.... bought a new monitor !!! All problems went away :-)

Posted on this last week: symptoms were .. DOS level
games very dark. RTCW showed no video brightness
control, and was also very dark. All OpenGL games
very dark. I could correct that problem using the Quake
Engine console commands. All modern 3D games
were correctable, but when returning to desktop, the
original desktop settings were dark, and had to be reset.
I'm amazed at how much this problem looked like
a problem with my new video card ( ATI Radeon ),
and how the problem did not show up when running
a Matrox G450 ????? Apparently the G450 has the
ability to set video in software, and that can override
the hardware settings that the ATI must use ??? I'm
guessing of course. I've got the monitor on the bench,
and I'll try to repair it. I'll bet it is a cable problem ..
broken pin maybe.

johns