Acer AL1916WAB user reviews

Pros Nice, clear monitor. Adjustments easily made to brightness and contrast to my preference.

Cons Doesn't come with a driver to create a 1440x900 setting in your operating system.

Summary Pros: Nice, clear monitor. So much clearer than my previous CRT's, hands down. I can now read stuff I couldn't read before because the colors used on a website were poorly chosen by the website creator. The display was a bit too bright for me at first but I was able to adjust both the contrast and brightness with just a little checking in the user manual. Sweet! No dead pixels. Easy to set up. Came with both VGA and DVI wiring. Works with DPI settings other than 1440x900 by stretching or shrinking the signal to fit the screen.

Cons: Doesn't come with a driver to create a 1440x900 setting in your operating system. I have Windows XP Pro. This monitor is plug and play and it was recognized by my operating system with no problem, but I got no 1440x900 setting as a result. I downloaded the most recent driver for my video card as directed by Acer's instructions but it didn't help. So I came to the obvious (to me) conclusion that I need a new video card.
Warning: If your computer and/or video card do not support 1440x900 DPI and you wish to upgrade your video card to one that does, you are in for a super headache! I found out through over a week of on and off research with internet forums, video card manufacturer websites, a video card manufacturer, my computer manufacturer and the motherboard manufacturer that there are several different types of video card motherboard slots that hold the video card to the motherboard, depending on the age of your computer: AGP 1.0. AGP 2.0, AGP 3.0, PCI, and PCI-Express. They are not compatible with each other in most instances. There are exceptions, but that's complicated too.

All the details that have to be matched between your computer, video card, and monitor cause shopping the different cards a royal pain. And the sellers and manufacturers don't make comparisons easy. Plus, the details on each website for the same card are not in the same format. Not only is the format different but different websites show different amounts of info. I even found different characteristics on different websites for the same video card that are supposed to be telling what that card will do and what its compatibilities are. For instance, one website said a card has a VGA output connection and runs on an AGP 2.0 motherboard slot but on another website it said that it had only a DVI output connection and only runs on an AGP 3.0 motherboard slot. I even found a video card on a seller website that showed a picture of the card having a fan on it, but reviews on the page warned that the card doesn't come with a fan.

Local retail outlets have very little variety of video cards in stock (based on my experience) so if you're computer is a bit old and requires older technology compatibilities, forget about it! They generally have mostly or exclusively the newer technology versions. Plus if you upgrade your video card, chances are good you'll need to upgrade your power supply too based on the increased needs of the new, more powerful video card. Just one headache after another.

Now that your eyes are starting to glaze over, my bottom line recommendation? Make sure your current video card will handle the 1440x900 dpi preference of this monitor before you buy it if you're picky (like me) about getting optimal benefit for your money. Otherwise, consider a different monitor that's maximum DPI is handled by your current video card.

Based on my experience, help from sellers and manufacturers (including Acer) is not very good. Sometimes, they don't even reply to your questions. Other times they do but beat around the bush instead of answering your specific questions. This is even when dealing with technical support, the persons who are supposed to be the experts. I got the total of what I learned by getting a little from many sources. If you're not tenacious, forget about it! Take the easy way out and make sure you're maximum DPI compatibility matches the 1440x900 DPI this monitor prefers and if you're going to upgrade video cards, you know exactly what type of video card slot your motherboard has on it so you get the right type of card, before buying.

If you're not picky and are just looking for a good quality (based on my only two weeks of use), inexpensive monitor, this monitor is very good because it works even with older video cards with different DPI's and makes adjustments, based on my limited experience. My computer is a seven year old Hewlett Packard.