Well, today they upgraded my computer at work and I KEPT the same screen. However, this new machine has a newer and better graphics card in it.
Immediately when I logged in looking at the same screen but with a new card powering it, I knew I was in the shit. My stomach dropped like I was on a roller coaster. And now I am dizzy as all hell. The screen looks much better I must say – sharper etc. I’ve done the usual turning down of the brightness and contrast but to no avail. I feel like I’m going to throw up to be honest.
I asked them to bring up the new screen that came with this. A wide screen but finer looking. It’s either going to be hell on earth or better in that it will be more like looking at a magazine cover.
It took me two weeks to get used to the iPad in small doses. The same may apply here but I can’t have the breaks which is a worry. Here it’s all on for hours on end.
What a complete pain in the ass this problem is. EVERY time I change screens I get dropped into hell.
UPDATE: Now trialling a newer Dell widescreen. This one appears to be much softer on the eyes in terms of intensity but it is sending me into orbit big time. Horrendous. I LOVE the look of this screen but this brain is throwing all of the toys out of the pram. Not happy
Scott there’s only one thing for it - you’re going to have to timewarp back to the pre-digital age :lol:
but seriously what a major pi**er - what can’t this MAV sh*t just go away - or why can’t you have had a day like mine - crappy MAV week, in a fit of defiance I had 2 glasses of red wine last night and today I feel - er - great?!! WTF???
I wonder what it is about the scree / graphics card - the refresh rate?
It’s a real nightmare Gabrielle. It really makes me feel so ill at work I cannot describe it … but sure everyone gets it. I have been knocking back Valium. As soon as I leave my seat and go out into the real world I’ll really feel the full impact of this I know. Sleep will be a mess tonight and depression will follow as always with the severe visual vertigo events.
The strategy is to bring in my Mac laptop tomorrow and use that most of the time but use this one for short periods only – maybe 15 min sessions --and then give my brain a chance to recover. It took 2 weeks to be able to use the screen in here back when I moved in May and 2 weeks to grow accustomed to the iPad. I can do it again. Just pure torture the whole way there. It should work if I persevere. This screen looks awesome too … I can get two A4 pages up side by side no problems at all.
Scott - couldn’t agree more about what a pain this computer saga is. A couple of weeks ago my computer crashed and I had to use my husband’s laptop to do my work on (proofreading)in order to meet my deadline. What a nightmare! Between the widescreen (can’t get on with wide screen at all), non matt screen surface and black high gloss surround, I ended up nauseous and with huge visual problems and accompanying dizziness. Nowhere near as bad as your problems I know but all the same it makes me feel so sympathetic to your situation. Hope it resolves soon.
Sorry to hear you are going through this again. I have exactly the same problems and take time to adjust to any new screen (even on a phone!), although I’m luckier than you in that it only takes me a couple of days to work through it. I find it difficult at work because sometimes I have to use computers other than my own, and any one I’m not used to sets off a feeling like I am motion sick, and then brings on migraine symptoms.
I know it’s really hard for you, but you do always get through it/adjust eventually, so you will get back to normal (or as normal as we can be!) again.
Just had a call from the UK Migraine Study woman. Will post about that separately.
i have an old atari with the game “pong” on it. let me fiddle with uploading some software and add some memory to it to make it compatible for your profession and you will be good to go!
and … you can play “pong” till your heart’s desire
I’m so sorry you’re going through this crap again, Scott.
I know I’ve said this before, but just because something is all high tech doesn’t make it better, and the thing that makes me nuts every Sunday morning is how they went and changed the Meet the Press set (news show in the US). There are giant screens behind people with moving stuff going on constantly behind the talking heads, and where there aren’t screens there are bookcases crammed full of books - as if people on TV talk shows pull down some of those books on commercial breaks to pass the time!! They used to have the simplest of sets. No more.
Even Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program has zippy little graphics going on behind him all the time on his Sunday morning show.
Why can’t we watch a person simply talk and give an opinion? Do we need multiple moving colors and junk in the background ALL the time?
My migraine brain finds it disturbing. It doesn’t exactly make me dizzy now that I’m on medication, but it feels like I’m on the brink.
I do the same - use the crummy job-provided monitor just for little spurts of time. It’s amazing how bad some monitors are; at first I thought there was something wrong with it but then realized they’re all that bad. I use my Mac laptop the most.
I just marched down to IT and told them I want the old set up back. I was so ill last night it was insane. All night I had crazy dreams and felt like someone shot some LSD into my veins. Today head achy as hell and off balance.
The IT people think I’m nuts I know but I don’t care. Why would I not want this fantastic big computer?
So I told them I want the old machine back with a reinstall of Winblows and another Gig or RAM. The guy actually went on a spiel about how technology has advanced and I’d need a more powerful unit eventually. I laughed my ass off. They STILL use Winblows XP in here – a ten year old operating system! When I said that, the conversation was over and they are going to sort it out my way. I have to get work done. I can’t be screwing around with this at the moment feeling this bad at work.
VERY disappointing because this new screen looks sensational. My brain disagrees.
I’m not giving up the fight yet guys. I’m sitting here looking at a wide screen turned down so low now I practically need a flashlight (torch) to see the damned thing. I figure by reducing the contrast and brightness to the lowest possible levels (i.e. reduce impact), it has to reduce the impact on this screwed up VOR of mine. COME ON BRAIN … adapt for Gawd sakes. I’m over it.
Meanwhile I am off my face with disorientation and some derealisation. I feel like I’m totally faking being normal right now. I can hear Valium screaming out to me.
I’m pretty certain this mission will fail really but I’m going to make certain. After all the iPad kicked the sh*t out of me too (although not this bad) and I suddenly, one day, got over it after 2 weeks of shirt doses.
Scott, It’s pretty basic so isnt going to work a miracle, but have you tried a simple coloured overlay on your screen? It has helped me about 40% which I’d take over nothing… crossboweducation.com/monitor_overlays.htm
It wasn’t clear that this is all fully accepted as science based, but when I read something about this Irlen thing involving people having an issue with words “jumping off the page,” I just about jumped out of my chair.
One of my favorite books in childhood was “Sam and the Firefly” - the word “Sam” on the cover of the book was in big red letters, and I remember that especially in low light, the word Sam would wobble, almost dance. This wasn’t any high tech thing - it was in the 60’s - so there was nothing fancy or reflective about the lettering on this book cover. But I used to delight in making that word jiggle.
Now I wonder if my brain has this other challenge (trigger?) that I hadn’t known about before. I don’t do a lot of reading at any one sitting any more - I wonder if this is because I’ve learned it’s just too hard on me. I haven’t done much reading in low light as an adult, so I don’t remember any words dancing like that since I was a kid - but my brain may be working hard to keep everything “together” and anchored on the page, and maybe I’ve just learned to steer clear of visual activities that would fatigue me too much.
Scott, I am still in the same exact hell as you when it comes to computers, but your experience may have shed some light on why I’m having problems with the exact monitor that I use at work when I bought it for my home computer (which has a different graphics card). It seemed to me that there was just no rhyme or reason as to why one would bother me and not the other. With that said, I’m still f’ed when it comes to this and have yet to find another monitor I can use with it – please keep us in the loop, maybe we can eventually figure something out together!
Adrir – I can tell you with 100% certainty that the graphics card matters. It was never so stark as last week when I changed the box but not the screen. It sent me flying immediately. I had always thought it was all to do with the screen. Yet another variable to contend with. :roll:
There are all kinds of pieces involved in computer displays, from refresh rates to color correctness to sub-pixel hinting and anti-aliasing of text/graphics, to color correction, gamma correction, brightness, contrast, etc…etc…etc…
Scott: Out of curiosity, when you mentioned that you adjusted the brightness/contrast etc… where did you make those adjustments, on the monitor itself or inside the video card configuration? If the video card really is the kicker here, then making adjustments to the monitor might not be the way to go. Most modern video cards (Intel, Ati, etc…) have a configuration utility to allow you to change the settings of the card itself - I would start there (guessing you already did, but who knows).
With all of the people on this forum having visual stimuli (myself included) as a trigger, especially computer monitors… there HAS to be some sort of identifiable aspect to it. Someone somewhere should be able to pinpoint exactly what setting/attribute of a monitor/video card combination is a trigger.
I know we’re all different, but it just seems to me that there must be some commonality.
