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Samsung Monitor Gripes The SyncMaster 753DF is a flat screen 17" CRT Montor

Getting Started Guide 

May 4, 2002. The getting started guide is PN: BH68-00376H-00 (part number?)

It refers to "drives" when it means "drivers". 

When giving instructions about where to browse on the software CD-ROM to find the driver, it consistently says: 
     Click the "Browse" button then chose A:W(D:WDriver)   
The typo is on their part, not mine. It says this in four separate sections; in the instructions for installing the driver in Windows XP, 2000, 98/Me and 95. I can't even guess where a "W" with a strikethrough came from. 

Installing Driver Under Windows 2000

May 4, 2002. This monitor replaced an old one. The first time Windows 2000 SP2 was booted with the new monitor it said nothing about it. In contrast, Windows 98 running on the same computer in another partition (below), detected the presence of the new monitor at boot time. The Windows 2000 Device Manager showed only a default monitor (just an FYI). 

The driver (version 1.1.0.0) has no Microsoft digital signature which means that it is not guaranteed to work with Windows 2000. It worked. 

The instructions from Samsung for auto installing the Windows 2000 driver, are for both Windows XP and 2000. In reality they are for XP only as the screens and messages in Windows 2000 differed from the instructions. 

After installing the driver, I wanted to change the refresh rate to 85 HZ. Windows 2000 can list all the modes supported by the video hardware as shown here on the right for a laptop monitor. 

At a resolution of 800x600 with 16 bit color, the fastest refresh rate available was 75Hz. I tried using 800x600 with 256 colors at a refresh rate of 90Hz, but there was a problem. The screen had a stripe down the right hand edge. It was about as wide as the scrollbar you see for this web page. The colors in the stripe were somewhat correct, but they were off enough that the stripe was quite noticeable. 

Why this happened I have no idea. Upping the refresh rate from 90Hz to 100Hz, with the same screen resolution and number of colors, got rid of the stripe, but moved the image off-center on the screen. I settled on 800x600 with 16 bit color and a 75Hz refresh rate. 

I'm not sure if the fault lies with the video hardware, the monitor or a bit of both. The monitor can do 85Hz with an 800x600 screen resolution. The capability of any computer to display a certain screen resolution, with a certain number of colors at a certain refresh rate, is a function of both the monitor and the video hardware. Where you draw the line is confusing, at least to me. The HTML user guide for the monitor includes a table of "Preset Timing Modes". Just what a preset timing mode is, is not explained. For example, the table shows that when displaying an 800x600 image, the monitor has preset timing modes of 75.000Hz and 85.061Hz. 

Why it didn't like 90Hz, but did like 100Hz, I don't know. The option to hide video modes that the monitor can not display was turn on (this is in the Monitor tab). 

FYI: The computer dates from early 1997 and has an ATI 3D Rage GT-A video card.

Installing Driver Under Windows 98

May 4, 2002. The instructions for installing the monitor driver under Windows 98 all assume that the OS is already up and running. To start there, you would have had to install the monitor with the computer running. Not good. 

I installed the monitor (which replaced an older one) with the computer off and then booted Windows 98. The OS detected the presence of the new device and asked about installing its drivers. The documentation that came with the monitor did not say what to do, so I cancelled out of the Windows 98 to find a new driver and the OS started up. 

Then I inserted the software CD-ROM and clicked on the option to install a Windows 98 driver. No go. It complained that it "can not find installed monitor section. Please reboot the computer first." I guess, canceling out was the wrong thing to do. Bad documentation. 

After rebooting, Windows 98 again found new hardware and wanted a driver for it. All the Samsung documentation on this is now useless. I told Windows 98 to search the CD-ROM drive for a driver, but it did not find one there for this monitor. All it could come up with was a generic "plug and play monitor". Then I browsed the CD-ROM myself and found a folder called "driver". When I told Windows 98 to search the "driver" folder on the CD-ROM, it found a driver for the 753DF monitor. 

Traversing from the Display Properties window to the Settings tab to the Advanced button, there is now a Monitor tab that was not there after I had canceled out of the driver install the first time. 

Upgrading the Windows 2000 Monitor Driver

May 4, 2002. The documentation correctly said that the driver that shipped on the software CD-ROM included with the monitor was not digitally signed. Suffice it to say that digitally signed drivers for Windows 2000 are very likely better than unsigned ones. The documentation also correctly said that a newer version of the driver could be found at their web site. I found a driver for the 753DF monitor there, downloaded it and installed it under Windows 2000 SP2. 

The downloaded driver was an executable file (.exe). When I ran it, it unzipped four files. Then nothing. No instructions on what to do next. In fact, it was not even clear which folder the four files were extracted to. This is because the unzip utility only displayed 8.3 file names rather than long file names. To illustrate, it said the unzipped files were in 
     C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\ LOCALS~1\TEMP
The first folder, for example, is really "Documents and Settings", but you have to figure this out for yourself. Even if you figure out the real folder where the four files were extracted, you then have to figure out which are the four files. They are not installed in their own directory, instead they share a common temp folder with many other files. 

I guessed that the program I should run (and it was a guess) was called setup2000.exe. The properties of the file said it was a monitor driver installer. This was the correct program and it ran fine. 

An inquiry now shows that the monitor driver is digitally signed. I would like to report on the version of the driver, but it does not say. All I can determine is that it is dated January 1, 2000. There are a couple places where the driver is supposed to report its version (Display Properties -> Settings Tab -> Advanced Button -> Monitor tab), but it does not. 

Update: April 12, 2006. As of today, this is the link for manuals for this monitor. There is a link there for drivers too. The links published here in 2002 no longer work. The Windows 2000 driver download is a Zip file dated September 25, 2003.