Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
38920291
June 2nd, 2006 12:00
D620 poor screen clarity
As requested by the moderators, a new thread for the continued discussion of the Latitude D620 screen issues has been created.
It and can be found at:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_video&message.id=156588&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
or
http://www.dell-d620-forum.etherhop.net
=======================================================================================================
Great news from the moderator on this issue (see below). If anyone has one of the revised screens, please let us
know how it performs and which issues have been resolved.
=======================================================================================================
Just received my D620 and I'm very disappointed with the screen clarity! The screen has a silvery, matte appearance that looks out of focus, even at native resolution (WXGA+ 1440x900). I've been using a D600 for 18 months and it doesn't suffer from the same fuzzy, washed out appearance. I'll be returning the D620 as soon as I can, even if it costs me money! :(
=======================================================================================================
Update - Sadly, I no longer have my D620 as I couldn't live with the poor screen quality delivered by Dell.
Below is a summary of this thread. I've place it here on Page 1 for easy reference. Hopfully this will help others make an informed choice when purchasing one of these units.
The most common complaints about the screen are that it's grainy, has a silvery appearance, has narrow vertical viewing angles, has light leakage and is not as bright as previous models. A picture comparision of a D600 and D620 is provided further down this page.
The following post best represents where we are at:
will0861 pg79 - "Well I spoke to Jackie again today in the executive resolution center. She told me that the engineers are aware of the issue, and they are working on a fix.......for "the next round of computers to come out." So basically the D630 may have a screen that is actually usable. Of course I have no way to verify this, but having worked in a large corporate enviorment like Dell, I am pretty confident in saying that as long as Dell doesn't notice any slowdown in sales, they will never use quality screens. And since Dell keeps their computers around for 18 months, it won't be anytime soon.
So, I have the return lables coming, and this is going back to Dell. I am actually dissapointed. The D620 is a great balance of power, and portability, but they ruined it with this inferior display.
This is the last time I tell anyone to buy a Dell laptop. Dell, I know you are a goliath, but your slipping sales, and your second place standing behind HP should tell you something. You had better improve your quality, or you will be third, behind some other company that knows how to use a clear, bright, and legible display in their laptops."
gotak pg81 - " http://www.powernotebooks.com/info/Whitepaper_Prism%20LGP_050630%20C8015+.pdf Explains all the issues people been having..."
pg 4: "While I am not an engineer, I am in contact with Dell’s LCD engineering team in response to your concerns in this thread. Two of our senior engineers have spent the past two weeks focusing only on this issue. They have been working closely with our LCD suppliers to test a variety of samples. While they have not completed this testing, they continue to look at potential causes. I am keeping close tabs on their progress and will post an update when I have more information."
DELL-Jimmy P
pg 13: "Sorry for the delay, but I did not want to respond until I had some additional information. Now, this might be a bit complicated, so please bear with me.
Our Engineers have continued looking at the D620 LCD panels. They have called customers to better understand what exactly is being seen, captured customers’ systems, obtained samples from suppliers and held focus groups to review potential changes.
One point I’d like to clarify is that the D620 LCD panels meet the same standards of brightness, viewing angle and antiglare particles (haze) as the D610 LCD panels, just as they were designed to. The haze, used on both the D610 and D620 LCDs, is made up of these antiglare particles that help diffuse the light and reduce glare. Dell did not change this haze level or brightness level on the D620 LCDs from the D610 LCDs. Please understand that no one is saying that you do not see a difference. I bring this up in the hope that you will understand why it has been difficult for us to figure out why there is a difference.
The one key difference between the D610 and D620 LCD Panels is that the D620 uses a wide screen LCD. The wider screen LCD has smaller and more numerous pixels than the D610 LCD. This appears to be causing a more pronounced narrow viewing angle and hazier appearance for some users - which may cause a dimmer and grainier look as you have reported. We are still working to better understand this issue and will keep you updated as more information becomes available."
DELL-Jimmy P
pg 58: "The D620 Development Team continues to work on LCD design enhancements to address the LCD complaints highlighted here. Usability and Customer Studies have been conducted and will continue to be conducted as we continue to validate proposed enhancements. Given that we still do not have 100% of the enhancements finalized & validated, we can not commit on a roll-out date as of yet. The enhancements would be LCD design changes - changes which take time to engineer and completely cut-in. Therefore there is no adjustment that can be made to change the viewing on your current panel. We will do what we can to keep all of you posted. We understand your frustrations and are doing all that we can to deliver the level of panel performance you rightfully expect, and want you to expect, from your Dell Latitude Notebook. We thank you for your patience as we continue to work through and validate these enhancements to optimize viewing on the D620 LCD."
A selection of member responses to moderators update:
TerjeM
pg 13: "...I am not 100% sure I agree to the theory, but well, as I see it Dell is admiting that this is not optimal although not in as clear words as we might have hoped. Just to document this a bit better, here is a comparison between a D620 (left side) and my D610 (right side)..."
DELL-Jimmy P re-posted the original technical update on Pg 36.
alesis
pg 36: "...We have many D600 and D610's with 1400x1050 screens and none of them exhibit the problems of the D620. I fail to see how the D620 at 1440x900 with a wider screen and slightly reduced height, would have numerous more pixels..."
RGMBRAZIL
pg 37: "...the main difference in the D620 LCD Screen is the backlight that has the source of light in the bottom of the screen. All previous models from Dell mentioned here, were not wide screen models, and the source of light came from booth sides of the screen, according to Dell supervisor explanation..."
nVladik78
pg 37: "Stopped by a Dell kiosk at the mall today to take a look at the e1405. The screen looks unbelievably good compared to d620 screens we have here...E1405 has the same dell part number screen as the d620, only different coating..."
TerjeM
pg 39: "Jimmy, there has been 1400x1040 screens available for the Lattitude 600 machines for many years now. I believe the C610 was the first model in this class that had such a screen... So, the math is: 1400x1050 = 1.470.000 pixels on the D610 1440x900 = 1.296.000 pixels on the D620"
=======================================================================================================
Comment Highlights from this thread:
benjaminkessler
pg 7: "…I have purchased scores of laptops for my company from Dell, and I must say this is the worst Dell laptop screen I have ever dealt with..."
HLTIGER74
Pg 7: "My company has purchased 3 D620's with NVIDIA and WXGA+ scrren. All have the LG screen and let me say these screens are terrible…"
bkjr
pg 20: "…Bottom line on the Screen, my daughter has been on it for a couple of nights now (on and off), and not a complaint. I didn't tell her about it, I wanted her true own impression.I don't think I would have noticed it if it weren't for this thread, but I'm not the one living with it and I only have a few hours on it installing stuff, not trying to work on it or doing graphic art work…"
mishkab
pg 22: "…I'm BEYOND disappointed with DELL this time.
I am currently living in France and am again in a position where I am the person recommending purchases within the company I work for.
As has been the case for me for approximately 10 years now (in Canada and the US before landing here), I recommended DELL laptops and workstations. Boy! Do I look like an idiot this time!
Not only is the quality of the screen absolutely horrible, Dell France are absolutely unwilling…"
rlwfish
pg 24: "…I don't find it very bothersome. It looks like the screen has a bit of oil from someones hand all over it … Anyway, I think I can get used to this…"
D620
pg 27: "I've talked to the purchasing manager at my work. We are one of the largest buyers from Dell in Canada (no joke). He says everything needs to be reevaluated, the fact that dell is content with doing nothing as of now is a joke"
D620
pg 27: "our company is also now re-evaluating the situation with Dell. We recently recieved a large offer to sell a lot of these 620's to dell employess, the deal seem good, the laptop seem good. A lot of employees went in on this, and now constant complaints. Not the way a big company should be conducting themeslves."
playeraww
pg 27: "Our fortune 100 company in Dallas was in the process of purchasing several Dell servers and workstations to go along with the D620's we just got. Now after several complaints about the screens from employees and the total lack of help from any of Dell's support team we are now looking at using IBM to take care of our computer needs."
N2TheBlu
pg 40: "Seriously though, it's one thing to kick out a bad product now and then, but it's another thing to try and tell a Dell reseller that there isn't any problem with a specific product. That "head in the sand" tactic is really what will sink Dell on this, not the defective design of this product."
briantreff
pg 40: "I'm an IT Manager for a small software company and I was actually evaluting the Latitude line with this purchase - if the D620 is any indication of Dell's quality control in the supposed "higher-end" Latitude line, I think I'll take my laptop business to HP."
o-woof
pg 41: "I recently got a D820, which compared side by side with my D620 shows what a screw-job D620 buyers are getting. I think if people who are satisified or on the fence with their D620's saw the disparity, they'd be clamoring for some form of recourse - return, recall, upgrade, fix, etc."
=======================================================================================================
Please send your D620 screen, video card and rating information !!!
Steps to follow:
1. Visit the DELL link below and enter your service tag number. DELL part number, brand and model should be listed there.
2. Download Astra32 from the link below and run it to confirm the screen brand/model and manufacture date.
3. Personal message me (alesis) or directly post to the forum the following details:
From Dell site:
================================
Native screen resolution:
Screen part#:
Screen description:
Video card part#:
Video card desc:
From You:
=========
Your screen rating (Good, Usable, Bad): (Please stay within these categories.)
Comment:
From Astra32:
=============
Monitor Vendor:
Monitor Panel:
Manufacture Date:
Monitor ID:
Links:
=====
http://www.astra32.com/download.htm
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/en/details?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
=======================================================================================================
You would expect a high proportion of responses here to be negative as people that are happy with their screens wouldn't even come looking for this site. I'd like to encourage people that are happy with their screens to also respond so that we can see if there's a pattern of good and bad brands/models. The more responses we receive, the more we can see how big the problem is. If the list gets too long I'll aggregate the results by removing member names and provide a count of people with a certain screen types and responses.
Thnks alesis.
Message Edited by alesis on 11-03-200607:53 AM
Message Edited by alesis on 01-17-200707:42 PM
Message Edited by alesis on 01-17-200707:45 PM
Art
2 Intern
•
1.5K Posts
0
June 2nd, 2006 21:00
Screen quality is top on my list for a portable system.
Try Screen Properties, Settings, Advanced and set dpi to a normal 96dpi
from the 120DPI that Dell often ships them with (supposed to make fonts bigger) ReBoot after the change and see if it looks better.
Art
2 Intern
•
1.5K Posts
0
June 2nd, 2006 22:00
One thing for sure, would be that it should be better than your D600. due to improved Video Software and Video Systems, was your D600 SXGA or XGA resolution?
On my older D800. there are many other settings (same "...settings, Advanced, on the Video System tab, Color Settings) and in addition to the Gamma and other sliders, it came with stored profiles to try and you could also download other profiles to store in that folder. Some are designed to look better for 'Movies' others for 'Games' etc..
Remember that Dell gives you 21 days from "SHIP Date" to return for cause and you will likely get more in the way of support during this short time period.
Hardware, software or settings, you have a problem that requires swift action. My nine year old LM still shows a beautiful screen and this D800 blew away the year old Sony VAIO (GRS700 15" XGA) that it replaced, both on brightness as well as clarity.
Message Edited by Art on 06-02-200607:57 PM
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 2nd, 2006 22:00
Checked this setting and it was already set to 96 dpi. The clarity of the font is fine.
The problem is the matting effect of the LCD backlight diffuser.
It's very obvious if you do a side-by-side comparison with a D600. The D620 has a silvery, 'out of focus' appearance, compared to the D600.
Message Edited by alesis on 06-03-200610:32 AM
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 3rd, 2006 07:00
My D600 has a SXGA+ screen (1400x1050), so it is comparable.
Perhaps the best way to describe the problem is that the D620 screen looks grainy, particlarly where a white background is present. I've spoken to Dell Support and they are prepared to replace the screen, but I'm not sure if this will fix the problem.
Is anyone else experiancing this problem?
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 4th, 2006 08:00
Message Edited by alesis on 06-04-200608:59 PM
Message Edited by alesis on 06-04-200609:00 PM
Message Edited by alesis on 06-04-200609:20 PM
efaulkner
5 Posts
0
June 4th, 2006 20:00
Also, what brand screen do you have? Samsung, AUO, LG???
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 4th, 2006 22:00
Integrated Intel 945GM Chipset - For UMA.
I don't believe this is a graphics card issue, it's a physical property of the screen that's at fault. Most likely the LCD backlight diffuser. The grainy pattern stays completely static when you move a window or image around the screen, indicating the backdrop material is at fault.
Message Edited by alesis on 06-05-200610:26 AM
efaulkner
5 Posts
0
June 4th, 2006 23:00
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 5th, 2006 11:00
HC948 LCD,14.1WXGA+,VESA,LPL
Message Edited by alesis on 06-06-200612:09 AM
Message Edited by alesis on 06-06-200612:10 AM
efaulkner
5 Posts
0
June 5th, 2006 16:00
My D620 arrives today and i'm anxious to see the display.........hopefully I get the Samsung and not the LG!
tzussu
2 Posts
0
June 5th, 2006 17:00
efaulkner
5 Posts
0
June 5th, 2006 23:00
alesis
1 Rookie
•
82 Posts
0
June 6th, 2006 11:00
The Samsung details (taken from the spare parts box) are:
Part No. Part Desc
JC269 LCD,14.1 WXGA+, VESA, SMSNG
Monitor Vendor: Seiko Epson
Monitor Panel: Unknown (SEC 4457)
Manufacture Date: January 2006
Monitor ID: SEC4457
Message Edited by alesis on 06-06-200611:57 PM
efaulkner
5 Posts
0
June 6th, 2006 15:00
Windian
71 Posts
0
June 6th, 2006 16:00
By the looks of those photos the difference is that you have ClearType enabled in one but not the other.
Go to Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Effects and select ClearType. Beware that there are two kinds of screens: RGB and BGR. (You can't change that setting here.) If it looks fuzzy with colorful edges to the fonts you need to tune the settings.
To tune your settings, use Microsofts online tuner: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx
There is also a 3rd party utility called ClearTweak, and I believe Microsoft has a "PowerToys" download that can do it too.
Good luck!