New Monitor - Waves?

[yoclick]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a Samsung SM2253BW 22" Monitor. Primary usage is Xbox 360, but also using it as a computer monitor for my laptop via VGA.

Basically, the screen looks great on the xbox; possibly a tad blurry but not too bad. On the laptop it looks a bit sharper but I have these "waves" travelling up the screen. Difficult to describe but its kind of like watching a recording of a monitor, but is nowhere that severe. It is extremely annoying though!

Its happening mainly on light blue/grey backgrounds. On a white/black background I cant see it at all. Im running it at native res: 1680x1050@60hz. All the drivers are installed and im currently using Windows XP MCE.

Any ideas on how to resolve this problem?

[ionicle]

its 60Hz
can you not increase it to 75?...

its just the refresh rate being visible

[yoclick]

Doesn't appear like my laptop will allow over 60hz? Under windows its only giving the option of 59hz and 60hz. GPU on laptop is a Geforce Go 7300

I do have powerstrip installed from when I used to use my laptop on my TV which may allow it? But its been so long since I used it, and I dont have enough knowledge to do the Advanced Timings myself

[yoclick]

Ok, I think its powerstrip causing the problems!
I just loaded it up and clicked advanced timings. It stated the horizontal refresh rate as 63.something hz and the vertical rate as 58.something hz? I slowly DECREASED the horizontal refresh rate, and its no longer got any waves??

Looks like the problems somehow solved, dont have a clue what the problem was...

Thanks anyway ionicle. Looks like it did have something to do with refresh rates.

Can anyone tell me why it happened, and how by decreasing the horizontal rate is now working? Also shouldnt the vertical and horizontal rates both be exactly 60hz?

[james_d]

Basically vertical rate is how often each line is updated, horizontal rate is how often each pixel does.

Pixels are updated much more frequently than lines. You'll probably find that value was 63.something kHz - it's much higher than vertical rate. Horizontal rate is roughly vertical rate x horizontal resolution with 25% added on. If you know the exact mode timings you can work it out exactly.