Improve the Refresh Rate Of Your MonitorBy Matthew Elton

Copyright 2006 Matthew Elton

Your monitor’s refresh rate is how many images it displays each second.  For instance, when you move the mouse to the right, your monitor displays an image of the mouse in one spot, then an image of the mouse a tiny bit to the right, then another image of the mouse a little bit further to the right, and so on.  Most monitors display about 75 hertz, that’s 75 images a second (it’s actually 75 images per process cycle but that’s around a second for most computers.)  If your monitor refresh rate is lower than 75 hertz, your monitor might flicker, which can make your eyes tired after prolonged use. The flicker is especially noticeable with CRT monitors (the big, old monitors). Higher refresh rates mean less flickering. So, to minimize the amount of flickering on your computer screen, you should set your refresh rate as high as possible.

To change your refresh-rate, go to Display Properties by right clicking on your desktop and clicking “Properties” or by going to the Control Panel and opening “Display.”

In the Display Properties window, click on “Settings.” The Display Properties window should look similar to this:

Click on the “Advanced” button. A new window will appear.  Under the “general” tab, make sure it is set to “apply new changes without restarting.” If it is set to this, when you apply a new refresh-rate, your screen will immediately change to that refresh-rate and a box will ask you if you want to keep the refresh-rate or not.  If you don’t click anything for fifteen seconds, the box will disappear and the screen will change back to the old refresh-rate.  This is because not all monitors can support certain refresh-rates.  If you change to a refresh-rate your monitor can’t support, your screen will get all messed up, but if you have it set to “apply new changes without restarting,” then your screen will go back to normal after fifteen seconds, unless you click “yes” in the box that asks if you want to keep the new display settings.  If you have it set to “restart the computer before applying new display settings,” then your computer will restart and if you have it set to a refresh-rate your screen can’t support, then the screen will be messed up, and in some versions of windows, it may not change back after fifteen seconds. If this happens, you’ll have to change your refresh rate back by booting Windows in Safe Mode by pressing F8

when Windows is loading, or reinstalling Windows completely (Or, if you are running Windows 3.11 or 95, then you can use a DOS boot disk to load C:\windows\setup.exe and change your refresh-rate back).  So when changing refresh-rate, make sure you have “apply new changes without restarting” selected.

Once you’ve selected “apply new changes without restarting” click “Apply.”  Then click “Monitor” (in some versions of Windows click “Adapter”).  You’ll see a white box with your refresh rate listed in it (such as “60 Hertz” or “Adapter Default”).  Click on the box, and a drop down menu will appear with other refresh rates. The window should look similar to this:

  Select the highest refresh rate available and click on the “Apply” button. If you have “apply new changes without restarting” enabled then your screen will go blank for a

second, then appear again with the new refresh-rate.  If your screen is all messed up, then your monitor can’t support the refresh-rate you chose.  Don’t panic, it won’t cause any harm to your monitor.  In fifteen seconds, your screen will go back to normal. If your monitor can support that refresh-rate, you should clearly see a box saying “Would you like to keep these changes” or something like that.  Click “yes” to keep the new refresh-rate (you can always change it back later), or, if you don’t like it because the screen is flickering or distorted, click “no.” If   you don’t click anything for fifteen seconds, your computer will automatically chose “no” and your screen will go back to the old refresh-rate.

If the highest refresh rate didn’t work, chose the next lowest one.  If that one doesn’t work, chose the next lower one after that.  This way, you can find the highest refresh rate your monitor can support. You may see an “Optimal” setting. You may want to try the Optimal setting, however, it may not be the very highest refresh rate available, so I recommend comparing the Optimal setting to the highest refresh rate listed and seeing which looks better.

If your computer monitor can only run at 60 hertz, then its most likely because your computer video card (also known as a graphics card) can only support a 60 hertz refresh rate.  Or, your video card can support a higher refresh rate, but it is running outdated drivers.  Drivers are the software Windows uses to run your hardware.

For more information on drivers, and how to update your drivers, see here.  I recommend that you update the drivers for your video card, and your computer monitor.  If you are still not able to run your monitor at a higher refresh rate, you may have to purchase a new video card in order to run at a refresh rate higher than 60 hertz.  If your monitor is really old (for instance, if it was made before 1995) then it may not be able to run higher than 60 hertz.  This is unlikely, but if this is the case, you may have to buy a new monitor instead of a new video card, or, buy a new monitor in addition to a new video card.