Some Things On My Screen Are Bleached Out

[Bert45]

It may be a coincidence, but our electrician did something a couple of days ago that cut the power to my PC (Windows 7 home premium)-- twice. Since then, or approximately since then, my screen has not been the same. I was looking for light switches (Screwfix) but they were impossible to see (white switch on white background). When I look at Google Maps, the names of the streets are there, but the black lines showing the edges of the street are invisible. [The yellow main roads appear OK.] My s-i-l , who knows a bit about computers, self-taught, spent about an hour searching for a 'fix', but gave up in the end. It seems that other people have had this problem, but some say it will right itself in time -- but how long do I wait? My s-i-l reckons it was probably not the power cuts that caused the problem. One online solution said go to 'Options', but 'Options' did not appear on the menu.

[wolf63]

Are you sure that it is plugged in and not running on battery power?

I admit that I know less than nothing about computers but, sometimes, we tend to overlook the simplest solutions.

[Bert45]

Q1 Yes Q2 No

[Iamcazzy]

Bit of a long shot, but could this be something to do with the contrast settings on the monitor? This could account for the white switches disappearing into the background. I can't offer an explanation as to how this coincided with the electrician's visit, but it may be worth checking.

[Etch]

It sounds as if your graphics brightness level has been turned up too high. Right click on the desktop (background) and select 'Graphics Properties...'. On my PC Brightness is under 'Display, Color Enhancement' and is set to 0 (zero). If yours is higher then turn it down, or click on 'Restore Defaults' if this option is available.

[Bert45]

Etch, your idea is a good one, but I've restored the monitor to 'Factory Settings' and the screens look just the same. i.e bleached out. There must be something going on that I'm not aware of. My computer skills are practically zero; I certainly did nothing to alter any settings which could have resulted in this bleaching. Isn't it weird that the street names in black in Google Maps are clear, but the street edges in black are bleached out? Either the power cuts have had some effect, or the Google people have been tinkering with their programs.

[Buenchico]

^^^ That's not actually what Etch was referring to, Bert.

There are TWO things that affect the way the display on your monitor looks. Firstly, your computer has to be sending it a nice clear signal and then your monitor needs to be configured to display that signal correctly. Even if performing a 'factory reset' on your monitor has got it close to where its settings need to be, that isn't going to help if your computer is sending it a poor quality signal in the first place.

It's the 'sending' end of things (i.e. the settings on your computer) that Etch has suggested need investigating, rather than the 'receiving' end (i.e. the settings on your monitor).

As Etch has suggested, right-click on your desktop and select 'Graphics properties'. What you see then will depend upon the graphics card in your computer. I'll show you what I see but you'll probably see things a bit differently. (The principles remain the same though):

When I select 'Graphics properties', I see this:
https://i.postimg.cc/SsX6TfmN/1.jpg

From there, I need to select 'Display', to get to this:
https://i.postimg.cc/pXkmjnt0/2.jpg

Selecting 'Color Settings' (horrid US spelling!) gets me to this:
https://i.postimg.cc/dVptR2N9/3.jpg

Then I can move the Brightness and Contrast sliders to get the image on my screen looking how I want it to be.

I use this test card to check that what I'm seeing on my screen is being shown at its very best:
https://reeddesign.co.uk/testcard.htm

The six blocks of colour should each be bright and clear while, importantly, every number from 1 to 10 should stand out clearly on the bottom two lines.