9600xt-"fuzzy" Text and Icons.

[vincevega]

I just built a new box with a 9600xt. I replaced a Dell P3 450. Im still using the same monitor. Now the text and icons seems a bit fuzzy, washed out. Its not horrible but something just doesn’t seem right. This happens generally with the larger bold text. I have the latest drivers and Ive tried messing with the monitor settings and still can’t fix the problem. I can’t believe I was getting a sharper image with a 16meg Diamond Viper card. One more thing to note; I have no problems with games everything looks great.
Any ideas??

Thanks.

[Iniamyen]

Sorry if this is too obvious, but is your monitor cranked up to too high a resolution? That will cause some blur.
Probably, not related, but do you have fast writes turned off in your display settings (display>advanced>smartgart)?

[vincevega]

800x600

[Force Flow]

What is AA set at?

[vincevega]

This is my first ATI card, I haven't touched anything. Its set at it default.

[imbest123]

Did you try installing the newest ATI drivers?

[vincevega]

Yes, I have the latest drivers.

[Force Flow]

Are you using an LCD or CRT monitor?

[vincevega]

CRT

[Force Flow]

What is your refresh rate set at?

[vincevega]

60 mhz

[Force Flow]

Try bumping it up to 75.

display properties > "settings" tab > advanced > "monitor" tab

[vincevega]

That didn't work. OK, real dumb question? Im reading the 9600xt manual and it says I have to install VGA drivers?
Im used to via builds this is my first nforce2. Do I need to install VGA drivers?

[Force Flow]

Did you stick in the driver CD that came with the video card an install the drivers off it?

If not, that's probably the problem.

[vincevega]

I installed the chipset drivers (Albatron KX18D Pro). No problems. I then put in the Sapphire driver disk in and started the install. I then got an error message. Then another error message came up (Something about “Cannot find VGA driver)”. Device manager shows “Unknown adapter” “VGA Controller”. I again tried to install the display and GART drivers that were on the nforce2 disk by using explorer and going to there respected folders. No good. I then installed the Catalyst 4.1 drivers. No problem. Everything installed fine. But I now have the problem with the text. One other thing to note, When I completely removed the ATI drivers, the image and sharpness and text “blurriness” is exactly the same as with the Catalyst drivers installed. Do you have to install a standard VGA driver before you install the ATI drivers? Why wouldn’t the chipset drivers have this included? All of my previous builds have been Via and Nvidia video cards so driver installation was a breeze.

[Force Flow]

Does your board have onboard video?

If not, the chipset will have nothing to do with the video card drivers.

Go into the device manager and see if there are any error alerts.

[vincevega]

No onboard video. Ive got Catalyst 4.1 running right now. No errors in device manager.

[Force Flow]

Ok, go into your device manager and remove everything under display adapters. Reboot. When you start up, stick in the radeon video card driver CD and install the drivers.

[vincevega]

Force_Flow2002 thanks for the responses, your the only one responding to my posts. I did what you said last night. Removed drivers, deleted the ATI folder then tried to install the drivers from the disk. I then get this kind of error: Something about “Cannot find VGA driver” I don’t have the exact verbage because im posting this from work. If I go ahead and just install the Catalyst 4.1 drivers Everything installs with no problem. Still have the fuzzy text though.

[Force Flow]

Ok I'm going to take this in another direction.

How big do you have your text? Is it magnified, or normal 800x600 default?

[vincevega]

Its 800 x 600 default. Its only text that is Bold face. Everything that isn't bold is clear.

[Force Flow]

So it's only bold text that appears "fuzzy".

'Could you into work and type something in regular text and also type something else in bold? I'd like to see a screenshot.

[vincevega]

Ill do that when I get home tonite.

[vincevega]

Here's my blurry text.

[vincevega]

Here's another

[vincevega]

ALL SET!!! Thanks force_flow2002. I unchecked "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts."

[Force Flow]

Glad to hear you got it working :)