Scrambled image after changing resolutions

[afedock]

Hey guys, I'm a newbie at this, so I apologize in advanced. I just bought my first cabinet, it was a neo-geo cab converted to JAMMA. I bought a j-pac and hooked it up, using soft15k. For most of the first night, everything seemed to be booting up fine (atleast to the windows screen). I changed to a different resolution using switchres and the image now looks like this.




So, I don't really know what the deal is. I boot into vga, try uninstalling soft15k,reinstalling drivers and changing resolution back to a 800 x 600, try again...Same scrambled image at bootup.




So now I start getting worried, thinking I screwed something up. After trying things for a couple hours, I figured out that if I turn the computer on and the image is scrambled, if I turn the monitor off then back on, it usually fixed the problem, atleast on the desktop.




So, I'm happy I didn't break my monitor. Now, when I'm trying to get some emulators going, I can start an emulator fine in a window, but if I try to make it full screen, its back to scrambled image.




I assume things are screwing up when the computer is trying to change resolutions? Like I mentioned before, I'm really new to this, so I could just be missing something simple or doing something wrong, so any advice or suggestions would be a great help. Thanks!

[SirPeale]

You didn't say what kind (make/model) monitor you have, but it looks like your sync is off.

Moving to Monitor forum.

[afedock]

Sorry, I was unsure if this was a hardware or software issue. Its a WG 25K7191. Any advice on how I would go about checking the sync? And would it be recommended to change the capacitors out, as this is an older machine? Im not sure if/when they were changed last.

[SirPeale]

You just adjust the horizontal and vertical sync pots until you have a stable picture.

[scotthh]

Here's a great webpage about your monitor. Don't forget to download the pdf of the manual while you're there. If your monitor has a remote board, it looks like this. The first pot I'd adjust would be the v-hold. 

I only have about 3 weeks more experience with this monitor than you do, but I wouldn't change the caps unless there's a problem. It will cost you a fair bit to have a pro do it, and although the cap kit is under $10, do you really want to operate on your monitor with no experience for no reason?

[afedock]

Well, messing with the vertical hold did fix my problem when I opened the emulators, but now my windows desktop is scrolling vertical...Is it possible to get both not to scroll, like some magic spot on the vertical hold pot?

[SirPeale]

What resolution do you have your desktop at?

[afedock]

I changed it to 352 x 288 last night using switchres and with a little tweaking, I have a stable image on the desktop and in maximus arcade/emulators. Is there a recommended resolution for the desktop or console emulators?

[SirPeale]

Try 640x480.

[afedock]

ya, I had 640x480 before when I was having trouble. I might be able to get it to be a stable image sync on 640x480, but I still have a screen flicker, making text hard to read. I read somewhere you need to put it on a resolution that the monitor supports, like XXX x 288 to get rid of the flickering, which it did. Is this how it works? Just so I know for the future.

[ahofle]

Yes, 640x480 on an arcade monitor would be interlaced which is why it flickers in Windows.  You should not notice much (any?) flickering in games or front ends running 640x480i in my experience though.  Flicker is only really noticeable when you have 1 pixel horizontal lines of high contrast next to each other (like in windows).  As an example, the arcade game Tapper ran at 480 lines interlaced and does not flicker.

[afedock]

Ya, you are right. There is no flicker in the front end. A problem I do have though is my front end (maximus arcade) is running in 640 x 480 and only takes up like 1/2 the screen...There are no smaller resolutions, so is this just a short coming of the front end? I could change the monitor pots on the cabinet and make it fit the screen obviously, but then I would be screwing up my emulator's picture. Is there a way around this? or just get a new front end?

[Ummon]

Um, you're supposed to adjust it. What do you mean 'emulator's picture'?