Lisa,

The other responses you have seen on this could all be the cause, but wait,
there's more.  I know some of this will be rendundant, so I apologize.

Part of this could be your refresh rate.  This combined with flourescent
lighting will cause this problem.  Flourescent lights, unlike candescent
lights, use constantly recharged gas particles to create the light.  The
recharge rate is between 60-70 times a second, hence 60hz to 70hz.  When
your monitor's refresh is set to a 'slightly' offsetting rate, you will get
this wave (if it's exact the monitor will look like it's blinking on and
off).  Usually it is from top to bottom, but it can appear from side to side
as well.  Setting the refresh rate higher can help, but be sure not to set
it higher than what your monitor can handle.  This could damage your monitor
(windows will warn you of this when changing the setting manualy).

This problem can also be caused by interference from both magnetic and radio
signals.  Hence, a radio station tower nearby will cause the problem.
Usually this is due to a division of the transmitted signal being slightly
offset with respects to your actual refresh rate.  Raising the refresh rate
should again alleviate this problem.

If the problem is from a magnetic source, usually the best way to solve it
is to remove the interference.  It can be caused by a nearby speaker that is
unshielded, a fan, power source, etc.  Moving either the offending source or
the monitor itself would solve the problem.

Where I work we have a bank of monitors next to a wall that has several
high-power cables running through it.  The conduit's are not shielded, so
all of the monitors are wavey.  This has the dual affect of making it
annoying to look at as well as decreasing the life of the monitors.  Due to
a lack of space we must put up with both problems, but thankfully spare
monitors are in ready supply.

Hope this helps

Kyle Elmblade
[log in to unmask]

From: "Lisa Trigg" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 2:38 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] waves in video screen


> Greetings, I'm not sure what kind of problem this is, so I thought I'd
start
> with the pcbuild folks.  The problem is difficult to describe, but the
best
> way I can think of to describe it is that images on my monitor screen are
> undulating just slightly---it makes it look like heat waves or something.
> It's a side to side motion that is so faint that I thought it was just me
> bleary eyed from so much school work, and looking at the screen too much,
> but my housemate can see it as well, so I'm sure this is real.
>
> I have an IBM Aptiva, 300 mhz, with 160 mg RAM, and a 6.4 g hard drive.
> Normally, I'd just take it down to my computer shop, but I can't afford to
> give up the machine for a week in the middle of summer quarter, so I'm
> trying to hold out until mid August.  I'm just wondering what the worst
> could be, and am I being foolish not to get into the shop sooner?
>
> What do you all think?
>
> TIA,
>
> Lisa J. Trigg, RN, BSN, PSNP-ER student

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