Ric Moore wrote:
Xvidtune will hurtcha if you are not verwy verwy careful... hehheheheheh
I blew the smoke out of a very nice 15" multisync back when they cost large dollars, just because I thought it would do something that it would not. xvidtune just gleefully did what I told it to do... <POOF!> before I could hit the power button to off. The flyback made a ZING! noise, then I saw the smoke. I cried like a grandmother that day over a ruined display and $500 "up in smoke".
I understand that modern monitors are *much* less likely to do this (and LCDs don't have the right sort of hardware for the pyrotechnics). With the electronics in them, modern monitors can wait until the incoming signal has definitely stabilised and is definitely something that the monitor is prepared to handle before they even try displaying something. If the monitor isn't happy with the signal it will either go black, or possibly display a "NO SIGNAL" message.
That's why there's a ~1 second delay when you switch resolutions. The delay doesn't cost the manufacturer anything, but broken screens mean they have to handle the returns.
But then there's my sigmonster's take on things: