Why is the picture on my monitor fuzzy?

Answer: First of all, check to make sure there aren't any unshielded speakers or halogen lights near your monitor. These can really make your monitor do weird things. A television, audio receiver, or other electronics equipment nearby can also cause interference with your monitor because of the frequency of the signals they use. If there is nothing creating interference with the monitor, check the cable connections and make sure they are nice and tight. Also, try and get your wires as untangled as possible.

If none of these things seem to be the problem, your monitor settings may have been reset and you may have to make some adjustments using the control knob or buttons on the front of your monitor. The things you may need to adjust are your color settings, the convergence, and the moire settings. See your monitor's manual to see how to adjust these options.

Finally, if you monitor still won't show a clear picture, something may have gone wrong inside it.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to fix a bad monitor other than take it in to the shop. Before you do that though, see if you can hook the monitor up to another computer. This will help you determine if the problem is with the computer's video card and not the monitor.

Remember: Never open a monitor and try to fix it, as the electric charge stored inside it can be extremely high and very dangerous.

Published: March 25, 2000 — by Per Christensson