Monitor care (continued)

If cleaning the surface of the monitor seemed overwhelming, consider care for the most important item – the DVI or D-Sub cable. With any CRT or LCD monitor, the monitor cable must not be damaged even the slightest bit. Fortunately for LCDs, the cable is rarely integrated inside the housing of the monitor (so it can be replaced if need be), but proper care must be pursued in order to assure the best signal quality.


Click to enlarge.

Don’t plug something like this in.

The primary rule of monitor cables is this: make sure they are totally plugged in and screwed down when connected. A connector that is slightly askew will result in a poor signal and ultimately damage the monitor and cable. Ideally speaking, we should all completely unplug both the monitor and the computer before connecting the VGA connector.

However, since many of us get lazy and leave the computer on while switching cables, occasionally a spark will jump from the cable to the video card from time to time. This will usually damage the cable, if not immediately. The result? A poor image usually with some kind of ghosting or other signal interference (assuming your monitor’s signal processor) isn’t fried. Some people learn on the first try to disconnect everything completely before messing with monitor connectors.


Click to enlarge.


Monitor care Monitor cables
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  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    A good article.I my self use CML174.
    Made a lot of difference to my eyes compared to CRT.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Outstanding reading, thanks.
  • mechBgon - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Nice work, Kristopher. : )
  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    #5 fixed it - sorry.

    #7 fixed that one too. Yeah rubbing pixels really doesnt do much good. I think NewEgg is going to be pissed when they find out I messed up their monitor pretty good.

    #6 Say it aint so!! We want to be the only ones ;)

    Kristopher
  • Shalmanese - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Finally! It took long enough for you to get this out :). Great article, finally an article about LCD's which isn't full of opinion and hearsay.
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    ok, maybie you did mean that. Hard to tell, you say you scuffed the monitor, then go on to tell other people how to do it...

    I problay just need some sleep...
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Rubbing the pixils does more good then harm then?

    <<<Personally, it seems that rubbing the pixels does more good than harm so continue at your own risk.>>>

    Might want to fix that one
  • dvinnen - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    good to hear it. Seems like alot of the hardware sites are getting there act together.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    On page 6, where you talk about the cables in the picture (the sentence right below the picture), shouldn't the good cable be the *upper* one or am I missing something?
  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 4, 2003 - link

    Yeah, new editors and kind of a revamped AT staff. We went through a lull period after we lost Matthew, but now we have some really good writers and a lot of great content to write about.

    Just wait till Computex and COMDEX - 3 and 4 reviews per day sounds about right.

    Kristopher

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