Windows Vista Fuzzy Fonts / Blurry Fonts / ClearType problems

[ozmoyra]

Okay, I've looked on about fifty million sites to figure this out and I'm out of ideas.

I have Windows 7, SP1. For any text, the text is blurry on my LCD Monitor, but looks perfectly fine on my laptop monitor. I'm using an HDMI cable and extending the screen.

I've tried pretty much every combination of ClearType settings (the which is better or worse series, turning it off, chaning resolution) and I cannot get text on this monitor to look sharp.

The kicker of it all is, when I run Ubuntu (10.04), everything's great. When I run Windows 7 inside a VM (using VMWare) on Ubuntu, the VM display looks great at full screen (though there are some UI flicker problems there sometimes).

So, somehow, Ubuntu is figuring out how to do the right thing, but Windows is just failing.

Notepad, IE, Chrome, Outlook, doesn't matter, it's always blurry, but sharp as a knife on the laptop screen.

Help a girl out? If there was one giant flow chart for troubleshooting, I can do that.

 

[Trouble]

ozmoyra:
Hello and welcome to the forum.
Check here Link Removed
Step 1: Notebook Graphics
Step 2: Radeon HD Series
Step 3: Mobility Radeon HD 4xxx Series
Step 4: Windows 7 (your flavor 32 or 64 bit)
See if the driver they release about 5 days ago seems to help the issue.
Regards
Randy

 

[ozmoyra]

Thanks Trouble! I thought I got the latest AMD drivers directly (downloaded the latest Catalyst bloatware at least), but I didn't go about it precisely this way -- I'll boot back over to Windows shortly and try it out.

 

[ozmoyra]

Hi Trouble, reporting back in -- after rebuilding and trying a couple different ways to install the AMD drivers, my fonts seem a /little/ nicer but they're still pretty blurry at the top.

I'm going to try to convince my employer to get me a new monitor. I intend to go to the store and plug my laptop in to see how it looks.It's frustrating that Ubuntu 10.04 seems to work so well and Windows7 isn't. Thanks for your help, though. Any other advice before I grift my boss?

 

[ozmoyra]

Hi Trouble --

So, it turns out, hooking my big fancy LCD monitor up to a VGA interface solves the blurry text issue. The screen feels a little vibratey now that I'm used to the HDMI output, but at least it doesn't actively attack my poor eyeballs.

I'll go shopping around for an HDMI interface that doesn't suck. I wonder if Windows 7 is just being too smart for HDMI, trying to do some funny digital optimization that Ubuntu is too dumb to try.

 

[Trouble]

Thanks for continuing to update your thread and keeping us up to date with the progress you are making.
Being an Nvidia guy, I'm not at all familiar with the Catalyst Control Center and what options regarding more granular settings might be available to you through that interface and have been hoping that some of our members that are serious ATI users might have some additional suggestions as to what you might try to resolve your issue.
I suspect that if, as you say, you are using a VGA (interface / cables) you are probably not getting the best performance from either your adapter or your current monitor so if your laptop supports an HDMI output (port) and your current monitor supports an HDMI input (port) switching to and HDMI cable might help some.
Please continue to keep us posted and good luck.
Regards
Randy