LCD Display Problems

Update: Bought the new cable ($6 from Iguana Micro) and tried it out. No help. Tried another LCD display on this computer, and it looks bad also, so it kind of looks like it is the integrated graphics on the motherboard that is at fault. More tests planned.

My daughter has an old-ish Dell Dimension computer. She recently acquired an LCD display from her brother, which is good because her desk is tiny. Seems like when we first hooked it up it worked fine, but now the screen is really ugly. Text is blurry and the mouse cursor has developed a shadow. Did a little Googling and did not find much except a new video cable might help, or a new video card. Did learn that LCD screens work better with VGA signals if the output resolution matches the screens max resolution. Tried that (1280 x 1024) but it hasn't helped.

I don't really want to spend any money on a video card for this computer. The video controller is built into the motherboard; it does not even have an AGP slot. Any video controller I buy for this machine is going to have to live in a PCI slot (the old kind, not the new express kind). I doubt whether it will have as much horsepower as the built in graphics controller. That is assuming I can even find one with a DVI output connector.

Fortunately, it only has to last until the end of this school year. I plan on buying a new VGA cable tomorrow. We shall see if that helps.

Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.