ATI Catalyst 3.8 and possible monitor killing

igalan · 10-17-2003, 05:05 AM

At Rage3D I've been reading that Catalyst 3.8 can kill your monitor, and I mean phisically damage your CRT monitor (not TFT.) The problem seems that when launching a game this new driver tries to initialize the secondary monitor on cards with two VGA/DVI; if you didn't set the correct refresh rates for the secondary monitor (for instance, because you don't have one,) it will try to use invalid refresh rates on your primary monitor which can be killed. You can notice if this happens because the monitor flickers several times before starting the game.

This is all unconfirmed, but I thought it's better to prevent. I don't have this problem, but anyway I have set the refresh rates of the secondary monitor (which I don't have.) In my opinion this is unlikely, and in any case quality CRT won't damage because of a too high refresh rate, instead they have electronics to check the refresh rates and prevent damage (my 5 years old Nec Multisync 15" does this,) but you never know for sure...

**DreamCaster** · 10-17-2003, 08:44 AM

Thanks for this update igalan
I'm running 2 on my system so this shouldn't affect me. 3.8 hasn't corrected my UT2003 lockup woes though

igalan · 10-17-2003, 11:11 AM

Your problem with UT2003 is too weird. Why don't you start a new thread and post the error message that you get playing UT2003?

10-17-2003, 05:05 AM	#1 (permalink)
igalan PCTT Articles Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Barcelona, SPAIN Posts: 1,018	ATI Catalyst 3.8 and possible monitor killing At Rage3D I've been reading that Catalyst 3.8 can kill your monitor, and I mean phisically damage your CRT monitor (not TFT.) The problem seems that when launching a game this new driver tries to initialize the secondary monitor on cards with two VGA/DVI; if you didn't set the correct refresh rates for the secondary monitor (for instance, because you don't have one,) it will try to use invalid refresh rates on your primary monitor which can be killed. You can notice if this happens because the monitor flickers several times before starting the game. This is all unconfirmed, but I thought it's better to prevent. I don't have this problem, but anyway I have set the refresh rates of the secondary monitor (which I don't have.) In my opinion this is unlikely, and in any case quality CRT won't damage because of a too high refresh rate, instead they have electronics to check the refresh rates and prevent damage (my 5 years old Nec Multisync 15" does this,) but you never know for sure...

10-17-2003, 08:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
DreamCaster Tune Raider Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: New England Posts: 1,353	Thanks for this update igalan I'm running 2 on my system so this shouldn't affect me. 3.8 hasn't corrected my UT2003 lockup woes though __________________ Boston Red Sox - 2004 World Champions New England Patriots - '02, '04, '05 Superbowl Champions

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10-17-2003, 11:11 AM	#3 (permalink)
igalan PCTT Articles Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Barcelona, SPAIN Posts: 1,018	Your problem with UT2003 is too weird. Why don't you start a new thread and post the error message that you get playing UT2003?