Refresh rates on a Sager 5760

I bought a Sager 5760 about a month ago with the WUXGA display (1920 x 1200). It's a great machine, and I use it a lot, but it is killing my eyes. I have to do something about this.

I checked the display settings, and the refresh rate is locked at 60 hertz. 60 hertz absolutely killed my eyes on a CRT. I could never tolerate it. Even with my old LCD monitor (which I have with me), I kept the refresh rate at about 72 hertz. I noticed a difference. I was never, ever able to tolerate 60 hertz before, and despite the fact that this is an LCD, I have a feeling that this is the source of the problem now.

What are my options? Can I change the refresh rate without violating the terms of my three 3-year parts/labor + accidental damage warranty? Do I need to simply use my old monitor instead and let the high-res display that I paid extra for go to waste?

I need to figure something out!

 

LCDs don't have refresh rates

maybe you can return it for a different res

 

You cannot do anything about that as far as I know. Perhaps lower the screen brightness using the Fn + Fx (forget which keys, on mine it is F8 and F9).

Maybe you can look into a matte screen filter too. Your eye problems could be related to the glossiness of the screen.

 

Unlike CRTs, LCD screens do not refresh so that cannot be the problem.

Without knowing exactly what kind of eye strain you are experiencing it is difficult to determine whether it is being caused by:

1. Having the image (particularly text) too small for you with that high of a resolution, or
2. Having the screen brightness set too high, or
3. The reflective nature of the screen

Could you give us more feedback on exactly what is bothering you now that you know that refresh rates do nothing on LCD screens?

 

My eyes feel very tired after using the machine for a few hours straight. I can see objects in the distance just fine - the leaves on trees a quarter of a mile away are just as clear as they were a month ago. What's bothering me now is the difficulty I'm having reading things that aren't too close and aren't too far away - the words on an advertisement taped to a wall about 15-20 feet away, for example.

I play CS: Source, which runs at 1600 x 1200. I don't know how that compares to web browsing in native res in terms of damage done. There may be some validity to the suggestion that the resolution is too high to make it reasonable to read text - but lower resolutions look like crap. What can I do?

 

You could increase the DPI:
Desktop Properties > Settings tab > Advanced > Change DPI to "120" + restart.

Also, the Sager NP5760 has a 1920x1200 native resolution; change your display type to "16:10" in the CS:S video options, and then you will have that resolution available.

 

Also, if you lower your resolution for text work, make sure you are selecting a widescreen resolution (16:10) as opposed to a normal aspect ratio (4:3) resolution.

While running a native resolution is the absolute best, with today's LCD screens and video cards the lower resolutions are really quite good. I think that what look bad at lower resolutions were because you were not using widescreen resolutions.

Now, if you want nice large text, you can cut your resolution in half (960x600) and it will be perfectly sharp.

 

I think that the small text is what is bothering you, perhaps also coupled with the glossy nature of the screen.

Definitely play around with the DPI and desktop resolution as Chaz and Donald suggested and it should be easier on your eyes.

One more thing. Try to make it a habit to look away from your screen and at something further away for a few minutes every hour or so. This allows your eyes to focus on something other than the screen and helps with the eye strain.

Good luck!

 

I adjusted the DPI to 120. It doesn't make everything easier to read, but the bulk of the text that I deal with online is much larger now. I'll see how this works out. Thanks for the tip!

 

You could also change the base fonts used in Windows. On this screen, I found the "Century Gothic" font to be quite cleaner than tahoma or verdana.
Display properties, 4th tab (my win is in french so i'm not sure about the label), advanced button, then set fonts for every interface items where it's changeable. My base fonts are all changed now.

 

especially with LCD screens, and especially at close range a la computer screens, you are supposed to take an "eye" break every 2-3 hours, for at least 15 minutes. I had a similar problem when I started using my 5760, and I found it was a problem relating the LCD screen in the center of my field of vision to the ambient light around the room (windows with sunlight coming in mainly, and some lamps at night). I came up with a setup to put a big cardboard divider behind my laptop when I game or do programming for 2+ hours. it blocks out most ambient light behind the LCD, so it has reduced my headaches by a significant amount, practically to nil.

 

If you're using a web browser (and some other programs), you should be able to adjust the font size pretty easily. With firefox and IE you can just hold the control key and move your mouse wheel one click at a time either way and it will resize the text instantaneously. Or do it from the View menu.

The resolution on these laptops is actually much better than most CRTs (and LCDs) which is actually easier on the eyes because everything is sharper. Also, there's no refresh rate with LCDs because the pixels are either on or off, whereas with a CRT, the ray gun is scanned across the screen 60 or 70 times per second to light up the pixel and give it the illusion of being constantly on. It's probably just the text and icon size which, unchanged, is often way too small on these high-res displays. You should be able to adjust the properties as written above, and as weelytm said, with any computer monitor, take breaks often. I've heard a few minutes every hour you should try to look at something far away (outside) and give your eyes a little change of focus.