Mystery Monitor

Hey now...
For awhile, I had a second monitor hooked up and used for dual screen Final Cut editing sessions.
When I wanted to add text, I would use Boris Title 3D and "Click for Options" which opens a new window that I can type my text into.
(Stay with me, this is NOT a FCP question)
My "Options" window would open on my second monitor. (The one on my left side )
I have since removed it ( bad monitor ) and now when I select OPTIONS, it still "opens" where the old monitor is. Off the screen and to the left.
I know this because when I Expose' all the current windows, it comes flying in from the far left - off screen. If I select it using Expose', it becomes active and I can type on it, but out there in limbo.
System Prefs / Displays / Detect Monitors confirms that I only have one monitor.
It's like a phantom leg. It feels like it's there, but it's not.
Any I deas how I can GRAB the title bar and drag it back onto the ONLY active monitor?
BTW: I tried changing the resolution of the Monitor in Sys Prefs while I was there to see if it would be grabable. Did nada though.
Thanks,
Christopher

I'm afraid the only solution that occurs to me is to remove the file that stores the information about where the window was last opened. Unfortunately I believe this is stored in the application's plist file, which means you would have to reset all your preferences.
Francine
Schwieder

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Additonal VGA monitor showing in Display properties.

I have a problem, I am currently running Window 7 Pro 64 and when i restarted my laptop it now has an additional monitor showing in the display properties. I do not have an external VGA monitor connected to it, and I have tried to remove the
display adapters in hopes of remove the additional mystery monitor, but after removal of the display adapter drivers and a reboot the extra monitor comes back. Can anyone help?

Hi,
According to your description, the hardware driver is also related to the BIOS of your computer, to confirm this, try to start the computer in safe mode in the way below:
Safe mode starts Windows with a limited set of files and drivers
Remove all floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs from your computer, and then restart your computer.
Click the Start button Picture of Start button, click the arrow next to the Shut Down button Picture of Shut Down button, and then click Restart.
Do one of the following:
Restart your computer, press and hold the F8 key. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo appears.
On the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight the safe mode option you want, and then press Enter.
Log on to your computer with a user account that has administrator rights.
You can refer to this for more details:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-computer-safe-mode#start-computer-safe-mode=windows-7
If this works for you, the BIOS should be upgraded, go to the official site to upgrade the BIOS accordingly.
Regards
Wade Liu
TechNet Community Support

Is my Mac Pro eating monitors? Am I going crazy? A great mystery....

Something very bizarre is happening, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe someone here can offer a theory. Here's my setup, and here's what's been happening....
Mac Pro (early 2009), 2.66 GHz Quad-Core, 8 gigs of RAM, running Mac OS X 10.5.7.
ATI Radeon HD 4870. A very nice system, still has that new Mac smell.
Primary display is a 24" HannsG HH251 (a nice, if inexpensive large flat-panel).
Secondary display is a 20" Viewsonic VP200s. This is an older flat-panel (about 4 years old). I own three of these Viewsonic displays - they were a good primary workhorse monitor in their day, now I use them (mostly) as the 2nd monitor on my Macs and PCs (I have several).
Here's what's been happening...
The primary display is fine. The secondary display has been "failing". When I first hooked up the Viewsonic monitor (as the second display), it was fine. We'll call this "Viewsonic #1". After a couple of months, though, it started flickering - not a subtle flicker (as you might see with a low refresh rate), but a complete, violent flicker where the screen redraws instantly. At first, the big flicker would only occur intermittently - once every few minutes - but eventually it would start happening more and more frequently, then happened every second or two, then became constant - to the point where stuff on that monitor became completely unusable - I couldn't see the cursor clearly, couldn't close windows, etc. Initially, if I turned the monitor off for a moment, then back on, it would come back briefly. But the big flicker would start again soon. Powering down the computer and leaving it off for a while (like overnight), then starting it up again, the 2nd display (Viewsonic #1) would be OK for a while, but eventually the flashing started again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I figured some hardware component was going bad - probably the monitor, but I was hoping it might be the cable or perhaps even the video card (still under warrantee). So I did a little swapping to see: I used a different video cable. Same problem. I thought, "****, the display is toast." I was bummed, but not heartbroken: I had 2 more of these monitors, and I could swap another one in. So I pulled an identical monitor from an older Windows PC that I'm not using much (we'll call this Viewsonic #2), and swapped that. As I suspected, using Viewsonic #2, the 2nd display on the Mac Pro came up nice and flicker-free, rock-steady and looking good. And when I boot up the Windows PC that now has the "bad" display (Viewsonic #1, removed from the Mac Pro), sure enough, it's flickering and flashing and just about impossible to use.
OK, so this seemed to confirm my theory: that Viewsonic #1 was simply in the process of dying. No hardware lasts forever, and although I'm used to getting 5-10 years out of my monitors (really - I've been at this a long time), that rule of thumb is from CRT days - I figured maybe flat panel LCDs only go about 5 years. I shrugged and made my peace with it. Since I was back in 2-monitor heaven, I wasn't worried about it (since I don't need to use the Windows PC with the funky display).
Turns out, there's more to it. This is where it gets strange.
It was about 3 or 4 days ago that I did the monitor swap. Since then, Viewsonic #2 has been fine, as I expected, solid, looking good. But about 6 hours ago, I was shocked to see Viewsonic #2 - now hooked up as my secondary display on the Mac Pro - has just started the same flicker. And it started getting worse, pretty quickly. Within an hour or so, it was becoming unusable. Once again, turning it off helped - a little - and so did shutting done the Mac and leaving it off. But soon after powering it up, it starts going haywire again. It's got the exact same problem that killed the other monitor.
I am thinking that the odds of two different monitors failing (hardware going bad) like this is extremely unlikely. I know it's not the cable or plug, because when I moved Viewsonic #1 to a different computer, it's still broken. I don't think it's the video card, because the "badness" moves with the bad monitor, and the primary display is fine.
The only think that makes any sense (and I'll admit it doesn't make much), is that there's something about this Mac Pro that is causing the 2nd monitor to fail - actually damaging the monitor. That sounds pretty unlikely, but it's the least unlikely think I can think of. Could it be outputting a signal that kills the monitor hardware? I know that sounds crazy....I'm open to suggestions if anyone has another theory.
I've never heard of a computer (or a video card) causing a display to fail, but given the fact that these monitors were both fine before I hooked them up to this Mac, and that both of them seem to have gone belly-up now (and they stay broken if moved back to another computer) really leaves me scratching my head.
What on earth is happening here? Any ideas?

Hi Ltm,
Is your set up is like this? Main monitor attached to dvi port on 4870, other displays attached to the mini port via adapter?
If it is, those mini ports have been the source of many peoples problems here. Maybe not even so much the ports but the adapters. Some seem to work better than others. I bought two in the 20 dollar range from Apple and they both worked poorly (and I have all Apple displays!). Apparently Apple sells one for about 100 bucks that works the best, but I changed cards before buying that.
OWC has an interesting mini-display port connecter now that looks good but also goes for a hundred or so.
But what is precisely going on with your Viewsonics to seemingly destroy them, I don't know. I've read of similar problems to yours, but the displays never stayed in a poor condition after the problem was found. Yours is the first post I've read of displays being actually killed off.
If you could take the now damaged display and one that isn't to an Apple store to try on one of their Macs, maybe they could turn up something for you, an incompatibility somewhere maybe. But it's a pretty bizarre situation made worse by Apples decision to introduce unnecessary variables by going with that mini-display port.

Mysterious Missing "Monitor SQL Status" Triangle icon in the SQL Worksheet

According to the help file, there is a feature in SQL Worksheet which I am not seeing, even though I have the most recent release (1.5.4) and am accessing 11.1.0.7 databases. I don't even see the triangle icon which is supposed to be located between the "cancel" and "execute explain plan" buttons on the SQL Worksheet toolbar.
"Monitor SQL Status (Oracle Database Release 11.1 and later only) calls the real-time SQL monitoring feature of Oracle Database, enabling you to monitor the performance of SQL statements while they are executing."
Is this working for anyone else? Any idea what might be preventing me from accessing this feature?

This is now a menu option. Tools > Monitor SQL.
Sue

Simple connection from powerbook to monitor remains a mystery to me.

Hello,
I have a studio monitor that gets its power through whatever it's connected to. I have a 12 inch powerbook that I want to connect the monitor to. After some research, I bought this: http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9321G/B
It came today and doesn't fit. I'm confused so I took a picture of what I'm talking about (both connectors are in the photo). Perhaps someone can prod me in the right direction or solution.
Here is the photo: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/dscn0475s.jpg/
Thanks to anyone who can help.

That appears to be what you want, although wrongly described as ADC to DVI. The others at the top of the page have the right description of DVI to ADC.
This is what we are talking about.

New External Monitor for Logic on MacBook Pro - Suggestions

I'm in the painful process of updating my studio and now my large screen external monitor has started failing.
I know if this a pretty general question more suited to the MacBook Pro forum but I'd like some input from folks used to working with an application like Logic in a home studio environment.
I guess the issue for me is that I'm not getting any younger and my eyesight isn't what it used to be. One of the things specific to Logic and music software in general is that there are LOTS of very detailed dialog boxes with text that is not always height adjustable (yes I know about zooming and indeed I do lots of that but it gets quite distracting). The other factor is that I'm often recording and engineering myself which means I'll be sitting with a guitar in my lap or at a keyboard and can't always lean in too close to the monitor.
I solved this by buying a large 26" Acer which sits on my desk behind the Mackie MCU. To my left I've got the MacBook 15.4" Pro on a keyboard stand above my MIDI controller at a 45 degree angle to the desk.
It's worked quite well until the Acer seems to have become haunted. It will mysteriously reboot itself intermittently, going blank for a second, then showing the Acer logo and going back to picture. It will also turn itself on spontaneously when the computer is off (the status light is off and then turns itself on). It seems to detect when I'm in the middle of a really good session and starts resetting itself every 30 seconds or so. Then it will work fine sometimes for days or weeks at a time. I've checked it on 4 different computers, it malfunctions on all. I believe in may be a problem with one of the capacitors or the inverter, I'm not sure, but it's driving CRAZY at this point.
And of course now it's 3 months out of warranty and may be more expensive to fix than buying a new one.
So my issue is what monitor to replace it with. I've considered buying an Apple monitor, since the display is lovely to look at but there are a couple things that are deal breakers.
It's expensive. Very expensive.
Oddly you have to choose between a 24" and a 30", with nothing in between. Don't want to sound like Goldilocks here, but the 24 is tooooo small and the 30 is tooooo big.
Yeah I know bigger is usually better but since they bumped the native resolution of the 30" up to 2560x1600 it's really sharp but things like the menu text get really quite small. Yes you can reset to a lower non native resolution, but then you loose the sharpness. I tested Logic in the store on the 30" and it did look great but I found I actually had to move my whole body around to see things at the top and bottom of the screen.
Oh and did I mention that it's expensive? Jeez.
The 24" now seems to look a bit small to me after using the same resolution (1920x1200) on the Acer's 26" screen. (Ok, I think it's actually 25.5 but hey that half an inch can make a big difference and I will avoid making any bad jokes here).
And did I mention the Apple monitors are expensive? The 24" is almost 3 times as expensive as a cheaper alternative.
I also still have a PC here that I use (sorry) and the Apple monitors have very limited connectivity. So I think unfortunately the Apple monitors are out for me.
So I;m down to a couple other non Apple options. I will not buy an Acer again since I believe now that their quality control is not good and their support is absolutely atrocious. Shame I used to be a big fan of Acer PC's, but after owning a couple I'm steering clear.
My biggest issue right now is that most of the new budget monitors are geared toward 1080p HD uses so they are they are maxing out at 1920x1080 (16:9 aspect ratio instead of 1920x1200's 16:10). So the tradeoff here is that HD movies will look better in 16:9, but 16:10 gives you "squarer" pixels and more vertical resolution for screen hungry apps like Logic.
Any opinions on this? I'm a bit new to the Mac so I don't know if I'm really better off going with a 1920x1200 screen like the Apple monitors.
Also, I know this may just be a bug in the Acer's scaling, but if I switch to 1920x1080, I lose the menus off the top of the screen or if I adjust the vpos I lose the dock at the bottom. Downscaling to 1600x1050 or even 1024x768 works fine. If I get a 1080 screen and set the resolution appropriately will it work correctly and without too much distortion?
I'm also curious what is the best way to hook up the monitor? I'm currently using the DVI to VGA adapter that came with the MacBook. My Pro is the slighter older silver keyboard model so it has the standard DVI out. Will I see any real improvement by going over to using DVI directly?
Also I'm wondering how people feel about glossy vs matte for music. My current displays are the non-glossy and I do think I prefer them for detail work.
The candidates right now are
Hanns-G HH-281HPB 28" @300$. It's one of the only budget monitors that uses 1920x1200. All the right inputs (DVI, VGA). I'm just afraid this might be a bit too good to be true. It's really cheap and after having problems with a "cheap" Acer (although it wasn't so cheap 3 years ago!) I don't want similar problems. Stand has no swivel or tilt (a big problem for my use). Also that resolution on such a big screen might be good for me or it might look grainy I don't know I haven't seen it. Anybody have any experience with these?
Samsung P2770H 27" @339 Looks nice, good color. Sadly only 1080 native resolution. Stand doesn't swivel, but does tilt. No VGA input, so won't work with my old PC (although strangely it says it comes with a VGA cable). They get generally good reviews and I know Samsung makes very good flat panel TV's.
ViewSonic X Series VX2739WM 27" @350. Once again maxes out at 1080. It's fast (1ms), has VGA input. I've never been a big fan of ViewSonic but they do seem to have gotten better color-wise. Tilt no swivel and it's anti-glare (not sure this is a plus).
There are also similar options from HP, Asus, LG and Sceptre but they are all 1080. In fact outside of the Apples, the Hanns-G and a few expensive monitors from NEC they all seem to be 1080. So if I really want the 1200 the Hanns-G seems like the only way to go.
Any input here would be greatly appreciated.

No doubt, the Apple displays are gorgeous. The first time I saw the 30" display wow, I wanted one BAD and it's actually what prompted me to buy a "big" monitor. The colors are great with a rich wonderful saturation level and as usual for Apple the form factor design is stunning. You know for that picture quality I could even get over the sticker shock and save up for one.
Which is why I was so disappointed when I actually sat down in the store and started to use Logic on one. I imagine for doing video work, graphic design or darn near anything else, it would be great. But for Logic I just found myself bending and twisting trying to look at toolbar at the bottom and then up to look at the menus. And instrument or plugin displays that were hard coded to look OK at lower resolutions looked really, really tiny to me. For me and particularly using Logic having 2 slightly smaller displays at a 45 degree angle makes more sense.
And once again the 24 seems just a bit small. I don't understand why they have a 27" iMac but you can't buy a 27" display. So iMac 27" starting at 1699, subtract out the cost of the CPU and drive ie the Mini and I'd really buy one. Strangely you can buy a 21.5" or a 27" iMac. Or you can buy a 24" or 30" display. Hmmmm.
So don't get me wrong I'm not bashing Apple for being expensive. They put a lot of money into R&D and into really thinking about the form and the function of their products. As a recent convert from being a PC developer for 25+ years, hey I've more than sipped the Kool-Aid here, I've guzzled it. They make great products and yeah they're more expensive, because they ARE better! I've now got 2 MBP's, 2 iPods, I'm about to get an iPhone (silly "death grip" or not) and I really want an iPad. Heck I'd really love an 8 core MacPro if I could afford one (alas I can't).
I guess my only gripe here is that there always seems to be a little less choice in the Apple world. Yeah, I know they do a lot less volume than the PC clone world I just think that they always seem to have a big gap between the high end and low end with not enough in between. So you can choose between the lower end and one piece units with no expansion boards (the mini or the iMac) or go straight to monster tower MacPro (way over 3K with display). You can get a MacBook but then you have to put up with a small screen or go with MacBook Pro, which let's face it is a lot of computing power for someone who just wants to web surf and write some email without squinting.
So here I am stuck in the middle. I don't want to buy a HannspreeQG or another piece of junk that's going to last 3 years and 3 months because of a crappy $2 capacitor that no seems to able to fix or care about fixing. I'd like to buy a really nice Apple monitor, I just want a big monitor, not a huge one and not a "medium" one (I know I'm spoiled but 24" seems "medium" these days).
Sorry about the rant here but my monitor is shutting down every 30 seconds and I'm about to go completely insane and toss it out the window!!!
Really glad to hear about that 84' VGA cable. I never imagined such a thing existed or would work without some sort of signal boost on the way. Very cool for me. My electronic drum kit is in another room and I would love to have a small cheap monitor next to it for sequencing. I had my laptop on a stand next to it for a while but I began to get terrified that I'd let a drumstick slip and destroy my laptop screen. That would be a very bad thing. Thanks for the tip.

Why does a mystery application try to open when I login?

I wonder if anyone can help me with an issue I'm having with a mystery application trying to open.
Every time I wake my iBook G4 from sleep, or I start it from shutdown (I am the only user), I see an application is trying to open at the right side of the dock. It shows as the generic application "A" starting to open, but then it suddenly vanishes. On the advice of a Mac-user friend, I went to System Preferences/Accounts/Login Items and removed everything there, then rebooted my machine, but I still have the same problem.
From my unfortunate experiences with PCs, I remember this type of login behavior usually indicates the machine is infected with a virus. Is that what is causing my iBook problem? I have the Firewall turned on, and I'm running Norton Antivirus for Mac (which has found nothing in repeated scans). What should I try next? Any help with this would be really appreciated.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

It's difficult to say what the application may be if you can't see its name, but in the Dock, the name won't show unless you are pointing at the icon. If you can get your mouse there fast enough (maybe put it in the right place, sleep, then wake your Mac?) you might see the app name before it closes. Then you'll have a better idea what it is.
You might also try the Activity Monitor application, which is in the /Applications/Utilities folder. It shows all the running processes, so you might be able to catch the app name before it closes.
When you know what the application is called, you may decide it's not a problem at all. If it's still unclear, come back and post it, and maybe someone will be able to tell you what it is. Lots of applications use little "helper apps," and it's possible it could be something like that. It's best to know what it is, but it's probably harmless.
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Balance dropped, score dropped. FICO scores a mystery.

They only reason to pay for the service of credit monitoring here on myFICO is so you have some idea of where you stand when you apply for any type of credit or loan. All the information about understanding FICO scoring is all cookie cutter garbage that you can read on any other "credit monitoring" service. And the people that work for myFICO have no idea what they are talking about either. They just repeat the same cookie cutter garbage I was just mentioning. I really hope they are providing their "services" for free, because if they receive any kind of compensation, it is undeserved. My statement balance on my American Express Everyday card went from $50 to $0 and my scores dropped by 11, 12, and 17 points (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.) I brought the statement balance back up to $50 the VERY next month. Did my scores recover the lost points I just lost a month ago? No. And I am sure all these "credit experts" will say, "something else in your report must have changed." That is code for, "I have no idea what happened, I am just as clueless as you why your score changed the way it did." The precise formula for generating your FICO score is a well guarded secret. It is the same formula used in determining battle damage to your characters in the old Sega Master System game Phantasy Star. Sometimes when attacked, your character would lose 6 health points, other times 80 health points, and even other times 3/4ths of your total health, and so on and so on. This is how FICO scoring works. The formula basically goes, OOGA BOOGA, OOGA BOOGA, this is your updated score. The only advice on this site (again which you can find on EVERY other credit monitoring service) that is worth anything is what responsible credit habits you should be practicing. Other than that, just hope for the best. Your score is a mystery, and it always will be.

Beavakos wrote:
What difference does it make if there are any negatives on my report? I lost points for doing something negative, which is bringing my balance to zero, than returning it back to its previous balance. THAT IS ALL I DID. I thought time heals all wounds when it comes to credit. Any credit missteps I might have had taken should be corrected with time. I really don't know how to make this any clearer. Nothing in my report changed except TIME. If I have two dollars in my bank account, and spend one dollar, then deposit one dollar, I should have now have TWO dollars AGAIN. ?????????????????I understand what Beavakos is saying here and we all get it. Most of us love analyzing data which is why we are here after we've already cleaned up our reports and greatly increased our scores. Again, I understand how Beavakos feels - it is said time and again that UTIL has no memory and what is lost due to UTIL will be regained - well, not always true. Looking strictly at the data two things changed on Beavakos' report: 30 days were added to age and UTIL went from something above 0% to 0%, then back again and yet Beavakos' score did not fully recoup the loss. The reason for this, I think, is very clear - we do not know as much as we think we know about FICO or any other scoring algorithm. If I lost 10 points for going from 5% UTIL down to 0% UTIL but then gained those 5 points back by raising my UTIL to 5% again then scoring algorithm's are not as complicated as they are made out to be and are thus not worth paying for. The previous scenario is simple math and if indeed it was only that I should be able to retest that hypothesis time and again and get the same exact results - not happening. That said, I do not believe that scoring is a crap shoot or something only a witch doctor can understand. It is a complicated mathematical equation that has 100's, if not 1000's, of factors all having a different weight at a different time and I believe there is no one that can determine with 100% accuracy the effect any one factor, forget about multiple factors, will have on your score. Not even the people who wrote the code would know as no one person wrote the whole code. We should probably stop getting so frustrated with how our scores react to the different changes in our reports. The reason we get upset is that we think this is some simple black and white game and it's not. It is very complicated and we will never know what we want to know to the accuracy level we want to know it. What's important is we know what hurts our score to a high degree and what helps our score to a high degree. Take care of all those things we know about and your score will go up; don't take care of those things and your score will go down. After that it is just a game we play to see how we can get to 800...

I am stumped I do not understand why my roommates macbook pro when duel screened will display perfectly on my monitor while mine refuses to, but mine will display perfectly when using another monitor that is not mine. Please help me out.

One day when using my duel display the second monitor decided it wouldn't display at full resolution in the middle of doing something i was confused. I use a mini display to hdmi then hdmi to the second monitor. I thought maybe the converter or cable died. I bought another another mini display to hdmi and tried another hdmi cord and the same issue. My roommate has macbook pro as well so i decided to see if it was the monitor, when i pluged the mini display converter into his and used the external monitor it displayed perfectly not below resolution. Doing this I knew it was not the monitor or the mini display to hdmi or the hdmi cable. I took it into the genuis bar assuming now that it was my grapics card or logic board. When the genuis went to duel screen it on a cinema display it displayed perfectly. So went home tried to duel screen it again and still not displaying at full resolution. That is where I am stuck, in summary:
My screen used to display perfect resolution on a second monitor and suddenly did not.
Tested two mini display to hdmi and hdmi cords both were fine.
Tested to see if monitor was issue but displayed perfectly when i used roommates laptop.
Went to genius bar and displayed perfectly on second monitor so it can display perfect resolution on apples monitors but will not do so anymore on my monitor, even though roommates macbook pro will display perfect resolution on my monitor.
I am beyond confused.

Apparently you have tried everything except - take the monitor in question to the Apple Store along with your computer. If it works there, the mystery continues.

Advice needed on monitor for Photoshop and Lightroom use

Hi. I am aserious amature photographer wishing to move to the next level and sell some of my work.
I just had a custom pc built to work with the new copies of Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 I bought (lots or RAM and HD space, ssd, etc....)
The last piece of my system is to purchase a monitor. I want to be somewhere in the better then Best Buy but less than NEC/Eizo range in price, or between $500 - $900. I have worked with cameras since the early 80's and moved to digital several years ago but the only post processing I have done is with Photoshop Elements. I would be doing mostly prints to sell but also need to have a web site to do so. Will also use the pc for daily net surfing... but do not game or watch a lot of video on the pc.
Being really new to this whole process I have a few questions.
The first thing I need to decide is whether I need to look for a wide gamut display or not.
I realize the whole chain must be 10 bit (Adobe -OS - graphics driver - graphics card - display port.
I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3, Win7 64 bit, Zotac ZT 50701 10M video card (which uses GeForce GTX 560 fermi and an nvidia chipset. It does have displayport). I am having a hard time determining whether my video card actually supports wide gamut (10bit).
Standard vs Wide Gamut? Is wide gamut important enough to deal with the issues it brings (calibration, viewing things other than PS and LR or color managed, which appear to be rare?) Is sRGB good enough for most prints (don't do fine art, mostly nature and portraits but starting to do some HRD things). If wide gamut is the way to go I have no problem with that and have the time to learn about calibration, color management, etc... But I also want to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.
24" vs 27"? Is there any advantage to one or the other when editing photos?
IPS vs PLS? I realize they are similar but are there differences worth noting?
Glossy vs Matte Anti-Glare? seems to be a lot of comments regarding the anti-glare coating, mostly poor. Yet I can see issues using a glossy screen in my study with a window to my back.
One manufacturer vs another? I realize Eizo, NEC and LaCie are at the top of the heap. But with my budget, after upgrading my pc and camera equipment, I can't make that work now. So I need to choose from the next group down (Dell, HP, Samsung, Asus...)
One or two monitors? It looks like many (mid-grade) wide gamut monitors do a lousy job of displaying anything but color managed sites. Is that necessarily true of all the mid-grades? Or can some be used for graphics but as well for routine net surfing, MS Office, etc...? Or am I better off getting two monitors, one for graphics and one for the rest? That would pretty much limit me to 24" or less given my budget (used to using a Dell 21" TN monitor that oddly crapped out just as my new pc was done).
The more I read reviews the more confusing it gets. There seems to be a difference of opinion even among pros on whether to go wide gamut or stick with an easier sRGB. Realizing a standard gamut monitor would be cheaper, I do want to make the right decision up front, given my budget.
The one thing I have found astounding is that there is nowhere to actually see many of the monitors I am considering. We live in Nashville TN but my wife is from Atlanta Ga so we drove there a few weeks ago to visit family and for me to visit monitor shops. Even the largest ones there (Fry's and Microcenter) had minimal IPS monitors, a few Dells and HP's. The knowledge of their sales folks was so poor I finally gave up. Felt bad about this until I posted this on another board and got a reply from a guy in LA (second largest city in the US) that he wanted to see a particular monitor and there was no place even there to do so.
Anyhow, here is what I have considered:
24" Wide Gamut: Dell U2410 and Asus PA246Q. Dells appear to be good IF you get a good one. The Asus appears to be a clone of the Dell that gets a lot of good press.
27" Wide Gamut: Dell U2711 that also gets a ton of good reviews
24: Standard Gamut: Dell U2412 and HP ZR2440.
27" Standard Gamut: Samsung S27A850D and Apple Cinema- The Samsung uses PLS technology versus IPS while the Apple is a glossy screen that will work with a pc.
Sorry for the long post. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

dkg62 wrote:
I realize the whole chain must be 10 bit
Not trying to talk you out of setting up a 10 bit pipeline, but it's still not very mature, and it really isn't a necessity to get a good editing experience.
Personally I find advantage in using two 4:3 ratio monitors for Photoshop work. All my panels are on the right monitor, while pretty much the entire left one shows the Photoshop main window and the working canvas space. My desktop is 3200 x 1200 pixels overall, and I find having the panels remain visible all the time is important.
Regarding whether a wide gamut is important... Will you be printing to devices that deliver a wide gamut? What other things will you be doing with your system?
It's not a no-brainer whether a wider gamut monitor is always "better" for everything, since it can accentuate the differences between the output from color-managed and non-color-managed applications, and it's definitely true that not everything is color-managed. With a monitor that's close to sRGB, for example, you might find Internet Explorer output acceptable, while using a wide gamut monitor will result in garishly oversaturated IE displays. On the other hand, FireFox (with a settings tweak) seems to get color management right, so there is an alternative.
I think, as John has implied above, you should work to get your head completely around how color-management works, soup to nuts. If you don't, there will always be things that are a mystery or which surprise you at the wrong times. Being able to order a print and have it come back with the expected color can be very important, as you might imagine.
-Noel

Z68 and memtest 86 mystery

So where do we start this time ?
After having set up my new Z68A-GD65 (G3) board, which went without a hitch I must add, I went through a couple of beta BIOS versions to test and see what the restricted multi was all about.
The .N34 beta BIOS eventually had no more multi restriction, but was by no means perfect. Even with the minor issues that still exist, my board is solid and performs up to expectations, maybe even better than what I expected after now having run some comprehensive tests. But more about that later.
First the hardware:
MSI Z68-GD65 (G3)
i5-2500K
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Crucial 2X2GB CT2KIT25664BA1339 first mem kit tested
Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9W 1,35V Vengeance kit currently on the MB
Nvidia 8600GT (currently for testing only)
Seagate 500GB SATA II
Sony Optiarc DVD RW
Corsair CX500 PSU
all mounted on a CM Lab test bench
OS Win 7-64bit
BIOS used for testing V23.3B4 (.N34)
Other hardware used: Fluke model 77 digital multimeter.
One thing that does need mentioning is that the .N34 BIOS applies the correct memory voltage for the Low voltage Vengeance when XMP is enabled. The previous BIOS did not do that and one has to manually adjust it.
Within the BIOS itself, the reported "Current DRAM voltage" in Auto and Manual does not reflect what is applied in "DRAM Voltage" and even that differs from the real voltage. I used a Fluke Digital Multimeter to eventually find the correct voltages and for anyone that wants to apply the correct voltages, here are two tables as tested.
Having used the multimeter to verify the VCore, I found that CPUZ reflects the most accurate reading out of all the applets used. A 1,36 Core voltage in CPUZ was reflected as 1,363V on the multi.
Now let's get to the real reasons for the tests.
In the recent past we had a user on a MSI sister forum that ran memtest 86 and found what he described as reduced base clocks whenever the CPU multiplier was increased by the "Adjust CPU Ratio" function in the BIOS. This led him to believe that although the board is running at an increased core frequency, that the performance would decrease as the BCLK and mem speed in memtest showed this clearly. No real benchmark tests had been done in the OS to either confirm or deny this suspicion, except a remark that it feels considerably slower than the same CPU on another manufacturer's P67.
At this point I must point out that it is not my intention nor the forum's intention to compare manufacturers motherboards for benchmarking. I shall include sample tests performed on that board which should clearly show any performance degradation, if the memtest data is anything to go by.
Having read the post I decided it would be a nice challenge to see if this memtest phenomena actually translates to a real performance reduction once the OS is loaded and benchmarks are performed. I am fortunate that I also happen to have the exact board that the user was referring to and mine has an i7-2600K on it.
First things first. Let's have a look at what the reported memtest issue is all about
This first screenshot shows the values that were monitored to be inconsistent with what is set in the BIOS. My first screenshot was taken with the BCLK at 100 (99.8) and the DDR3-1600 modules.
The second screenshot was taken with my 1333 memory installed and my mutiplier set at X45 and still a BCLK of 100 (99.8). You can clearly see that the BCLK is at 73, the memory is at DDR3-975. I tested various multis from 33 through to 45 and as the multi increased, these reflected values decreased. Below are the results of my tests with the 1333 memory:
@ X33 everything is still normal
@X34 BCLK=96 mem DDR3-1291
@X38 BCLK=86 mem DDR3-1155
@X40 BCLK=82 mem DDR3-1097
@X43 BCLK=76 mem DDR3-1021
@X44 BCLK=74 mem DDR3- 997
@X45 BCLK=73 mem DDR3- 975
I checked this with the DDR3-1600 modules and the behaviour is the same. I only ran the DDR3-1600 up to X42 as it was enough to prove the similar results.
@X33 BCLK=99 mem DDR3-1596
@X36 BCLK=91 mem DDR3-1463
@X39 BCLK=84 mem DDR3-1351
@X42 BCLK=78 mem DDR3-1254
It must be remembered that at all times the memory was set at 1333 and 1600 respectively in the BIOS.
Thus the user's valid assumption that something is amiss with the Z68 board.
Since these values in memtest do tend to lead one to believe an associated performance penalty, it was time to put it to the test in the real world and run some applications that could measure overall memory performance and also the total system performance.
My choice was to use Maxxmem which produces comprehensive theoretical benchmark numbers and the 7ZIP which has a benchmark tool included, also providing a comprehensive system bench in terms of file compression and decompression.
The software used:
Win7-64bit OS
CPU-Z v1.58
Maxxmem v1.95
7Zip v9.2
Both the systems used are running with 2X4GB DDR3-1600 Vengeance 9.9.9.24 timings.
My Z68 has the i5-2500K and the P8P67-Pro has the i7-2600K.
Now before anyone cries foul that the i7-2600K has 8 threads and the 2500K only 4. My choice of 7Zip was done because it's benchmark has the ability to restrict the amount of threads for testing. So within the 7ZIP benchmark I used only 1 thread throughout all the tests to ensure a fair comparison.
I quote the following from the Help file.
The benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with results of Intel Core 2 CPU with multi-threading option switched off. So if you have modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency.
The focus is on the Z68 tests and only X45 was used to do a performance comparison between the Z68 and P67 platform.
First the Maxxmem results:
This already indicates that the perceived performance penalty deduced from memtest 86 has no influence on real world performance. As the multi is increased the memory performance increases proportionally.
Now let's have a look at the 7ZIP benchmark tests. These tests were all done with one core, unless otherwise specified and all used a default dictionary size of 32mb.
This one came as a bit of a surprise. You can see that the Z68 actually outperforms the P67 with it's 2600K when both are running 4 threads.
Once all 8 threads are used, then everything is as per expectation.
A sample overview of the values as reflected within the benchmark applications.
And below a snapshot of my Z68 on the bench test. I know it looks like a mess, but when you are doing testing, nothing beats an open bench.
In closing, I believe that memtest 86 needs some work to be compatible with the Z68 chipset as it is clear from the tests that there is no real world performance loss.
Furthermore I invite other users of Z68 boards to do their own tests on MSI boards and post them for comparative purposes, especially those users that still have a BIOS causing them to have the mysterious throttling.

SonDa5 this thread is about memtest86 and the fact that it incorrectly reports BCLK and mem speeds on Sandy Bridge boards as you have observed yourself. Nothing to do with the BIOS.
The test that we conducted were done to show that whatever was reported in memtest86 was not a true reflection of the real BCLK and mem speeds once the system was running in the OS. It further concluded that it did not have any performance impact.
My own voltage observations on my board were added within this thread for the sake of completeness of the testing.
If you have particular bugs with your board, then kindly start a thread in the appropriate section of the forum about your problems and your test results.
You started by assuming a problem of some sort with your board, based on memtest86 observations. This was sufficiently answered within this thread.
You are now using someone else's test results to come to some kind of conclusion on whatever perceived problems you have. Do your own tests if you want to prove a point and then take those as a starting point to substantiate your generalised statements.

MacBook Pro overheating when monitor is in sleep [weird]

Hello everybody,
this is my first post here but I am a long time Apple user (from 1995 until today).
Last summer, in August, I bought my new MBP 15" with non-Retina display, mid-2012 series which presents a very strange issue.
I investigated a lot on the problem, trying everything, without coming to a solution, unfortunately.
I think I will contact Apple also via Bug Report website, because I think it's a software bug. I'd like to hearing from you, as well.
Users' experiences are often more useful.
The thing is quite simple to reproduce: when I put the monitor(s) to sleep, doesn't matter if only the integrated one or using also the external display attached to the Mac, the GPU becomes HOT, let's say hotter than when using the Mac normally. Isn't it strange?
How do I measure the temperature?
There are many softwares. I use two: Temperature Monitor and iStat Pro, which is a widget for the Dashboard.
I also use my hand!
If I go away from my desktop and leave the display going to sleep, or if I put it to sleep manually using a hot corner (it's the same, no difference), when I come back and touch the top case in the zone corresponding to the processor and the GPUs, it is uncomfortably hot.
When I use the MBP normally, like now, writing this post, with fifteen applications open (among which Photoshop) in the background the GPU is at only 48° and the top case slightly warm.
When I come back from sleep the sensors display temperatures that go from 60°C to 80°C !!!
It's absurd. Everybody knows that high temperatures are not healthy for electronic components and batteries.
I decided to investigate deeply, looking also into the logs, and I found, in /var/log/system.log the following excerpt just after coming back from sleep mode with the GPU working in some mysterious way:
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28d for display 0x003f003e
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: Created shield window 0x28e for display 0x003f003f
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: releasing authw 0x7fbab9a31350(2000), shield 0x7fbab8e65950(2001), lock state 2
Mar 18 12:56:29 MacBookPro.local WindowServer[111]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: errs 0x0, 0x0, 0x0
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local iTunes[1863]: 2013-03-18 12:56:46.834449 PM [AVSystemController] Stopping AirPlay
Mar 18 12:56:46 MacBookPro.local Dock[185]: CGSSetWindowAlpha: Invalid window 0x0
Then I booked an appointment to the Genius Bar, in my nearest Apple Store in Rome.
First time, after explaining the issue, they changed the fans (...).
No way, it didn't work (I had my doubts from the beginning it should do, anyway).
Second time I booked, they resetted SMC and PRAM (NVRAM), and gave me the MacBook Pro back.
It didn't work. I did the reset before going to the AS, by myself, at home.
Third time I booked, suspecting a hardware problem, they changed the whole logic board.
It didn't solve the problem.
I tested and reproduced the issue with the lastest release of Mac OSX, 10.8.3, with a clean install and no third party softwares installed. It happens not everytime the display goes to sleep, but almost everytime.
I also have done all the firmware updates, every time they came along in Software Update application from August 2012 since today.
I really don't know what else I can do, except writing to Apple Bug Reports and hope they read me and work on this.
Moreover, to understand if it's an issue related to the Intel HD Graphics 4000 card or to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M one I found and installed a simple software, gfxCardStatus, which allows you to bypass Apple automatic switch feature and choose manually which card to use.
I noticed that only using the most powerful card, the NVIDIA GeForce, the MacBook Pro becomes hot when the display is left alone and goes to sleep after the interval set in Energy Savings options.
Disabling the screensaver doesn't change anything.
Changing the period after which user's password is asked after waking the Mac from sleep changes nothing as well.
Useless to say, I need to leave my Mac turned on, because sometimes I have to access to it from another machine, and I also want to save energy and the life of my monitors putting them to sleep when I don't use them.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks in advance for your attention so far.
Daniele

The Zendock simply bunches the different normal plugs together. So there's no way for the MacBook to detect that it's being used.
I don't think I've seen a dock in recent times that does what you want it to do.

Several mysterious problems with Solaris 11 x86 install

Hi folks,
I've recently installed Solaris 11 x86 as a replacement for Solaris 9 SPARC on an Ultra 2 machine. I like the operating system, but I've promptly acquired some mysterious problems. The computer is a Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo E2500 with a Pentium 4 HT 3.06 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, an 80 GB SATA disk and a 147 GB SCSI disk.
I have had a few occasions on which the screen goes totally blank, the monitor claims that there is no signal, and I have to restart the machine. However, with the blank screen, the hard drive activity light is sometimes still flashing. This happens predictably when I try to log off (as opposed to shutting down) and when I use Totem media player and click on anything inside the Totem window. The motherboard has built-in graphics and brief specifications can be found here:
http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/professionalpc/ESPRIMO/Datasheets/ds_esprimo_edition_e2500.pdf
Yesterday my PS/2 keyboard started causing the motherboard to beep crazily when I use it. It beeps rapidly 4 times, then prints the expected character. However, the problem doesn't occur at the initial log in screen. The mouse cursor has also gone beserk on one occasion, flying all over the screen (I had this problem with a previous PC, but a different OS, and thought it was a hardware fault, which I why I got this new computer). With the keyboard problem, the machine is basically unusable. However, it is configured as a dual boot machine, and the keyboard problem isn't present with Windows XP.
There are also a few smaller, odd problems. Occasionally all the icons vanish from my Gnome desktop. The command prompt also mysteriously changed from $chris@pluto to $bash-4.1 just before the keyboard problem appeared, although that might have had something to do with me copying my home directory to a different disk and editing the /etc/auto_home file (moving the home directory worked fine). Also, unlike with Solaris 9 SPARC, I find that I have to have external SCSI devices switched on at boot time, should I want to use them later. That's a pain. With Solaris 9, I could run "boot -r" when I first attached the device, then switch on the SCSI devices and mount them whenever I wanted.
After the useful advice I received here about "more" and "less", I thought I'd post these problems and see if anyone can help. I'd really appreciate some advice. Can anyone identify likely causes for these problems? Which problems can I expect to solve and which do I have to live with?
Many thanks,
Chris Tidy
Edited by: Chris Tidy on 23-Mar-2012 03:36

Hi folks,
I've recently installed Solaris 11 x86 as a replacement for Solaris 9 SPARC on an Ultra 2 machine. I like the operating system, but I've promptly acquired some mysterious problems. The computer is a Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo E2500 with a Pentium 4 HT 3.06 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, an 80 GB SATA disk and a 147 GB SCSI disk.
I have had a few occasions on which the screen goes totally blank, the monitor claims that there is no signal, and I have to restart the machine. However, with the blank screen, the hard drive activity light is sometimes still flashing. This happens predictably when I try to log off (as opposed to shutting down) and when I use Totem media player and click on anything inside the Totem window. The motherboard has built-in graphics and brief specifications can be found here:
http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/professionalpc/ESPRIMO/Datasheets/ds_esprimo_edition_e2500.pdf
Yesterday my PS/2 keyboard started causing the motherboard to beep crazily when I use it. It beeps rapidly 4 times, then prints the expected character. However, the problem doesn't occur at the initial log in screen. The mouse cursor has also gone beserk on one occasion, flying all over the screen (I had this problem with a previous PC, but a different OS, and thought it was a hardware fault, which I why I got this new computer). With the keyboard problem, the machine is basically unusable. However, it is configured as a dual boot machine, and the keyboard problem isn't present with Windows XP.
There are also a few smaller, odd problems. Occasionally all the icons vanish from my Gnome desktop. The command prompt also mysteriously changed from $chris@pluto to $bash-4.1 just before the keyboard problem appeared, although that might have had something to do with me copying my home directory to a different disk and editing the /etc/auto_home file (moving the home directory worked fine). Also, unlike with Solaris 9 SPARC, I find that I have to have external SCSI devices switched on at boot time, should I want to use them later. That's a pain. With Solaris 9, I could run "boot -r" when I first attached the device, then switch on the SCSI devices and mount them whenever I wanted.
After the useful advice I received here about "more" and "less", I thought I'd post these problems and see if anyone can help. I'd really appreciate some advice. Can anyone identify likely causes for these problems? Which problems can I expect to solve and which do I have to live with?
Many thanks,
Chris Tidy
Edited by: Chris Tidy on 23-Mar-2012 03:36

Weird: why would a network drive named "time-capsule-de" with an icon of an old-fashioned PC monitor appear on my home network?

Weird: why would a network drive with the name "time-capsule-de" and an icon of an old-fashioned PC monitor suddenly appear on my home network?
It happened shortly after I'd set up a new Time Capsule with our iMac and had transferred the configuration for it over from my old Time Capsule.
I'd just taken the old Time Capsule into another room and powered it up with my MacBook to confirm that Airport Utility's wiping of its settings hadn't affected the old Time Machine backups still stored in it.
I was in the process of tinkering to see how I could use the old Time Capsule, when Airport Utility offered to "extend" my home network, so I tried that setting, and then got a warning that the old Time Capsule and its wifi networks were not yet secure or private. While I was working to fix that, I noticed that in the Finder sidebar and in my Network settings, this mysterious "time-capsule-de" (with an odd old-fashioned PC monitor for an icon) had appeared. I tried to click on it, but could not access it. I also could not eject it. I shut down my old Time Capsule and my MacBook. When I turned the laptop back on, "time-capsule-de" was gone.
What do you all make of that? Should I worry about the security of my home network? I live in an apartment development, so there are more than a dozen stray wifi signals pouring in from other units.
I'd welcome any thoughts or suggestions. Thanks!

What is the name of your old Time Capsule? Did you change the name to the new one?
It appears in Finder .. that is to be expected.. it is after all a network drive.. and it has PC symbol more than likely because you are using Mavericks which defaults to SMB network.. ie the computer thinks it is a windows computer.
There is nothing bad or sinister going on.. but you certainly need to ensure your own wireless network is secure..
That is otherwise all fine.
If the TC shows up again, check that it is also in the airport utility and check its MAC address with the label on the bottom.. It will show in the Utility .. then you can compare and check you are reading the right thing.

Printer Queue Settings Mysteriously Reverting Back to Default Settings on 2008 R2 print servers

Printer Queue Settings Mysteriously Reverting Back to Default Settings on 2008 R2 print servers
We have 4 Windows Server 2008 R2 print servers, all of which has the same printer queues installed on them that are utilized by a 3rd party printing program that does a round-robin load balancing scheme.
All printers are a combination of HP and Xerox all running some variation of the HP UPD and the Xerox UPD. Some use the PCL 5 and some use the PCL 6 version determined by age of printer and need.
There are typically two printer queues for each physical printer.
Example:
LOCATION_ROOM
LOCATION_ROOM_TRAY2
The regular queue is ok being left with default setting,
The _TRAY2 queues are set to print to "labels" or "pre-printed" paper type or a specific tray.
From time to time, these _TRAY2 queues will revert back to a factory default state and lose the setting to print to a specific paper type or tray. Sometimes it happens to the _TRAY2 queue on all 4 servers, sometimes just 1 server, etc. No rhyme
or reason.
Disabled Bi-directional options on both the HP and Xerox UPDs per another article on the internet that said bi-directional could cause the printer to send back settings to the driver and cause this issue. Even with this option off, we continue to see
printer _TRAY2 queue settings revert back to factory default and lose their specific paper and tray settings. We have ruled out the possibility that users or other technicians are the ones making these changes so we suspect it is some interaction between
the servers, printer drivers and printers themselves causing the issue.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I'd start by using one of the print drivers included in Windows for a few of the printers and confirm it's the universal driver that is causing the issue.
HP installs some other processes and services on the machine which communicate with the HP devices.
PML and something else. You might want to shut those down and see if these processes are the ones modifying the settings.
Run process monitor to truly identify which processes is causing the modifications.
Alan Morris formerly with Windows Printing Team

Mystery Monitor

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