Blurred text

retsbed

hi guys,

I had to reset my dell dimension 5150 back to it's original factory settings on sunday due to a sp3 crashing my system into the bsod (cheers microsoft!). I have managed to reinstate settings/progs as before however the most niggling little thing that I can't get to the bottom of is that the text is blurry in every program, browser etc on the pc....I have played around with all the settings under display/control panel etc also changed the screen revolution, refresh rate etc but nothing has changed :huh:.

Any ideas/advice most welcome :beer:

thomas01155

Have you installed the latest graphics card drivers? try pressing auto adjust on the screen if it has it.

marksimpson

Bizarrely, this is caused by a Microsoft setting called "Cleartype". Yes, they think it's clearer like that, and by default turn it on in IE7. Even worse, Safari for PC won't let you turn it off.

To turn it off in IE7:

Tools, Internet Options, Advanced. Under the Multimedia settings, deselect "Always use Cleartype for HTML". OK that, then restart your browser.

OR if it's affecting everything...

Control Panel, Display, Appearance, Effects. Deselect the font smoothing nonsense and OK.

marksimpson

Should have really posted that in the reverse order... even if you turn it off in Control Panel it may still be blurred in IE7 unless you do both things above.

retsbed

for some reason the auto adjust setting is there but not available...hmmmmmmmmm

i haven't done anything with the drivers, where would i find them? i have just used dell's driver reset tool and it says no errors found

retsbed

mmmmmm ok, i''ve tried the link from loaner and the suggestions from marksimpson and it looks slightly better than before but not by much. Any idea where to change it in ffox?
Before the reset things were a lot clearer though...oh i hate microsoft!

f1charlie

You could try the Cleartype Tuner to see if that improves things.
Online version:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/step1.aspx

Or downloadable version:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx