to nvidia for driver's , not msi ... beside's , msi site is crap , either there or not ... a pain .

-----------

I recently got called to help a user with a view sonic that repeatedly kept reporting "change res" ... in setting's on this screen , disable it and it's fixed .

This model though was not using the dvi connection ... ordinary vga connection ...

My card came with the conversion dongle ... nice of msi too throw it in .

[greymalkin]

that viewsonic nag message really is ridiculous. I've installed a few of their 21.3" lcd's and right out of the box it keeps popping up a message that you aren't using the optimal resolution. it's a few steps down into the menu's to turn it off and it really is a useless feature.

[thecoalman]

after being misrouted by the manufacturer. .

I doubt that was intentional. I had that happen to me with my computer manual, they had a leaflet in there stating not to call the number with the correct number to call. It wasn't Dell or some large company, you'd think they'd have just hired some putz to put some stickers over it.

Coincidentally the same thing just happened to honda:

WASHINGTON Honda says a toll-free number that was printed in more than a (m) million owners' manuals is wrong.

The number was supposed to direct callers to a government hotline on vehicle safety. Instead, owners who dial the 800 prefix hear a recorded message in which a woman's voice, speaking over a funky beat, urges them to call another 800 number for "just 99 cents per minute" if they want to talk.

Honda says it incorrectly published an 800 prefix, rather than an 888, in over a (m) million manuals for 2006 model year Honda and Acura vehicles and Honda motorcycles.

The auto company says it will send postcards to dealers and owners in August with the correct National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hotline information along with instructions to insert the card into the proper section of the manual.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=5221289&nav=0s3d

[thecoalman]

edit :P damn buttons are too close

[ROF]

after being misrouted by the manufacturer. .

I doubt that was intentional. I had that happen to me with my computer manual, they had a leaflet in there stating not to call the number with the correct number to call. It wasn't Dell or some large company, you'd think they'd have just hired some putz to put some stickers over it.

Coincidentally the same thing just happened to honda:

Agreed. but when taken with the other issues it becomes unacceptable.

[ahhaa]

well, the monitor driver is now installed, I found a 1280x768 setting on 32 bit; its named but not a signed driver. Nothing came up to set refresh rates & such. The monitor itself is optimised for 1440x900 at 60 Hz.
Has several brightness levels, set it down 3 levels from VIVID to OFFICE, which is still plenty bright. With TFT, does lower brightness still mean longer life?

only draws 32 watts, and the computer sits 3" closer to the wall now that the DVI dongle the CRT needed is gone.

Very nice to see a spreadsheet that doesn't need a scroll bar- all the way out to T,U,V!:]

The video card is a Nvidia GeForce MX440, AGP8X. The mobo is an MSI KT4V with a Barton core AMD 2500.

Wasn't clear before... I did get the right box & packing (eventually) and I knew that the display hadn't been on the shelf for more than a couple days. What it did let me do is make sure there weren't any defective pixels.

[ROF]

Glad you got everything working and no defective pixels.

Tonight I got a Rosewill 19" LCD with three dead pixels. A good massaging and they are now living and breathing. The doctor is in.

[budz]

I have a View Sonic 19 inch widescreen lcd that needed the correct driver for the 1440x900 setting. I had to uninstall the video card then I rebooted the pc to let windows reinstall it and then installed the drivers from the View Sonic CD. Only then was I able to get the 1440x900 setting. I also have a Nvidia Geforce MX440 AGP 8x video cards as well on 2 pc's that share the ViewSonic widescreen lcd via a 2 way KVM switch.

[TBoneit]

Glad you got everything working and no defective pixels.

Tonight I got a Rosewill 19" LCD with three dead pixels. A good massaging and they are now living and breathing. The doctor is in.

A good massaging? I never heard of that. Are you saying that by rubbin the screen they came to life?

Cheers

[ahhaa]

ROF- Rosewill? Now, a Roswell logo (skunkworks) would be perfect!:]

Yeah, on the massage thing, are you using aromatic oils & such?:]

Bud- good tip, thanks! Are your Geforce cards able to do the dual monitor thing? I'd like to hear how that works in practice (if you've got it, do you really use it?) ; and also the pivotable monitors are back-- do paper workers find it actually helps productivity?

[ROF]

Glad you got everything working and no defective pixels.

Tonight I got a Rosewill 19" LCD with three dead pixels. A good massaging and they are now living and breathing. The doctor is in.

A good massaging? I never heard of that. Are you saying that by rubbin the screen they came to life?

Yes. It is called Massaging. You do not want to press on the screen but simply "massage" the dead pixel area. I have found that in most cases this can bring them back to life. I read this on the net somewhere and since I had an old LCD with several dead pixels I figured I would try it. It worked great and I have been doing this ever since. It is normal to have some dead pixels and in most cases the retailer or manufacturer will not refund your money if only a limited number of pixels are dead. You can try massaging it and see if it works. Just remember not to press to hard. Just lightly rub the area. I do this in a circular motion only because if I were to run my finger in a forward and reverse motion across the pixels I would think I might press to hard or not hard enough. You do this at your own risk but since I sell monitors with systems or separately I have found I can save myself alot of RMA headaches by fixing this all too common issue myself.