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I have a Samsung LCD monitor measuring 21 inches. The refresh rate is 60 Hz, but if I select a setting higher than that, I get an error.

I actually don't know the exact screen resolution of my PC, but it shows refresh rate around 60 - 72 Hz I think.

Right now, i set to 1600 x 900. Is it safe?

Can setting the wrong refresh rate damage my monitor?

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  • You are talking about two different things. Resolution is the number of pixels across and down. The refresh rate is measured in hz. Also, giving the make and model of your monitor would help.
    – Keltari
    Nov 7, 2015 at 1:10

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CRTs, yes, but not modern LCD displays.

Older tube displays were often dumb analog devices operating at the mercy of the VGA input and can be damaged by inputs that commanded the display to run beyond its limits. With an excessive refresh rate, the electron gun in a CRT that is directly controlled by the VGA input could be made to scan faster than designed, resulting in hardware failure.

LCD and other flat-panel monitors are digitally controlled and will simply reject out-of-range inputs, displaying an error message. It should not be possible to damage an LCD display with excessive refresh rates.

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Yes, incorrect settings can break a monitor. Most significantly, refresh rate can cause serious problems. An incorrect resolution (number of horizontal pixels x number of vertical pixels) may be less likely to cause damage. But at least some monitors really dislike bad refresh rates.

Now, how likely is damage to occur? That can vary based on factors like how good of quality the monitor is. Ideally, if a monitor doesn't support certain settings, then it will just show a message saying "No signal", or something benign like that. What will break some monitors might not break other monitors.

I'm basing this on third party information that I've heard or read multiple times over many years. I have experienced some CRT monitors make interesting noises, like the snap of a spark. I was sane enough to not tempt fate and try to create a fire hazard, so I would immediately do something (probably pressing Esc on the keyboard, to undo the change made in a GUI... if that didn't have the desired effect, I probably turned off the monitor to try to prevent permanent damage.)

There may be a sticker on the back of the PC, near where the power cord goes, which may provide a list of officially acceptable refresh rates. Deviating from that list is not recommended. Often, newer video drivers try to only provide options specified by the monitor's driver. When I first got into computing, there usually weren't specific drivers for monitors, so such protections were historically less common.

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  • break which monitor? i am using LCD not CRT, could you add more specific info please? @TOOGAM
    – Latha Sharmaji
    Nov 7, 2015 at 1:45
  • I might not have much further useful specific information. What else were yous eeking? Understand that some of this may have been on equipment used over 20 years ago, or maybe some equipment from only 10 years ago. I remember buying 60 computer monitors for $10 (total, not each) from an auction of used university equipment. The operating environments might have pre-dated Windows 95, including MS-DOS >= 5, Win 3.1, and OS/2 2.1/3.0. I've used lots of monitor models over all this time. LCDs seem to have been less prone to the scary-sounding flickering; 'twas a CRT that I had go up in smoke.
    – TOOGAM
    Nov 7, 2015 at 1:57
  • @JakeGould Well, when I first answered the question, it said nothing about what type of monitor was being used. It simply made a comment about frequency @ 60-72Hz, and asked if resolution can break a monitor. Based on my old experience, the answer to that is: yes, that's been known to happen. Had I seen the question as it is currently phrased, I wouldn't have provided the answer I did.
    – TOOGAM
    Nov 7, 2015 at 10:15
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I believe the answer is "not any more." Back in the earliest days of the IBM PC, the 12" monochrome CRT reportedly vould be damaged by ... "creative" ... reprogramming of the matching display adapter. Several copyprotect schemes threatened to trigger that if you tampered with them, but I don't believe anyone ever risked the liability of implementing that.

I don't believe a similar vulnerability has existed since then.

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