[John151]

Not sure if this is the right circle, so moderators please move as needed.

I just picked up an HP 2710m 27" Diagonal Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor.  The monitor seems very well built, and had great reviews on Amazon, but the calibration is way off (which the reviews mentioned).  I am using an HDMI connection, and Windows 7.  This is my 4th LCD over the years,  but the first I have ever had to calibrate. 

I have tried calibrating (no experience), but no matter what I do, the display is just crap, especially text based content (web sites, word, excel, quicken, etc.).  Colors are too strong, text is fuzzy, the display is generally too bright, and it seems like the background color oscillates a bit. 

Does anyone else have this monitor, or have had a similar experience with an LCD?  Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated?

[srb]

LCD displays look best when run at their native resolution.  Deviating from that often results in fuzzy text and other anomalies.  Are you running it at 1920 X 1080 resolution?
 
Steve

[John151]

LCD displays look best when run at their native resolution.  Deviating from that often results in fuzzy text and other anomalies.  Are you running it at 1920 X 1080 resolution?
 
Steve

Yes I am, with 32 bit color, and 60 Hz refresh rate.

[John151]

One thing that confuses me is the monitor has the typical controls (brightness, contrast, color), plus some automagic features, and then Windows has all kinds of parameters and features to fiddle with as does the video card software (ATI).  Not sure where to start - with Windows or the monitor. 

[srb]

Have you run this computer's video card at 1920 X 1080 previously?  If not, maybe the video card is just not performing to spec.  I would also try another HDMI cable if you have one.
 
Do you have the ability to try this monitor on another computer?  That would be of some help in determining if there is a problem with the monitor or a problem with the video signal driving it.

As you have probably experienced with previous monitors, running the monitor and the video driver software at standard defaults should give you a decent image.  From there, careful calibration can enhance, but shouldn't be necessary to get a clear and stable image.
 
Steve

[John151]

Great questions/suggestions!

Both the monitor and the computer are new (just rebuilt an old computer with a quad core Athlon II 3 Ghz CPU, ASIS MoBo with built in ATI graphics, 8 GB Ram, two 2 TB Seagate drives, and a Nexus 850W silent PSU).  The graphics card is probably the week link here.

The monitor has VGA,  DVI, and HDMI inputs.  Currently using HDMI.  I have all kinds of cables (DVI, HMDI, DVI to HDMI, etc) , so I will give cable swapping a try.  I also have a few other puters that I can drive this monitor with.  This should rule some components in or out of the equation.    

 

[John151]

Changing cables did not make a noticeable difference, including switching from HDMI to DVI.

Changing source computer did make a huge difference.  When driving the monitor from a Dell Laptop (Windows XP, ATI graphics) via DVI the text was razer sharp, and the colors where much better.  This suggests the issue is not with the monitor.  Next question to be answered:  is the fuzzy text a software or hardware problem?   

Another issue I noticed is scrolling text turns a redish-brown color (like when a VGA cable is loose or is of poor quality).

I switched to 16 bit color,  hoping to reduce the graphical overhead, but no discernible difference.  I also downsize the resolution, but all of the issues are still present.  The background color is definitely oscillating.  This is much more than just color calibration.  Look at this display is actually making me nauseous. 

My guess is the video card is the problem, but I don't want to purchase and install one just as a test.  Any thoughts on next steps?   

[srb]

It's certainly possible that it's a hardware issue, but the first thing I would do is make sure you have the latest ATI Motherboard/Integrated Video Drivers.  Even if it appears that you have the latest driver, I would do a reinstall anyway.
 
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
 
Steve
 
 

[Doublej]

It's certainly possible that it's a hardware issue, but the first thing I would do is make sure you have the latest ATI Motherboard/Integrated Video Drivers.  Even if it appears that you have the latest driver, I would do a reinstall anyway.
 
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
 
Steve

+1 on the reinstall of the latest graphics drivers.  I'd would also download and select the HP monitor file for the display and run Microsoft Clear Type Tuner.

What is the model of the ATI graphics card?

I am not sure as to what you mean by colors are too strong, but I would set the monitor contols at the defaults and then go into the ATI control panel to make the first set of adjustments.

[John151]

Some progress.

I reinstalled the latest video drivers (again), re-installed the ATI control center software (did get a newer version here), switched to DVI cable, updated MoBo BIOS, uninstalled two video related utility programs (1 power saver, the other for tweaking the GPU) that come on the MoBo CD.  I have also suspended processing of the World Community Grid (distributed processing for medical research) as it puts a heavy load on the system.  Text is much better now, and the display is now full size on the monitor (did have black bands all around  - probably what caused the fuzzy text).  Scrolling and resizing windows is now greatly improved.

From searching the web I discovered that the ATI Radeon embedded video cards have known performance issues with FireFox and IE in Windows, especially when scrolling text and dragging and resizing windows.   While scrolling is improved, I still get a color change, and the performance is still no up to snuff.

Thanks for the suggestions, and the link to the download site.  The monitor is at least usable now. 

[Doublej]

I think that it should read the computer is at least usable now.

The monitor seems fine.

[srb]

From searching the web I discovered that the ATI Radeon embedded video cards have known performance issues with FireFox and IE in Windows, especially when scrolling text and dragging and resizing windows.   While scrolling is improved, I still get a color change, and the performance is still no up to snuff.

If you decide to upgrade in the future and don't need gaming or rendering performance, there are a number of PCI-E HDMI cards in the $30 to $40 range that will greatly outperform the integrated video chipsets.  If you install one of those, you can disable the motherboard on-board video in BIOS.
 
Steve

[John151]

I learned that the black bars appear only when using HDMI. The monitor must have to scale due to the bars, which is what causes the fuzzy text.  Just don't know why it does that.  I found posts on the net that other people have had this problem, but could not find any solutions and explanations. 

Just watched part of a movie (DVI) and the picture was outstanding.  Clearly my problems are related to the video card.  I am going to get a PCIe video card as I am tired of this nonsense. 

Again, thanks for the help. 

[John151]

Update:  I installed a PIC-e video card ($29 after rebate from Frys) and the picture quality is improved, as is the performance.  I would not expect that from a DVI video card.  The  new card is based on nVidia chips, and I am much happier with the nVidia software than the ATI software. 

The new card has a small but noisy fan, so I am going to take it back and get a silent card (no fan) since the rest of my PC is silent (purchased from EndPCNoise.com).