Homework Assignment: Changing the Refresh Rate.

During our first day of class, Professor Jackson discussed all the of objectives of the A+ Certification class. We covered a lot of the motherboard components and even went over some different types of motherboards.

Our homework assignment was over Exercises 3.1 and 3.3 from the CompTIA A+ Certification manual.

3.1 Changing the Refresh Rate in Windows Vista. I didn't have Vista on my home computer so I had to wait until I went to work to do the exercise. I immediately noticed a difference as soon as I right clicked on the desktop. I had always been used to seeing Properties as an option instead of Personalize.

Personalize is a new option that allows users to adjust their monitors display settings. You can set several refresh rates. It even allows you the ability to set rates that may or may not be compatible with your monitor, so you want to make sure you know what works best.

The book states that the refresh rate is a scan frequency that scans vertically and it specifies how many times in one second the scanning beam of electrons redraws the screen in CRTs.

The steps were quite simple and it didn't take long to change them using a drop down menu of predetermined rates that are stored in hertz frequency.

Now to the Multimonitor. Whenever the need calls for more than one monitior hooked up to the same computer, the term is called Multimonitor. You may have a need to change the resolution and possibly the built in display.

For both options the process is a simple click process. You can choose to identify 1 or 2 monitors.

Exercise 3.3 Discussed Degaussing a CRT Monitor.

Degaussing is caused by reducing the magnetic field of an object. You can never fully neutralize an object's magnetic field, so all you can count on is reducing it. Electron beams guide through magnetic fields but LCD's do not. You can only degauss a CRT, never a LCD.

Degaussing:

Step 1: Attach a CRT to a working computer system and power on the monitor.

Step 2: Press the menu button on the front panel of the CRT cabinet.

-A menu will pop up that shows the results. The monitor will automatically detect the signal that is being receiving from the graphics adapter.-

Step 3: Use the up and down arrow keys on the front panel of the CRT to select the Extra Controls menu item.

Step 4: Press the menu button on the front panel to select the Extra Controls sub menu, shown here.

The final step, Step 5: Press the menu button on the front panel of the CRT because the Degauss menu item is already selected.

-There's a distinctive degaussing noise that you will hear to confirm the process. You will also notice some image distortion.