I have been having problems with the Princeton 20″ monitor I had connected to my Mac mini at work. (Original Mac mini G4 1.42ghz). So I returned it to Costco and picked up the Acer AL2223W from Newegg.com. This is a good looking monitor, and it is big. The color and crispness is far better than the Princeton one, though not as good as my Apple Cinema Display at home.
[Digg]
All in all I really like this new monitor, though I have been having one problem. And I think it may be the computers fault not the monitors.
Every so often, usually when something graphically intensive is happening the screen does a nasty flick of dots and lines then goes back to normal. This is very evident with the page flip animation turned on in Zinio (magazine reader). It happens occasionally at other times but over all it does not bug me to much.
I am wondering if this is because of a compatibility problem with the computer, or lack of graphics OOmph on the Mac minis side. I will look into and post any updates at the end of this post.
Over this monitor offers great bang for your buck, has good color, brightness, and is HUGE.
UPDATE: (2-20-07) I recently switched to using this monitor with a Macbook Pro 15, 256mb card. I have had no problems since then. Also I was able to fix the problem by using a program called SwitchResX and forcing the computer to use a 60hz output to the monitor instead of the 61 that Mac OS X wanted to use. Though this is not a problem on the Macbook Pro.
UPDATE: (5-28-07) There have been a lot of people coming to this post when typing Win XP and or Win Vista drivers for this monitor. I would recommend this: use the installed drivers that come with Win XP or Vista, if those are giving you problems make sure that you have your computer completely updated, additional files that only download if you click customize the updates ( or something along those lines) may be available that make this monitor work. If all of this does not work try the link provided in the comments section by André Franciosi, though fair warning I have not personally tried them and cannot verify that they work. Use at your own risk.
Let me know in the comments if those work for you. Thanks!
I have this monitor, and I have experienced something similar, however I am using it on a Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 machine (Dell XPS Gen 5 with nVidia GeForce 7800 GT).
What surprised me right off the bat when I received the monitor (from newegg.com) was the absence of a driver CD. I immediately began searching online, and have been frustrated to no end trying to locate a driver on Acer’s website. I am unable to connect to Acer’s US website (I either get broken links or time-outs), so I did a driver search on the Euro site. The closest product matches on the Euro site are for the AL2216W and the AL2423W. There is no AL2223W listed!
In the meantime, I have been using default Plug n Play drivers installed by Windows, and they work ok 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I get varying screen artifacts and choppiness, and my most recent experience has been a BSOD. Granted, this could be my video card, however I keep these drivers up-to-date, and I have used two different video cards with this system.
I suppose this is partly a product review, and partly a cry for help. If anyone can explain to me how to successfully navigate Acer’s global system of websites to download a driver for this guy, please reply here!
showngo,
I just bought an Acer X221WSD that is similar in specs to your AL2223W. Unfortunately, I can not get my Mac, OS 10.4.8, G3/500 with ATI Rage 128 Pro 16MB AGP (2x) card in it connected via DVI. The System Profile on this card is listed below. The ATI card specs says that it should support 1680×1050 but all I can get is 1280×1024.
I have been trying SwitchResX but I still can’t get anything more than 1280×1024. Would you mind providing me with your Custom settings for Pixel Clock, resolution, horizontal/vertical refresh rates, and anything else you think I should have to get this working?
Thanks,
Rob
———————————-
ATY,Rage128Pro:
Chipset Model: ATY,Rage128Pro
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-A
VRAM (Total): 16 MB
Vendor: ATI (0×1002)
Device ID: 0×5046
Revision ID: 0×0000
ROM Revision: 113-72701-130
Displays:
X221W:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Depth: 16-bit Color
Built-In: Yes
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported
Yeah with that ATI 16 megs is not enuff to get to those resolutions and even if you do, it would probably chunk so bad. Use the lower rez to get better performance.
Jim
Here it is for Windows Vista and XP,
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/monitor/lcd/AL2223We_Vista_XP_Driver.zip
Hey all since this seems to be getting alot of hits, I searched the acer site and was able to update to the driver that you can get from them, its a bit of a clugey way of doing it but it does work, pasting below fyi, take care
To install monitor drivers in Microsoft Windows Vista:
Go to the Control Panel by clicking the Start button then Control Panel.
Click Appearance and Personalization, Personalization, then Display Settings. Now click the Advanced Settings button.
Now click the Monitor tab then the Properties button. Click the Diver tab then the Update Driver button. This will open the Update Driver Software window.
Click the Browse my computer for driver software button then click the “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” button.
Click the “Have Disk…” button, this will open the “Install from disk” window.
Click the Browse button then navigate to the folder you extracted the monitor driver to (I.E. c:\al1912drv). Select the driver file (I.E. AL1912.INF) and click Open. Then click the “OK” button. This will bring you back to the hardware wizard. Click Next again.
If you get a message that the driver is not has not passed Windows Logo testing click the “Continue anyway” button.
The driver will install now. When it’s done click the “Finish” button.
I just picked up this display from Newegg and am trying to use it on a G4 1.4 GHz mini. My video card is a ATI Radeon 9200 w/ 32MB of ram. When I plug the monitor in it reports ‘no signal’. I am able to get it using VNC and look at the desktop so I switched to a lower res setting (1360×768, It defaults to 1680×1050) and then the monitor gets signal and works great. I’ve tried multiple DVI cables, still no love. Did you have any similar issues while connecting to your mini, or do I have a bad monitor, or maybe a bad video card?
I got a pair of these on Memorial Day (US) at Best Buy of all places (I normally would also look at NewEgg for the best deal on LCD’s) becuase they were only $189.99 each!.
I’m using them on a dual dual core xeon 5130 build I recently finished (on a Tyan s2696 mobo). the display adapter is a PNY Quadro FX560 PVE.
I’m extremely happy with them, and agree with the reviewer that they’re much better than the Princeton 20.1″ I got at Costco a while back, which i now use on a subsidiary P4 DAW system.
I’m going to use these (and the xeon workstation) for NLE and DCC with Adobe Production Studio. I also have added a Blackmagic Intensity Pro in order to hook up a cheap HDTV for full screen monitoring of either the source monitor or the program (timeline) monitor, and this works great.
I’m not qualified to really evaluate the color accuracy of these screens, since I’m not a graphics professional, but they look great to me, and when you consider what i got them for, plus the fact that there’s no way i could have bought two, say, Dell Ultrasharp or whatever on my budget, i couldn’t be happier with these. Connected to the Quadro, a very affordable adapter, they have never exhibited any glitches or anomalies. Since I have become a ‘two-screen desktop’ addict, and can’t imagine going back to one, this was the solution for me–two big screens for under $200 (plus tax, which compares to the shipping i didn’t have to pay).
With the one caveat–I don’t know much about pro displays–I recommend these highly, and also suggest shopping around aggressively and watching the local store sales, especially on door-buster days.
One last thing: feeling a bit wealthier after I got these, i bought the ‘Peerless Deskmount Kit’ from the Costco website, which mounts two LCD screens onto a single desktop mount. This has also proved to be an unqualified winner and i highly recommend it too [Model PEELCT-102-KIT].
Solo
> Did you have any similar issues while connecting to your mini, or do I have a bad monitor, or maybe a bad video card?
Yes, I just did this today and have the EXACT issue. I use the DVI connection and it doesn’t work. I use the analog connection and it works.
I’ll try the lower res setting like you did and see if that helps.
I’m betting that the Mini (which uses computer RAM to run its video) just can’t handle the big monitor.
Shame on me for not looking for a review for Macs beforehand.
Re: mac mini issues
I was able to bump the refresh rate down to 56Hz and it worked fine on my mini using the DVI connector…
I’m having the exact same problems while trying to use my MacMini with the Acer AL2216W monitor; it works okay with the VGA connection at a number of different resolutions, but it won’t drive the monitor via DVI at 1680×1050. This stinks because the DVI picture is much clearer and sharper.
You, Josh, mentioned that bumping the “refresh rate down to 56Hz” worked; how exactly did you do that? If you have a moment to explain that in a semi-detailed fashion, I’d be extremely grateful! I’m enjoying all the real-estate this Acer offers, but I’m desperate to get the DVI connection operable.
Many thanks!
-CGriffith, ctgriffi@hotmail.com
Hello, I have the same problem as most of you with a mac mini. I was able to get display on the Aser Acer AL2223W screen but only because I’ve changed te resolution to 800-600. But when I wanted to use the resolution that best fits the AL2223W that is 1680×1050 it would not show me the resolution.
Can anybody tell me how I can make the mac use this resolution… ? Maybe with some 3th party tools or something??
Tanx
Bert- I’m running a Macbook with a mini-DVI to VGA adapter. I’m then running a VGA connection to the Acer AL2223W VGA input which allows me to view 1680×1050. My suggestion is to use an adapter and try the VGA input.
Have this monitor, had same complications and frustrations trying to track down drivers… I guess that in today’s world, everything is plug n play OK… Those of us searching for display drivers are dinosaurs… now, up to the minute drivers for my ATI dual DVI 512 card is ESSENTIAL and cleared up any artifacts I was suffering from when pushing the system hard
Consumer reports said acer monitors very good