I have been dealing with the computer from hell … but I shouldn't say that too loudly or it might up and die on me again. I had a Dell monitor but got rid of it when I moved thinking that I'd just buy a new one. The Mag Innovision monitor worked for about two months before something weird started happening; after it would start to boot up the monitor would go into sleep mode. The only way to get into the computer was to have it load in safe mode. After having several of the computer geeks look at it they said that there was 'something' wrong with the monitor. It was still under warranty but it was going to cost about $40.00 to send it to them to have it looked at. I knew that if I played around with it long enough, one of two things would happen – I would either end up completely screwing it up or fixing it. Well, the Mag is still sitting on the floor collecting dust thanks to a friend that asked me if I wanted to buy his old EV700. It was still in awesome shape and was only used about three times a week to check email. For $25.00 I got a really nice monitor that doesn't cut out after the first thirty seconds of use … but for what ever reason I get error messages that it is 'out of frequency' from time to time. Even so, this is a lot better than what I was used to so I can't complain. Hopefully now the geeks will be able to solve the 'out of frequency' issue and I will have a second computer at home to work from.

Gateway EV700 17 Inch Monitor

I haven't had any experience with Gateway products in the past so I have no idea what their systems are like. My friend didn't have the instruction booklet for this but he did say that if I went to the Gateway site, I should be able to get all the details that I need if I ran into any problems. Since I was not exactly dealing with an easy set up because of the issues with the Rage Fury card that had been giving me trouble it took me about two hours to get the monitor up and running properly, most people will be able to use this right out of the box with no set up issues. I am running Windows 98 on my computer and it had the driver for it in the system however it [the computer] said that it would be better with a "Plug And Play" setting so that is what I went with. Before I get into any more of the details of this I have to say that this is a huge monitor, it takes up the entire corner of my desk. I couldn't get an accurate reading on the scale but I would have to say that this is at least 40 pounds, when I checked the Gateway website it was listed at 46 pounds so I wasn't all that far off with the weight. It sits on a base that can be adjusted for optimal viewing and in most cases it does give you a really nice picture. The only troubles I have had with it when it comes to viewing things is when it comes to photographs; they look extremely grainy. I am not sure if this is because it is set up for "Plug And Play" and not the Gateway EV700 setting or it's just the way the monitor presents things.

The front control wheel allows you to change the contrast, color, horizontal position and size, vertical position and size, brightness and other options. I don't really care for this because it is way too easy to make a mistake when you are scrolling through things. Even though this is a seventeen inch monitor, your actual viewing size is about sixteen inches. It's not a flat screen display but you don't have that 'bubble' type of screen to it that messes with your eyes after a while. If you haven't figured out by now that I am not a computer person … this review will be all the proof that you need to come to that conclusion. I don't know all the technical stuff about this monitor but I have to assume that most people who are out there looking for a monitor will want to know the basics like how easy it is to set up, what it the display is like and if it is worth the money. Considering that I bought this used and it still works perfectly, it was a great deal but this is an older monitor so it might not be able to handle a lot of graphics or give you the best picture possible so if that is what you are going for, the EV700 might disappoint you.

One thing that I didn't know about this until I hit the website is that this has a self test that it runs to make sure that everything is working correctly. In my case I get the "out of frequency" message from time to time, I have no idea what the numbers mean or why it happens … but I have been writing everything down so when the geek squad shows up they will know what has been happening. It is set up to run from HF 30 – 70 KHz and VF 50 – 150 Hz and when I get the error message [and the screen goes all wonky] it says that it is at HF 27.0 VF 43.0 which puts it out of frequency. As nice as this monitor is, it can't tell me what is wrong with it, why it blacks out on me or why it slips out of frequency … so the geeks will have their work cut out for them. If nothing else I have learned to set up the auto save function to save the active document every minute so if it does die on me or doesn't rebound from the frequency loss, I won't be out a ton of material. I can't blame these problems on the monitor, there has to be some type of conflict between the CPU and the EV700 but what ever it is, it's not something that I am able to fix with the Gateway website and the minimal amount of computer knowledge that I possess.

Update
The out of frequency message could have been from two things, a virus that was lurking in my computer or faulty graphics drivers. The geeks weren't able to determine which was to blame because the virus was removed and shortly thereafter the updated driver files were uploaded. If you purchase one of these monitors I strongly suggest that you go with the "plug and play" setting rather than picking the EV700 driver from your computer.


The EV700 comes with a power cord that is removable from the back of the computer and a fixed cable line that runs from the back of the monitor to the computer. I did have some trouble getting the cable line from the monitor into the slot on the back of the CPU and I am not sure if I bent one of the pins or if it was already damaged. The geeks said that this may or may not be part of the problem but they did say that if the Mag monitor did the same thing chances are the root of the problem is with the CPU. At this stage in the game it is anyone's guess but I can say this, the EV700 has been a real trooper. When it has powered down it has always displayed some type of error message to give me a small clue as to what is happening. Outside of the power off and on button on the front of the monitor, everything else is handled by the wheel that is housed behind a small flip down door. The door isn't all that sturdy so I am expecting it to break sometime in the near future … Gateway really skimped on this.

Update
As predicted, one clip on the door broke after a few weeks of use. Thank god for poster putty, that's the only way that it stays shut now.

I already mentioned that this is heavy but the size of it is something that you will want to take into consideration if you are thinking about buying this. This measures 16 inches wide, almost 19 inches high and 16 and a half inches deep. Those are only numbers so it might not sound like it's all that big … until you get it on your desk and it takes up a lot of space. Needless to say, if you are worried about the amount of space that you have to put a monitor, this isn't something that you will want to look into buying. Now, I could see having this if it had superior graphics or displayed things crystal clear but that isn't the case. Gif, jpeg and bmp files all appear to be fuzzy or grainy. On the advice of someone that is in the computer business I changed the display and refresh rate to see if this would help with any of the problems. Changing it to the 640 x 480 setting with a default refresh rate did seem to cure the cutting out and black screens but it made the pictures look even worse, something that I didn't think was possible.

The EV700 is does have Energy Star capabilities but that is something that you will have to set up in order to have the screen saver come on and for it to go into hibernate mode. Since I have a few problems with this monitor [or rather the settings on it], this isn't something that I have set up yet but it will be one of the first things that I do when everything is cleared up. I can put it into sleep mode using my keyboard when it is in the "Plug And Play" setting / mode but I am taking a huge chance when I do that because more often than not when I wake up the computer it works for about two minutes then gives me the "out of frequency" message. Other things to know about this monitor … it has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 – something that I know I will never get close to considering how I have to run it at this point in time.

The Bottom Line

If you come across an EV700 and can get it at a good price then it is a nice monitor to have around, even if you just want to have a spare in case something happens to your main monitor. Outside of the choppy graphics and issues with the set up, this is a really nice monitor. Granted, it is an older model but hey, it was $25.00 and still works great. I couldn't find any current prices on it when I was looking online but that doesn’t mean that you can't still find one at an online auction but keep in mind that this thing is heavy so what you might save on the price of the monitor you might end up spending to have it shipped. The web site support is another really nice thing, you can do trouble shooting there and get the basic information about the EV700 even though it is an older product.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2006 Freak369






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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): $25.00
Operating System: Windows

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