Fix weird colours, enable the highest resolutions and right a rotated display
There’s nothing on screen
If your PC display is completely blank, first check all the cables, including the power (we’ve all occasionally forgotten to flick the switch on). Next, look for a Source button, which is often to be found on a panel on the front of modern monitors. You might have accidentally hit this while switching on, resulting in your display switching to a different video source. Also remove all cables other than power and the one to the PC, to eliminate the possibility that your monitor is prioritising a different source.
Picture is rotated or upside down
Many graphics card drivers have built-in keyboard shortcuts that let you rotate your display’s orientation. This is very useful if you want to use your monitor in portrait mode (www.snipca.com/16083) or for some other custom setup. On the downside, these shortcuts are easy to execute by mistake when you meant to press other keys. To flip the display back to normal, press Ctrl+Alt+up (the ‘up’ arrow to the right of your main keyboard) or Shift+Alt+up. It’s usually pressing the wrong combination of these keys that caused the problem in the first place.
Display has a coloured tint
If your display has a blue, green or red overall tint, either permanently or just sometimes, check the cable to your graphics card as it may be loose. Push both connections firmly home and use any retaining thumb-screws to keep them in place. If this doesn’t fix the problem, see the next tip.
Colours don’t print accurately
Colour calibration is a measure of how accurately your monitor displays colour and contrast. It’s a bit like white balance in digital photography. If you’ve edited photos to look perfect on your PC, but they look too pink or too green when viewed on any other display or when you print them, it’s because your screen’s calibration is off. You can fix it using Windows’ built-in calibration tool. Go to the Control Panel, click ‘Hardware and Sound’ followed by Display and then ‘Calibrate color’. Follow the prompts in the wizard, clicking Next at each stage. Calibration is also very useful for tweaking your display so it looks right under artificial ambient lighting.
Can’t use maximum resolution
If Windows won’t display at your monitor’s maximum resolution there are a couple of possibilities. First, confirm your graphics card is actually up to the job: it might be limited to a resolution lower than that of the display. In this case, the only solution is a new graphics card. Another possibility is that you’re using an older single-link DVI cable, which limits resolution to 1920x1080 pixels. If so, a dual-link cable is your solution. Count the pins on the connector to check: a dual-link cable has 25, a singlelink just 19.
Dual displays are mixed up
When you set up a second display you might find your mouse pointer thinks the one physically on the left is on the right, and vice versa. Also, the mouse pointer might not move smoothly off the sides of either display, appearing to get stuck near the top or bottom of one edge. The answer is to use the Control Panel to adjust their relative position. Click ‘Appearance and Personalization’ then ‘Adjust screen resolution’ under Display to open the Screen Resolution page. Click Identify, and Windows will display a large ‘1’ and ‘2’ on the thumbnail image of each monitor. Now drag and drop these thumbnails in the Control Panel window until they match their real-world positions, including any height difference. This will fix the sticky edges.
Windows doesn’t fill the display
This happens when Windows is not set up to use the monitor’s ‘native’ resolution, which means the total number of physical pixels (or dots) that make up the displayed image. Right-click the Windows Desktop and choose ‘Screen resolution’ then set the Resolution setting to its maximum. If Windows still seems too small (or too big) for your display, look in the graphics card’s drivers for a scaling option, and disable it – this job is often best left to Windows anyway.