I fixed it! But...

[elissaann]

My screen stopped flickering after I downloaded a video driver from the Dell website.

Now it doesn't look quite right. Everything's a little fatter, and not quite as clear.

Although I can live with this, I wish I knew why it worked, and how to make it even better.

Comments

[australian_joe]

That sounds like the aspect ratio has changed - it's probably been set to a similar but not-quite-the-same resolution.

If you can get into the video properties (for most versions of Windows, that's a right click anywhere on "empty" screen), you should be able to get into a settings page. (It's more complicated under Vista, and I don't know Windows 7 well enough to advise.) Try resolutions close to what you currently have. If you say it all looks wider, then go for a more narrow resolution (ie. where the second number is smaller).

"Not quite as clear" could be a number of things, but get the resolution correct first - that alone might be causing the clarity issue.

[elissaann]

I've played with those settings, and I haven't found one that works.

[australian_joe]

Hmm. If each of them is not quite right, you may have to play with the controls on the monitor itself to change the horizontal size...

[necturus]

Under Windows XP, right click on a vacant spot on your desktop, and select "Properties".

On the Display Properties window that will open, select the Settings tab.

In the lower left of that window, look at the Screen Resolution setting. Move it toward "Less" or "More" and hit Apply. You will be given 15 seconds to confirm the new setting, or it will revert to the old one. This is to keep from accidentally selecting a setting your monitor doesn't support.

[elissaann]

I've played with those settings.

My suspicion is that this isn't the right driver, even though it's the one that popped up on the Dell site when I put in my code. Close, but not perfect.

[necturus]

In my experience, if you find it using Dell's service tag number, it'll be right.

Is yours a CRT monitor? Whet happens if you turn both computer and the monitor off for, say, half an hour, and then reboot?