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Resolved Question

Local shop fixed my 9 yr old Dell with Windows XP...

Nov 26, 2011 6:30AM PST

so I bought a 23" flat screen to replace my old huge monitor. The Dell has a DVI with 24 pin and a slot with 4 pins around it. The new monitor has a DVI with 24 pins and just the slot (no 4 pins around it). Local shop sold me a DVI cable, but it only has 18 pins + slot on each end. After connecting the cable it doesn't seem to be any better than the VGA that came with the monitor. Does each end of the DVI need to be exactly the same as the connector it is plugged in to? Does it matter which graphic card the Dell has?

Thanks,
Diaen

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dkpainter has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Once upon a time
Nov 26, 2011 8:00AM PST

Once upon a time there was a very noticeable difference between VGA and DVI connections on LCD monitors, but for the most part these days they're indistinguishable. The major benefit to DVI over VGA, is there's never any need for the "auto adjust" to get the image properly centered. I also believe DVI is capable of much higher resolutions, not that it matters with pretty much everything plateauing at 1080p. Also, if your video card supports it, and with the right adapter, you can use some of that excess bandwidth to stream digital audio over DVI. As far as image quality goes though, unless you really look hard, the image is going to be more or less identical.

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The difference I noticed right off was
Nov 26, 2011 8:49AM PST

that I can see the dots in the font on my screen, and my background (set in appearance & themes, display, desktop - Azul) is blurry. The sailboat on the left side is very blurry.

On the other hand when I pull up a photo of my art work it is not noticeable. I did just change the font size to "Large Fonts" in Display Properties. Now the dots are not as noticeable. I could live with this, but the blurry background on the screen makes me think the cable is not correct (?) or does it have anything to do with the graphics card? It has NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200.

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A Geforce3 Ti200 is from the "once upon a time" time.
Nov 26, 2011 8:59AM PST

This is over a decade old so you won't find many folk in shops today that will support this. You are now the support for this very old card and system. Change settings and cables as you see fit.
Bob

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I have come to the conclusion that regarding the background
Nov 27, 2011 2:38AM PST

picture being blurry... it's the resolution of the Microsoft picture, because all of my artwork is crystal clear with the exception of the small resolution pic's I use for my website. Not sure why the font still looks like connected dots, but I think I can live with it. The 23" screen is really nice.

Thanks for all the help!!

Diane

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That helped! Try this.
Nov 27, 2011 2:41AM PST

Go get IRFRANVIEW to use for the resizing of am image. I find IRFANVIEW to be better than "picture."
Bob

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Answer
The DVI-D plug has ...
Nov 26, 2011 6:56AM PST

24 pins and a broad flat slot pin and is not compatible with analog signals.

"A DVI-I socket, which does have four pin sockets around the flat ground pin. When a device has a DVI-I socket, it may be any of three types, and<b>
which of these it is can ordinarily be determined by consulting your
user's manual</b>:

(1) DVI-D only; this device has no signal available on the analog pins, but uses a DVI-I socket only to allow a DVI-I cable to be used

(2) DVI-A only; this device has no DVI-D digital signal available, and is simply using a DVI socket as a port for accepting a regular analog signal format (usually RGBHV, which would include VGA). The device may be connected to any RGBHV device, using a DVI-I cable, a DVI/VGA cable, or a DVI breakout to five separate lines for R, G, B, H and V

(3) True DVI-I; this device has both analog and digital capability through this port. It may autosense, using a digital signal if present or an analog signal if no digital signal is found, or the digital/analog mode may have to be selected manually by a switch or menu selection."

The Dell manual (or Dell support) should tell you the type of connection on the motherboard and if not here is a link that might help you out:
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi-cables/index.htm

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I don't have an actual 'user's manual.
Nov 26, 2011 9:53AM PST

It came with a monitor set up manual, but it does not mention the connectors. I went on Dell's website, found the user's manual, but could not find anything that mentioned the connectors or output. Maybe I don't know what I am looking for (?). I went to your link, but that info was even more confusing to me.

I called Sam's Club Tech Support a few days ago(that's where i bought this monitor). The first thing Tech Support told me that a 9 yr old Dell won't work with this 23" flat screen, and told me to return it. She said it would probably work with a 20" screen. (She didn't ask anything about the connectors).

My local computer repair shop tech said since it has a DVI connector it should work.

After reading your info above and from what the Sam's Club tech told me... could it be that the DVI connector on my Dell is analog & the flat screen is digital so they won't work together? Or is it that the flat screen is too big & it's the resolution that is the problem?

Looking at the graphics, it's the Microsoft background picture that is blurry. (And the font, although after I changed the font to 'large' it did improve). My own artwork doesn't look like that, but it has a high resolution.

I thought this was going to be easy.... I just wanted a bigger flat screen monitor, and didn't realize it would be this much trouble.

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In your first post you said ...
Nov 27, 2011 7:10AM PST

"The Dell has a DVI with 24 pin and a slot with 4 pins around it." -- that is a DVI-I socket and should provide analog signals (number 3 in my original post).

"The new monitor has a DVI with 24 pins and just the slot (no 4 pins around it)" -- that is a DVI-D socket and does not support analog

Your easiest solution is to get a monitor with the SAME DVI connection type as your computer.

If the current 23 inch monitor has an HDMI connector you could even get a DVI to HDMI cable for the connection.