Please don't take this as me being a smart alec but.. have you tried your monitor settings controls on your montior itself?

Um... yes. By brightness and contrast controls are maxed out. They have been for years, but everything is very dark. I've done some research into other monitors as well just to see if it was my own monitor, but... in every display model I saw in stores (CRT, LCD, etc.) the monitors were very dark even with high brightness and contrast settings (which I made sure to set while there). I'm positive that the industry must consider this a "feature" somehow.

Seriously, no one has any ideas? I can't be the only one with this problem...

I don't get why nVIDIA control panel gamma should not work for them.

Honestly, I don't know why the nVidia control panel doesn't work. It never has on any system or HD instance I've used. I think it has something to do with the games using too early a version of DirectX or something. They're just too old for the control panel to affect.

A-ha! I think I now know why the nVidia control panel doesn't work on these games -- it's probably because they're not hardware accelerated!

There must be some way to work around this.

EDIT: I once heard tell of a screw in the back of CRT monitors that could control static charge, and that this could affect brightness. Anyone have any ideas?

I got it! I got the answer: RivaTuner. It allows you to alter your monitor levels rather than your simple desktop and overlay levels.

Shoal wrote:

EDIT: I once heard tell of a screw in the back of CRT monitors that could control static charge, and that this could affect brightness. Anyone have any ideas?

Most CRT monitors have a potentiometer inside to control the intensity of the cathode rays. Some people like to turn it up to compensate for a worn out phosphor coating (which usually happens with CRTs at a certain age, resulting in a dark picture), but usually this method of "refurbishing" a monitor gives you a more blurred and washed-out picture along with more brightness. The increased intensity also causes the phosphor coating to deteriorate even faster, radiation and static charge levels will also go up, so fiddling with the pots inside a monitor usually doesn't make sense unless you know exactly what you do.

When your old CRT is dying, I think it's time to move on. Get a decent TFT. Love them. 😁

When your old CRT is dying don't just get a "decent" TFT. Do your research and get a TFT you'll be happy with.....