I'm using an HP Pavilion 4540 with the monitor that came with it. The
contrast is set too high. As a result, the shady areas of many
pictures appear pitch black. When I try to adjust the contrast using
the buttons on the monitor, all I can do is make the screen darker.
I'm running Windows 2000. I used to have Windows 98, and, in that OS,
I think there was a way of adjusting the contrast in some control
menu, but I have yet to find something like that in Win 2k. Any ideas
on how to fix my monitor's contrast?

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Request for Question Clarification by duncan2-ga on 07 Jan 2003 15:05 PST

As you're probably aware, brightness controls should be used to adjust
the 'black point' of the monitor; i.e. you want the brightness set to
the highest level that still keeps solid black, black.  (Match it to
the color in the areas around the edges of your screen.)  Contrast is
used to adjust the difference between black and white.  Usually you'll
want the contrast set at it's highest.  Too little contrast will tend
to dim or 'grey' the image.

Barring physical problems with your monitor, is it possible that
you're running some software which adjusts the video color?  Certain
graphics software will install drivers and software which adjust the
'gamma' of your display; that is to say that the video signal from the
video card may actually be incorrect.  (Adobe Photoshop's "Adobe Gamma
Loader", for instance).  If this is the case, you'll need to configure
the software as well as the monitor.

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Clarification of Question by gremlin-ga on 07 Jan 2003 16:41 PST

I currently have brightness set at maximum. Part of the reason I think
contrast is the problem is that, inside Microsoft office, I can play
with the brightness and contrast of individual pictures. If I increase
the brightness without decreasing the contrast, the only way to make
shady area visible is to make well-lit areas solid white.

I think my monitor's default color setting has always been like this,
except, when I was running Win 98, I could adjust it to something more
reasonable.

Just in case, let me run down some of the programs I've got: Adobe
Acrobat, but not Photoshop. MS Office. VNC. Ghostscript. RealPlayer.
Quicktime. Netscape. Windows Media Player. Exceed. Divx. Also, there
are programs called "b3d projector" and "The Playa" installed,
although I'm not sure what they are. In the past, I had Diablo II and
Counterstrike installed, but these are no longer installed. There are
other programs installed; I tried to list ones that might do things
with graphics.

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Request for Question Clarification by duncan2-ga on 07 Jan 2003 20:54 PST

You really want the brightness low; if it's near maximum it will tend
to 'wash out' the image, making it too light.  (Moreover, if the
brightness is really high, the contrast adjustments will make less
difference, which sounds similar to what you describe.)

It doesn't seem like you have any graphics software which might be
changing the gamma output of your video card (though you could check
the display settings in the control panels, probably in the advanced
section.) Some video cards have gamma adjustment settings hidden
there.

First though, I'd recommend you read over this page, which is part of
a Desktop Publishing site and details a simple procedure for correctly
setting brightness and contrast:
http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/calibration/blackpoint/crt_brightness_and_contrast.htm

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Clarification of Question by gremlin-ga on 07 Jan 2003 23:21 PST

My contrast and my brightness are both currently set at maximum. I
used the link you gave me to calibrate my blackpoint, but it didn't
work properly: It basically said that I should increase my monitor's
brightness to the point where blacks started to turn faintly gray, and
then decrease it slightly so it was shy of that point. My monitor
never hit that point - even with brightness set to maximum, blacks are
still black. When I played video games in the past, the graphics were
always a little too dark. So perhaps part of the problem is that my
monitor's brightness scale is shifted too far towards black.

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Clarification of Question by gremlin-ga on 07 Jan 2003 23:39 PST

My graphics card appears to be a "ATI Technologies Inc. 3D RAGE IIC
AGP". Looking in the "advanced" settings for my display, I found an
option to load a new "default color profile", but I didn't find
anything mention of adjusting brightiness or contrast.

Resetting the display adapter and any monitor drivers will reset any
settings that have been set in windows.

To do this, reboot to safe mode:
start tapping f8 when the computer is turning on (at the blue 'hp
invent' logo,) then select "safe mode" and press enter when you get
the boot options menu.

When the Windows 2000 Safe mode loads, right click on "my computer,"
go to properties, select "hardware" then the "device manager" button.

In device manager, click on the plus sign next to display adapters.
For everything listed in there (under normal conditions, there will
only be one,) right click on the name of the driver, and go to
"uninstall" (actually I'm not certain, it may be "remove" in Windows
2000.)

Do this, also, for anything inside "monitors" if you have it in device
manager. Low-end monitors generally aren't listed, don't worry if
yours isn't.

If you want to know ahead of time if this is going to work - safe mode
will load with display adapter defaults, and if you load safe mode to
no affect of it looking normal - reinstalling these drivers won't
work.

Reboot the computer and it should automatically reinstall the drivers.

If this doesn't work, well, I work for HP's tech support - try
contacting their email support, you will get an answer. They'll likely
just say it's your monitor - get a new one or call in for t/s. If you
call in, there'll be a 29.95 USD$ fee for out of warranty support (and
although your computer came with I believe Windows 95, maybe 98 [going
by the old model number,] current processes allow t/s of different
opperating systems if you are out of warranty.)