Readon HD 7310 Blurred text with overall faded look

[MilesAhead]

I updated my Laptop to the late3st drivers since it has had blurry text since day one.  Now it is even worse.  It seems the more I try to adjust it with Catalyst Control Center the worse it gets.  I tried "reset to factory defaults" and that was no improvement.

With the old driver at least video looked good.  Now video seems to have too much brightness.  Of course no matter how I calibrate color, brightness, contrast, gamma, there is no improvement.

Here's a screen shot to show how crappy text looks in any browser.

[dr_andus]

I updated my Laptop to the late3st drivers since it has had blurry text since day one.  Now it is even worse.  It seems the more I try to adjust it with Catalyst Control Center the worse it gets.  I tried "reset to factory defaults" and that was no improvement.

It sounds to me like you got off lightly  I have also recently updated Catalyst Control Center + driver and it wrecked my Win 7 PC (in collaboration with AVG, which 'helped' prevent a system restore, so I'm stuck with a half-bricked machine) . I will recount my story in a separate thread, as I'd like to ask for help with an in-place upgrade of Win 7 (which I never had to do before). But I will never ever update CCC again and will try to avoid AMD Radeon in the future, if I can help it.

[MilesAhead]

I took the easy way out and restored the Macrium image.  At least text is slightly less blurred and video does not look washed out.

US Open Tennis is happening this week and next.  Usually the Women's Singles Quarters have the best matches(next Tuesday.)  Last year they showed live video of 7 courts for free.  This year I don't know if you get to watch on ESPN3 if you go through the usopen.org web site.  But if you are on a .edu domain you get free ESPN3 access anyway.

It looks like Serena will tie Steffi Graf's records barring some misfortune.

[dr_andus]

I took the easy way out and restored the Macrium image.

It sounds like I have to learn how to do that to avoid these kinds of disasters in the future... 

[MilesAhead]

I took the easy way out and restored the Macrium image.

It sounds like I have to learn how to do that to avoid these kinds of disasters in the future... 

I recommend it.  Even the free version in 6.x comes with WinPE 5.x.  Of course nothing is totally fool proof.  Now that I am using the incremental backup it is worth buying as it avoids having to make a complete backup every time as I used to do.  It makes it practical to save an image even if you only installed a few utilities.

Of course with all these you have to make sure your hardware is totally compatible by actually saving an image and restoring it or at least booting the restore program and checking you can see the backup images on the media.  I had a series of HP Media Center towers and it seemed like every time I assumed the new tower was close enough to the old that the imaging program I am using should work without issue, some unpleasant surprise happens when I actually have to restore.  I had to jump around to various imaging brands due to minor HD controller differences.

But if the hw is not an issue these things are point and click now.  Very intuitive to use.

[Innuendo]

That blurry text almost looks like a resolution issue. What screen resolution are you running over there, Miles?

I've had Radeon cards for years & my old HD 5850 just keeps trucking along. The only trouble I've had is a bug in their most recent drivers with Diablo 3, but a work-around has been found for that so it hasn't impacted me significantly.

[Shades]

In my case I understand the sentiment of both sides. I have a Radeon 4670 (Sapphire) and that is a very reliable card, supports 2 monitors with different resolutions using the latest AMD driver that is intended for that card even in Windows 2012. I love this card. Before this card I always had ATI cards and these were great as well for their day.

However, I did upgrade to a newer Radeon HD 6450 (XFX) with the 15.6 version of the AMD driver and it doesn't properly support 2 monitors. Not in Windows 7, not in Windows 8, not in Windows 2012. I don't dare to try the new 15.8 beta driver as exchanging drivers is much more of a headache than it used to be. Compared with Nvidia's offerings on the low-end scale...the Nvidia's just work (like the old school ATI's and early AMD's did).

This last AMD card sure tempered my love and lust for the latest AMD graphic card offerings. I still think there isn't much wrong with the hardware itself, but the drivers (software) are a piece of sh.t. Now I don't know if the drivers are as problematic when they are combined with the high-end AMD cards, but I sure as hell won't spent a pile of money to find that out.

Unless AMD gets their drivers in order for their cards in every price range, my 15 year stint with ATI/AMD will end and my next video card will be a Nvidia. 

[MilesAhead]

That blurry text almost looks like a resolution issue. What screen resolution are you running over there, Miles?

I've had Radeon cards for years & my old HD 5850 just keeps trucking along. The only trouble I've had is a bug in their most recent drivers with Diablo 3, but a work-around has been found for that so it hasn't impacted me significantly.

It is a Toshiba Laptop using the built in screen.  I am using the highest res.  1366 x 768 which says Recommended.  I suppose I could try some of the 12nn x 768 for grins.

Edit:  I tried all the other resolutions and the text looks even worse.

[MilesAhead]

@shades the weird thing is I didn't try the 15.x driver for a long time because it is still labelled Beta.  It has been out for quite a while to be a beta.  It's like they gave up on it.

[MilesAhead]

For some reason I don't understand a 15.x driver package released this July has a 14.100.0.0 video driver.  What the machine came with.  But I did find a package with a 14.300.x driver.  I can't tell if it is any better but it seems to be no worse than the 14.100.x.  Only the driver wants to instll and I had to kill the hung installer.  But at least video still looks as good as the 14.100.x

I think I will quit unless something better pops up.
I switched the browser font to Ariel.  It is a bit easier to read.

[Innuendo]

It is a Toshiba Laptop using the built in screen.  I am using the highest res.  1366 x 768 which says Recommended.  I suppose I could try some of the 12nn x 768 for grins.

Edit:  I tried all the other resolutions and the text looks even worse.

That it's a laptop adds another layer of complexity. Some laptop manufacturers have customized mobility drivers that one must install in order to have a satisfactory experience. Installing vanilla drivers off the AMD site results in sub-par performance.

[MilesAhead]

It is a Toshiba Laptop using the built in screen.  I am using the highest res.  1366 x 768 which says Recommended.  I suppose I could try some of the 12nn x 768 for grins.

Edit:  I tried all the other resolutions and the text looks even worse.

That it's a laptop adds another layer of complexity. Some laptop manufacturers have customized mobility drivers that one must install in order to have a satisfactory experience. Installing vanilla drivers off the AMD site results in sub-par performance.

Since it came preloaded would not the driver be from the Toshiba set?  Another fly in the ointment with this is the only model number I have to work with is c55D-A which hardly narrows it down.  But I see many posts on Toshiba forums about fuzzy text and no mention of special drivers.

But I will take a look.  For Firefox this userChrome.css helps a bit
font.weight 800 important

but I haven't found a way to do it in chrome browsers.

Edit: from the bottom label it is a Toshiba Satellite Laptop C55D-A5201
I don't know why they just didn't put the whole number on the top label.  Duh. 

[MilesAhead]

Ok I found a driver posted in July on Toshiba site.  Supposedly it is a 15.200x driver.  It's a very slow download.  But maybe around noon I will be able to try it.

Edit: I don't understand.  It has the same 14.301.x AMD video driver.  The only thing different was an option to install "application profiles" whatever they are.  I installed them.  But everything looks the same.

[MilesAhead]

To hell with it.  I set minimum font size in FF and chrome to 18.  In chrome I set the font to Ariel Black.  At least now I can read the text. 

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