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September 21, 2002

19 Inches

I finally gave up and went shopping for a new monitor. I've had my current MAG MX17H for 3 years now, and couldn't put up with the pincushioned fuzziness any more. I bought it one cold January afternoon in 1999 at the University's monthly computer rummage sale for $20. It was 8 years old at the time, and the "AS IS" sticker didn't fill me with confidence. I decided to throw caution and common sense to the wind and bought it. With my friend Ryan's help, we carried the 50 lb monster across campus to Angela's car. Imagine my surprise when we turned it on and found out it worked.

That monitor served me well. But today I bought a new one. A ViewSonic A90F. 19" of crisp display goodness. That is, until about 9:00 tonight.

All of the sudden, the picture started shaking at 1280x1024 at 75 Hz. I don't mean flickering, it's like it's quivering on the spot. It was working fine all day. If I crank it down to 60 Hz, the shaking is gone, but then I have to deal with a crappy refresh rate. So I called tech support. A very friendly woman took the call and after 5 minutes told me the monitor was defective and should be taken back to the store for a replacement.

Great. I hope Staples is willing to come here and pick it up because I'm not carrying this thing over on my bike.

00:00 | Nerd

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