Major resolution issues after upgrades

I recently had a computer repair friendly family member upgrade my desktop computer. I had a Gigabyte B75M-D3H motherboard installed, new Samsung S27D360 monitor and a 2 TB hard drive. We then upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8 - 8.1. When we had Windows 8 installed the monitor looked great. The next morning I had an issue with some Windows 8 updates not loading correctly.


I spoke to a Microsoft tech that told me that I needed to re-install Windows 8. I did and then started downloading the available updates and then proceeded to get Windows 8.1. During the whole process, I noticed that the monitor never looked quite right. I tried another monitor and it also looked real bad. We couldn't get the computer to use the onboard video for some reason after making the changes in the bios to enable it.


I installed an Nvidia Quadro 2000 video card thinking that it would fix the issue. I installed the video card, downloaded the Nvidia utility, installed the newest driver and the monitor still looks like crap.


Does anyone know what I can do in layman's terms so I can get this monitor looking it best and like it should?


I thank your for your assistance!

 

Off the top of my head, if a new video card didn't fix the display issue and you cannot force the system to use the onboard GPU, I'd start looking at maybe the motherboard itself being faulty. Give this a shot: Remove the CMOS battery (The big CR2032 button-cell battery in a (probably) black plastic holder somewhere on the motherboard) for 10 seconds and then put it back in. Or if you're motherboard has a CMOS reset jumper or button, do that instead (Read the motherboard manual for how to use the CMOS reset jumper) and see if that fixes the issue (It might just fix the onboard GPU issue). Also, is your BIOS keeping time or reverting to default at start-up (Clear indicator the CMOS battery is dead and needs replacing)?

If possible, could you define how it looks bad. Give a mental picture of what you see. It could help figure out what's wrong. Also, have you tried a different monitor? It could very well be the monitor. It's not rare for a monitor to fail within a short period. Or it simply could be the monitor's cable that's faulty (Usually caused by someone forcing the connector and bending/breaking pins).

 

I'm not 100 % sure but I think the issue is resolved. After a lot of uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. It looks a whole hell of a lot better than before. I think it could still look better being that it is using a much better video card and monitor but I can live with this. I will still look into what you suggested just in case. I did actually try using another monitor and cable and still had the same issue. Thanks for helping!

 

For best results, you should be using the screens native resolution. That appears to be a 27" panel with a resolution of 1920x1080. And I don't know if you've used a 27" panel before, but at a normal desktop viewing distance, a standard 24" panel (same native resolution) will appear much sharper. The difference is the pixel size.

Also, the Quadro series is not a performance line. It's the multiple monitor business class card. Not that it matters in the context of what you have stated so far.