Computer Image Quality Question

[Rick In San Jose]

Problem solved. Thanks.

[Grace]

What kind of monitor do you have? Brand/model/year?

[IceSkate98]

Before DSL was finally available in my area, I was using dial-up with the Accelerator feature. That was supposed to speed things up, but it also caused photos to be blurry, make the colors bleed and be as you described ... grainy bands and blotches.

I usually turned the Accelerator feature off because of that. It also didn't really speed up things that much. If you're using dial-up, turn the Accelerator off or just select "normal" and all the graphics should clear up.

If it's not that, go to the control panel and check under "appearance and performance" to see if you're using the highest resolution on your computer.

[Rick In San Jose]

Before DSL was finally available in my area, I was using dial-up with the Accelerator feature. That was supposed to speed things up, but it also caused photos to be blurry, make the colors bleed and be as you described ... grainy bands and blotches.

I usually turned the Accelerator feature off because of that. It also didn't really speed up things that much. If you're using dial-up, turn the Accelerator off or just select "normal" and all the graphics should clear up.

If it's not that, go to the control panel and check under "appearance and performance" to see if you're using the highest resolution on your computer.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have AOL 9.0 VR Dial-up, and tried all your suggestions individually and together. Unfortunately, this didn't resolve the issue. Maybe my monitor, being ~6 years old, is obsolete and can't display certain high-resolution images properly regardless of browser and resolution settings.

It's discouraging to see a great thumbnail image of Michelle -- or another person or subject -- and click on it, only to have it appear in such low quality.

[IceSkate98]

Rick, I thought of something else. Make sure you set the accelerator to "normal" when you first sign on and go to your homepage. I remember that if I went ahead and visited a website (including MKF) before making sure I had the accelerator set to "normal" that all the photos looked blurry.

It was too late afterwards to set the accelerator to "normal" while I was still online and the photos would still look blurry. I would make that mistake a lot when I would try to upload photos to my photobucket acct. I would forget to set the accelerator to "normal".

What I did to solve the problem was to go ahead and set the accelerator to "normal" and restart my laptop. That usually would clear up the problem and I could see the photos the way they were meant to be. Try restarting it with the accelerator already set, and I hope it works for you.

[IceSkate98]

Rick, I just found this doing a Google search about graphics and images being blurry. LOL!

America Online utilizes graphics compression software that speeds up the delivery of web pages to it's members by compressing images and various multimedia applications. Images that are BMP, GIF or JPG are converted into the proprietary Johnson-Grace image format .ART. All AOL members have the option of deselecting "Used Compressed Graphics" in their Web Preferences. A.This is a Caching issue. In your WWW preferences you can set your history to "0" pages and clear the History.

[gratefulmkfan]

I just wanted to say how cool it is of you all to pitch in to solve Rick's photo problems. You're really nice. You helping him made me feel good.

[Rick In San Jose]

I just wanted to say how cool it is of you all to pitch in to solve Rick's photo problems. You're really nice. You helping him made me feel good.

I truly appreciate it as well, everyone. Given that Michelle is an example of the best of humanity, I'm not at all surprised that she would attract similar people as fans.

[IceSkate98]

Awww! That is so sweet! Thank you both for such a wonderful compliment. It made my day. I definitely agree about the wonderful members and friends here at MKF and it is so true about Michelle being an example of the best of humanity.