SillyDog701

[Edward]

The monitors on both of my systems (Samtron 77V) flicker at the 1280x1024 resolution, regardless of whether I am using Windows or Linux.

As this is a 17" monitor model, I tried the 1024x768 resolution in Linux and found the icons and everything else too large (but in Windows, it works for me). I then changed the resolution to 1152x864 in Linux which is not listed as a supported resolution in the monitor brochure, but it works out better.

Because 1152x864 isn't specifically listed as supported by the monitor, would long-term use at this resolution cause damage to the monitor? The video cards contain nVIDIA chips (TNT2 and GeForce 2MX) and both support 1152x864.

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[Don_HH2K]

I'll be guessing that this is a flat-screen LCD.

LCDs are fixed-pixel devices, meaning that if your monitor is a 1280x1024 it will always have 1280x1024 no matter what (on the other hand, CRTs change the size of their pixels). If you set it at a different resolution, the LCD will do something called "scaling", which fits your 1152x864 picture to 1280x1024. There's nothing wrong with that, besides the fact that it may look a bit blurrier and distorted. Or, if you have a cheaper LCD, then you will see either a border of black if the image is smaller than 1280x1024 or everything will be off the screen if larger. It won't do any damage if you do that.

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[Edward]

The Samtron 77V is a CRT monitor. Samtron is a Samsung brand.

http://www.samtron.com/product/77v_spec.html

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[Don_HH2K]

OK then.

In the case of a CRT, the monitor can change the size of its pixels. Since that is the case, you will only be limited by its maximum resolution, and it should be able to change to something that is proportional to 4x4 (at least, I think it's 4 by 4, I could be wrong). The only way you could potentially damage the screen is if you were to specify an incompatible refresh rate, in which case the monitor could burn out by flicking on and off too much.

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