Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!wuarchive!husc6!bunny!jwg1 From: jwg1@gte.com (James W. Gish) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: Re: ds3100 gives me a headache Message-ID: Date: 11 Jul 90 17:54:30 GMT References: Sender: jwg1@GTE.COM Distribution: comp Organization: GTE Laboratories Incorporated, Waltham, MA Lines: 48 In-reply-to: davis@pacific.pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu's message of 5 Jul 90 16:29:23 GMT In article davis@pacific.pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu ("John E. Davis") writes: > > I used to use sun3/sun4 work stations. But now our department switched to > ds3100's. In retrospect, most people who use the ds3100 regret the change. > The main problem is the terrible display. For some reason, the display > flickers and quite honestly after about two minutes I get a headache. I know > other people who refuse to use the 3100's for this same reason. > > However, I hear alot of people talking about the 3100's on this newsgroup > and others and no one complains about the crappy displays. Why? Is there a > fix for this that we don't know about? > You don't mention which display you are using. I've used both the 19" monochrome and the 19" Phillips color. They both have 60HZ refresh and both flicker - regardless of the room light in use. The difficulty you will find in discussing flicker is that some people see it and some people don't, or rather everyone can see flicker but not necessarily the same frequency flicker as everyone else. I happen to be extremely sensitive to 60HZ flicker and can see it with almost every monitor you put in front of me that has 60HZ refresh. The ones I don't see it in at that refresh rate probably have longer persistence phosphors. When I got my DS3100 I was told that it could be setup as a greyscale monitor, which would have allowed me to reduce the flicker by using a white foreground on a dark grey or black background. Although, it simply involved getting the right cable - which is possible because I saw it done in the Digital sales office - the salesman couldn't get the warehouse to release the right configuration because it was 'unsupported'. I put up with the monochrome monitor for a couple of weeks with the flicker and the unfocused image - which Digital could NOT do anything about. They gave me another monochrome monitor that was as least as bad as the first. They finally ended up giving me the Phillip's 19" color, which when set with suitably dark backgrounds reduces the flicker problem. I now tolerate this monitor, but it is not very bright or sharp (because of the color mask), but I at least don't get headaches anymore. The Sony 16" is by far the best color monitor I've seen in terms of sharpness and brightness and non-glare. (Now, if they could just get rid of those annoying little support wires at the top and bottom!) -- Jim Gish (jgish@gte.com) Principal Investigator Software Reusability Project GTE Laboratories Inc.