ok, here's a puzzler....

[handrail]

i have two machines. one at work, one at home. they both have the same problem. when i click on a minimized window and it opens, the screen seems to shrink ever so slightly, it kinda moves, like it's changing the vertical size settings on the monitor (as in the little gray shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen moves up about 3 or so millimeters).

both machines have the same mobo, A7N8X deluxe, same cpu xp2500, same ram. both are 17" monitors, different brands tho. the home machine has an asus fx5800 non-ultra 128mb gfx card...the work machine has a crappy chaintech gf4 mx440 64mb. drivers have been updated on both and it has happened ever since the machines were built. it did it with older drivers, it does it with the newest ones. Rich (as in Rich, one of the techlounge moderators who is sitting right next to me) has the same mobo and chipset with a ti4200 and his doesn't do this, but his is on a 19" monitor.

only seems to have this little shfting problem on the desktop, not during applications.

and, we just discovered this. if i change the desktop background color to black and minimize or resize a browser window with a white background, it shifts the screen size. if i minimize or resize a browser window with a black background, the screen isn't affected. same thing happens if i have a white desktop with white browser background...no shifting...with a dark browser background, it shifts. weird.

anyone else have this problem? any ideas what the hell it is?

[web56n]

no idea what it is?
this may sound corny...
but open browser and internet options under advanced scroll to auto resize uncheck and shut down. then start up and go back and check the box again shut down one more time.
I had something close to the same problem, and that worked....
otherwise I have no clue!

[handrail]

crap. that didn't work. it doesn't do it with just browser windows. any window that minimizes creates the problem, depending on the color.

so odd. thanks for the idea.

[web56n]

crap. that didn't work. it doesn't do it with just browser windows. any window that minimizes creates the problem, depending on the color.

so odd. thanks for the idea.


hmm. try this, open any folder,
then click tools/folder options/view/
scroll down til you see box
{launch folder window in separate process}
if it is checked, uncheck it and test.
and if it's not checked, check it and test.

[handrail]

nope, that no workie either. i think it must be a video card thing. just can figure why it does it on 2 different cards.

[Cabot_Teg118]

Mabey your computer is possesed :shock:

[Kurtis]

thats very wierd... no clue.

[web56n]

Mabey your computer is possesed :shock:
I'd be lookin for a cross! :twisted: J/K

[handrail]

like dr. evil's chair.


...gonna vomit....

[bigapl]

try a higher frequency on your monitor
see if that helps
are you running xp? go into displays in advanced and disable ddc

[deftno9]

have u tried using the monitor on a different system?

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

have u tried using the monitor on a different system?

i was gonnna say use a different monitor lol
or try same monitor on different computer

...maybe its just ur eyes...with the different colors and all...

try a higher refresh rate...or lower...

try rich's monitor on ur system

[handrail]

well, it's definitely NOT my eyes, as rich sees it too.

changing the res to 1024x768 helps, but it still jumps a bit.

i am running win2kpro on both machines.

i'll give a try on a different machine, see if that gives any new variables

[Kurtis]

try this...

maximize window like normal... and set your monitor to the vert and horizontal settings u want...

then minimize, and reset the monitor to how you want again...

Now maximize, then minimize... see if you still have the problem. Its a long shot, but what the hell :P

[deftno9]

yea its strange that a hardware problem is happening on 2 seperate systems w/ dif monitors. hardwards controlled by the hardware itself, the bios and the drivers/windows pluginplay "controller". if switching monitors to a system that runs fine doesnt fix it I'd prob say the monitors either old and not 100% compatiable w/ windows plug&play or its "busted".

[handrail]

ok, well here's the deal. the monitor i have at home is a crap KDS i got used from the city auction, came from the library. so i would expect it from that one. it only cost me $30 to begin with. BUT, the one at work is a nice viewsonic, that was only about a year old and hardly used before i put it on this machine.

the view sonic one was on a different machine, and didn't have the same problems. so, i am convinced it must be the mobo....as both of the problem machines have the same mobo, A7N8X deluxe. the odd thing is, rich's machine doesn't do it at all, and he has virtually an identical set up, same mobo, cpu, ram...his is just runnin' a 19" monitor. i have already done a BIOS update on both machines, but that didn't help it.

maybe it's just the mobo in combo with a 17" monitor?

anyway, it's not like it ruins the machines, it's just annoying as hell. not so much annoying to use, just annoying that i can't fix it.

thanks all for the suggestions and help. :D :!:

[ldonyo]

Out of curiosity, what refresh rate are you running each monitor at? Also, are there a lot of active electronic devices near either monitor? Or unshielded speakers? Something that generates an EM field could cause your monitor to behave in a strange fashion.

I had something like this happening to my 17" Philips 107T at my old house. It was an intermittent jiggling kind of effect in the desktop that caused the task bar to kind of jump up a bit and drop back. It was also visible across the entire screen as lines of herky-jerky pixels, but only in the lower third of the screen. I never did figure out the exact cause, but I had narrowed it down to some nearby appliances or the fact that I had two monitors right next to each other, and I seriously doubt it was the two monitors next to each other.

Anyway, since my wife and I moved earlier this summer, it hasn't returned. :D

[handrail]

damn, i don't want to have to move again!!!

no man, seriously. there are no items that could be interfering. as i have been analyzing it, it seems like it is a display problem. i can see the screen almost warp as i move highly contrasting window colors (like the black and white) over each other. so, if i move a white colored window over the black desktop background, i can see the areas around it almost shrink, then move back to normal size as the window moves away. it's almost like moving a magnifying glass around over the screen, it distorts the area visually.

it is soo bizarre.

the refresh rate of both monitors is set to 75hz at 1024x768rez.

[Rich]

I am right next to Handrail, and my monitor works fine. :P

[ldonyo]

I'm guessing that your color depth is set to 32-bit. The next test would be to try 16-bit and see if it still warps when you through color opposites at it.

[handrail]

already tried that too. :cry:

[ldonyo]

Try swapping monitors with Rich and see if it does that on his or his does that on your PC. If yours is wacky on his, it's the monitor. If his is wacky on your PC, it's probably the video card.

[T-shirt]

This sounds like a power supply issue. It could have to do with the computer, the monitor, or the outlet (s)
I'm leaning towards the MB/ as that seems to be the only common factor, but it could be to seperate problems with a similar symptom.

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

time to start swapping stuff
swap monitors first (have you done that yet??? lol...)
next video cards
next mobo
next psu

swap with rich, if hes right beside you it's perfect lol

[handrail]

ok, here's the deal. i have swapped vid cards before. the one that is currently in the work machine, mx440 POS, was in my home machine. both monitors have the same problem using this card. i would have thought that it was the crappy mx440 card, BUT...currently in the home machine there is an fx5800 and it does the same thing. :x

but...we may have found the answer! after switching between 6 different monitors, here is the result:

21" hitachi- result: no problems
19" samsung- result: no problems
15" sony lcd panel- result: no problems

17" sony trinitron- result: shifts the screen as before
17" viewsonic (original work monitor)- result: screen shifts
17" kds (original home monitor) result: screen shifts

SO....looks like the culprit is 17" monitors. for some reason, the mobo (???) must have problems with 17" monitors. and, as i have tested it with 3 different brands, i assume it is not the fault of the monitor companies.

SOOOO...if anyone has an asus A7N8x deluxe on a 17" monitor out there...please let me know if you have the same problem. pretty please?

i think we might have it sorted...i hope. now i can sleep at night.
the last test to run is to try a 17" monitor on rich's home machine, as it runs an A7N8x as well. his home set-up uses a 19", so he has never noticed any problems before.

thanks for all the ideas guys!!! :!: :!: :!: :D

[Rich]

So how did I get dragged into this mess?? Now we are going to screw my machine????? :?

[handrail]

just shut up and do my bidding! :twisted:

this is for science, damn it!!!!!!!! :!: :!: :!:

[scanner]

I may be way off target on this one but, if you are opening apps from the taskbar, right click on the app, click properties, click on the shortcut tab, go to the "Run" selection, click on the arrow and select "Maximized" then click apply. Repeat this on every app icon in the taskbar. I hope this solves your prob.

[handrail]

i've tried running the windows maximized. and while the shifting is less obvious, it still happens.

i've got it to where it's tolerable...now it's just mildly annoying.