My wife works at a doctor's office and there is a pc that runs XP on it. When looking at the desktop or other features the screen is clear and everything looks fine. When she opens a certain software it is blurry like out of focus. Is this something in the software or is it something that can be fixed by monitor or elseswhere within the pc?

You can try increasing the refresh rate of the monitor. (Right click desktop>Properties>Settings>Advanced>Monitor>Select a higher framerate if available.) I think it'll help. However XP has a framerate cap at 60Hz - does anyone know what the implications of this are in this application? This definitely helps if your wife get headaches from staring at the monitor! (They're caused by your eyes detecting the screen flickering at low rates. The faster the screen refreshes the less you notice it, but after a certain point your eyes can't tell the difference!)

I think you are getting a bit confused burning lieutenant. Frame rate and refresh rate are two different things. Frame rate is normally only of interest to game players who are using high res animated graphics. Frame rate is measured in frames per second. Refresh is measure in Hz and is determined by the monitor and graphics card. The maximum refresh on a CRT monitor can be as high a 100 Hz. 80-85 Hz is normal. 70 Hz is genrally accepted as the minimum to avoid flicker induced eye strain. 60 Hz will be quite noticable. The refresh rate on a TV will be 60 Hz as that is tied to the mains frequency, except in Europe where it is 50 Hz. TVs use a frame interlaced system which reduces the apparent flicker at the lower refresh rate. Bryan As for the blury image when opening certainl software it is unlikely to be the monitor at fault. Is you wife using a TFT Digital Display? If so that may be the problem. Digital displays work diferently than CRT monitors. They have a native resolution, usually 1024 x 768. The softwar may be forcing an 800 x 600 resolution. If digital monitors are run at relolutions other than their native ones, it can produce a degraded image. Refresh flicker doesn't apply on digital monitors. They normally have a refresh rate as low a 60 Hz. Stuart