finally bought a better desktop monitor
... because I had to. Someone said our custom-built desktop computer's hardware and parts have a useful life of four to six years, and then, you'll either have to upgrade or replace something. That was six years ago (2008). He was right. The motherboard died last year . Useful life: five years. We replaced it with Gigabyte A75M-UD2H and upgraded the memory and processor. Last week, on June 26, the bottom display of the AOC 16" widescreen monitor went bad. The bottom 1/3 of the display was covered with a white, not-totally opaque row where image changes rendered in slow motion. Did it look like that at startup? Yes. Take a screenshot (print screen button) and paste it on Paint, is it still there? No. Definitive test: We hooked it up to another machine and the white row did not disappear -- the monitor is shot. Useful life: 6 years. Go and buy a new one. The recommendation? HDMI for higher resolution (min. 1080p) AND buy an HDMI cable too because it doesn