What would cause my screen to look like this?

[turbofiat]

Hi. This is my first post. I would search for this question but I don't know what to call what the screen looks like. I thought "opaque" was the correct terminology but it's not. Let's call it "House of mirrors" look.

This happens when trying to run MAME (28) and Stella.

This only happens on two computers I have. One is a Dell and the other one is an HP. The Dell was made around 2002 and the HP Pavillion was built in 1999. The Dell is running XP and the HP is running Windows 2000 Pro.

I don't think it's the monitor but I could be wrong. I'm thinking it has something to do with the video controllers. Both PCs have onboard VGA systems.

Any ideas as to what would cause this or how to correct it?

 

[Jale]

That's called a pincushion. Try adjusting the pincushion settings in your monitor or set another video resolution if possible.

 

[cibomatto2002]

Can you reset your Monitor? There should be a setting on the Monitor to reset it.

 

[ulaoulao]

That is a computer monitor yes? Does the desktop look like that? If its just the emulator it has to be a filter or something up with the video card in that mode. It is pincushioned but if your desktop is ok its not the monitor.

 

[turbofiat]

That is a computer monitor yes? Does the desktop look like that? If its just the emulator it has to be a filter or something up with the video card in that mode. It is pincushioned but if your desktop is ok its not the monitor.

Yes it's a computer monitor and yes it just happens when MAME or Stella is running. The desktop and all other programs look just fine.

I've used this same monitor on other PCs and MAME and Stella look just fine when something like a Gateway is plugged into it. But swap the monitor to this particular Dell or HP Pavillion and the screen is stretched in the center. So yeah, it's something to do with the PC's VGA system, not the monitor. But why it is just while running emulators written for Windows 95?

This computer is out in my garage. I don't want to put anything of any real value out there due to spiders, dirt, moisture, etc. So I have a collection of old discarded computers people have given to me I have patched up with used parts. Like pre 1 GHz processors with < 512 MB.

I just recently put this Dell out there because it can run XP on it without bogging down. I like some of the features of XP but Windows 2000 Pro runs better and faster in my opinion.

Also my old Gateway has an old style joystick port so I can use PC Rader controllers. This Dell doesn't have a game port other than USB ports.