Satellite A660 display seems to go out of "calibration"

[a***@gmail.com]

I often hibernate rather than shutdown or restart, even if I switch to and from an administrator account to update Windows 7, Firefox, and antimalware. I find that the screen tends to get all washed out, as if someone cranked up the brightness and reduced the contrast. It's not quite the same in that the actual visual problem resembles a painted billboard that is being weathered down, like white dithering. It goes away after a reboot.

Is there some graphic thing that I can reset manually rather than going through a full reboot?

[the wharf rat]

Post by a***@gmail.com
quite the same in that the actual visual problem resembles a painted
billboard that is being weathered down, like white dithering. It goes
away after a reboot.

Typically what happens is that Windows wants to autodetect your
monitor and comes up with a different (usually bogus default) idea than
it does from a "clean" boot. The ONLY way I've ever been able to deal with
this is to bring up either the vendor's display utility (video card or
laptop vendor) or the Windows one and manually set my display parameters.
It usually bites me on KVMs because

I don't use hibernate since it almost never works right and sometimes
majorly screws up. If sleep won't do then I just turn it off.

[a***@gmail.com]

Post by the wharf rat
Typically what happens is that Windows wants to autodetect your
monitor and comes up with a different (usually bogus default) idea
than it does from a "clean" boot. The ONLY way I've ever been able
to deal with this is to bring up either the vendor's display utility
(video card or laptop vendor) or the Windows one and manually set my
display parameters. It usually bites me on KVMs because
I don't use hibernate since it almost never works right and
sometimes majorly screws up. If sleep won't do then I just turn it
off.

Hi, Wharf Rat,

Would you say that your explanation possibly applies if we're talking about the integral screen for the laptop, not an external screen?

[Bob_Villa]

On Wednesday, October 9, 2013 11:43:25 PM UTC-5, ***@gmail.com wrote:

In my experience (don't know about WR) but it would seem that writing code for graphics cards is rocket science...hence when you come out-of hibernation "they" look around and say, "where the phuq am I?"
(it shouldn't matter whether internal or external)

[the wharf rat]

Post by Bob_Villa
In my experience (don't know about WR) but it would seem that writing
code for graphics cards is rocket science...hence when you come out-of
hibernation "they" look around and say, "where the phuq am I?"
(it shouldn't matter whether internal or external)

Luckily, they have rocket scientists building them. (Some of the
smartest people I know work for Nvidia and ATI.) Actually, in this case
the graphics cards are fine. It's really that the monitor drivers fail to
correctly detect attached monitors under certain conditions. So the monitor
comes up in some lame low-res SVGA mode. It seems to me to happen much more
frequently on a "modern" LCD/digital connection than to a CRT and a 15 pin
cable, or even to an LCD on a vga cable.

[Bob_Villa]

Post by the wharf rat

Post by Bob_Villa
In my experience (don't know about WR) but it would seem that writing
code for graphics cards is rocket science...hence when you come out-of
hibernation "they" look around and say, "where the phuq am I?"
(it shouldn't matter whether internal or external)

Luckily, they have rocket scientists building them. (Some of the
smartest people I know work for Nvidia and ATI.)

Why do ATI drivers have this ongoing problem?

Loading Image...

[the wharf rat]

Post by Bob_Villa
Why do ATI drivers have this ongoing problem?

Nothing. It's a problem with the monitor drivers, or how
Windows uses them. You *do* fix it using the display control utilities,
so I guess the graphics drivers become involved...

[Bob_Villa]

Post by the wharf rat
Nothing. It's a problem with the monitor drivers, or how
Windows uses them. You *do* fix it using the display control utilities,
so I guess the graphics drivers become involved...

Thanks for setting me straight...it is slowly sinking-in (it's the old gray matter I fear)

[a***@gmail.com]

Thanks, Bob, WR. It is very discouraging. Basically, hibernate is useless unless you're OK with a bad graphical display. :(

[Bob_Villa]

Post by a***@gmail.com
Thanks, Bob, WR. It is very discouraging. Basically, hibernate is useless unless you're OK with a bad graphical display. :(

After installing the latest monitor driver I don't get a Windows timing error when coming-out of stand-by...that's good enough for me! ;^)

[a***@gmail.com]

Post by a***@gmail.com
Thanks, Bob, WR. It is very discouraging. Basically, hibernate is useless unless you're OK with a bad graphical display. :(

Just had a bout of this and "tested" it a bit more -- to the extent that I can contribute a bit more detail, in case it stimulates any thoughts about the nature of the problem (again, it's not so extreme that I want to restore). Basically, I was using google maps and the maps appeared so washed out that it was hard to make out the streets. The problem usually afflicts google maps most severely, though I do notice it a bit with some other apps e.g. Acrobat reader. I took a screen shot of the washed out google maps. When I rebooted, the problem was gone, and the screen shot that I saved did not appear washed out. Anyway, it happens somewhat infrequently, so I'm not desparate enough for a restore. It's rare enough that it wouldn't be clear whether a restore fixed the problem.