Monitor cables

Question

I just got the 1704FPT Ultrasharp montior with my new Dimension 8400. It came with 3 monitor cables. I have a DVI slot in the back. My question is, am I supposed to use the DVI cable? Out of the box, the blue (VGA??) cable was already attached to the monitor. The text on my screen the way it is now is definitely NOT what I had hoped for. Will switching to the DVI cable help? I spent an hour on the phone with tech support, and they didn't mention anything about which cable I should be using.   Thanks!

A_Madsen · Answer

my monitor is messed up, so i cant really read what you said, but i made out somthing about the blue cable, and another cable. It says somewhere in the instruction manual that you can't use both cables at the same time, for example there should only be 2 cables connected to your monitor, the blue one, and the power cable...i hope that helped

jeffcx · Answer

Thanks, I was just wondering if I have a blue cable and a white DVI cable, which one should I be using? Since it's a digital monitor, shouldn't I use the DVI cable?

My confusion is because the blue cable was already attached when I took the monitor out of the box.

A_Madsen · Answer

both work just as good for me, but currently i'm using the blue one (no certain reason). So using the blue cable should be the same as using the white one. I'm only 16, and i'm not much of a computer genius so i really don't know the difference between them.

runsoc11 · Answer

Two things, if you have a graphics card that has an output for DVI which is the adapter that has the strange looking pins on both ends you can use that. It really doesn't matter, what does matter it that your resolution is set to 1240 X 1024. This is the highest setting usually and it makes a huge difference. (There is a disc that comes with the monitor that provides a driver and some important info for you).

If you need to know how to change your screen resolution, right click on the desktop and click "properties" --> then click the "settings" tab and you will see a slider that allows you to set your resolution.

Hope that helps.

flx123 · Answer

@jeffcx wrote:

I just got the 1704FPT Ultrasharp montior with my new Dimension 8400. It came with 3 monitor cables.

I have a DVI slot in the back. My question is, am I supposed to use the DVI cable? Out of the box, the blue (VGA??) cable was already attached to the monitor.

The text on my screen the way it is now is definitely NOT what I had hoped for. Will switching to the DVI cable help?

I spent an hour on the phone with tech support, and they didn't mention anything about which cable I should be using.

Thanks!

dvi is better. if your monitor/video card can handle dvi properly, always use dvi.

A_Madsen · Answer

the analogue(white) is better if you use your computer to play games

ChandlerL · Answer

DVI is entirely superior to an analog solution. You have a digital video card and a fixed pixel digital flat panel. You absolutely should use the DVI connection.   Using analog will degrade the signal in a number of ways.   1) Analog signals are a lossy system. Some of the signal is lost through the cable itself. Digital does not have that problem.   2) Since your video card and your flat panel are digital devices, in order for them to work in analog, the video signal must be converted from digital -> analog -> and then back to digital.   The reason why flat panel manufacturers are configuring them to support both is so they don't alienate users looking to upgrade their monitor. In the past, the majority of desktops computers were sold with budget video cards that only output analog (to hook up to CRT monitors). Now, due to DVI becoming more mainstream, that is all changing.   However, there is still an issue with laptops. The vast majority of laptops only output analog to a secondary (external) device. Only the most high performance laptops have DVI output (i.e. DELL Inspiron XPS Gen 2)-- I'm sure that will eventually change as well.   Bottom line: You have DVI? Use it. It's better.   Hope that helps.   -Chan  Message Edited by ChandlerL on 04-18-2005 03:09 PM

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