Dull colors and a little blurry when output to a monitor!

Hey everyone, I have a Dell Vostro 1400 with the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS.

I was wondering if anyone knows how I can fix this.

My primary computer is my laptop starting last week. I connected the laptop to my monitor via VGA and set my external monitor as my primary monitor. I had the resolution and colors from the Display Settings set to however I wanted it. Everything still looked pretty dull and not completely clear.

Does anyone know how I can fix this? I really want to start using my monitor when I'm at home as the laptop screen does feel too small when I'm sitting at my desk.

Thank you.

 

go into the control panel and increase the brightness of the second monitor

 

thats probably just down to your external vga monitor not being great quality and old and just doesnt look as good and sharp as the lcd laptop screen !! try ajusting the sharpness and settings on the external monitor and just make it look best you can

if you can.... pop round someones house whos got a nice hdtv or lcd monitor, and plug your laptop in to it and see how it looks !


also i always have my external screen set as the 2nd screen, the laptop screen should be primary ? just have it set to clone show same on all screens !

 

You may want to try a different cable/monitor--it's likely that if you could use a DVI cable you'd see a better picture. However it seems as though the 1400 does not over DVI. Maybe try a better quality cable.

 

meh, mine did the same thing. playing with the settings in the nvidia control pannel, i found some settings i preferred.

 

It's definitely not the monitor. The monitor is a Samsung 941BW. It's a 19" widescreen that I believe is high quality.

I've also tried it on another monitor that I own. It's an older model ViewSonic 17" but that monitor is pretty high quality too. Same problem. I can't change the cable on that monitor because it's attached to it. I really don't think it's my VGA cables.

I already connected to my HDTV too via VGA cable and it wasn't bad. I'd use a DVI cable but the 1400s only have a VGA output.

I've tried playing around with settings in the nVidia Control Panels already but doesn't really seem to help..

Will using a VGA to DVI cable be higher quality than VGA to VGA? (VGA output from laptop to DVI input at monitor.)

 

no, sorry but it wont.

 

What about native resolution concerns?
that might be it?

(vga to dvi converters are EXPENSIVE!!!)

Dull Colors -- as in colors lack saturation or are tinted? check out the color temperature settings on the monitor (s)
If they lack saturation, a trick I like to use is nvidia's Digital Vibrance as a quick fix, although real calibration by digital devices such as Spyder are better. (Digital Vibrance is sorta bad for real color print - screen matching)