Dell U3011 Custom Color Problem

I tested 3 different U3011's.  All of them are A01 - 2010 Week 49.  They are hooked up to GTX 580 with the DVI-D cable.  Using Windows 7, with the latest stable nvidia drivers, and Dell display driver with the stock  ICC profile.  All three monitors have the aforementioned problem with Custom Color Mode.  Sometimes the problem becomes apparent right away, sometimes it takes a few standby/wake cycles.  Originally there were bright colors.   Lately the screen just appears black.  Has Dell been able to reproduce this problem and determine the cause?

I dont know if they are fully denying it, but Chris from the forums has sent it over to Dell engineering. I'm sure if they can't duplicate it with what they have on stock, someone from here would be willing to send their sample out to dell directly for testing. I'm sure it will take some time before a resolution is found. All we can do at this point is to document the issue as much as we can (I posted a video and some pics) and hope they get the message. 

Chris any update on the status from engineering?

As a temporary fix, unplugging the monitor from the power cord fixes the color problem in my monitor. Give that a try instead of resetting to factory default every time. Not a true fix but something to tie you over until Dell figures this out.

Just wanted to chime in.  I've had my u3011 hooked up for a few days.  First couple days I had it and could switch to custom color and there was no issue.  However, on the third day, the screen turned blue as soon as I switched to CC.  Switching to a different mode made the issue go away, but as soon as the mode was switched back to CC the screen turned blue again

Resetting to factory defaults made the problem go way.  I've been using CC since yesterday evening and the problem hasn't reappeared yet since resetting the display.

Product Code  4063

Manufactured 2010 ISO week 50

Rev. A01

EDID 1.3

Connection Type DVI

Video card Nvidia GTX 460

All,

They are working on getting a firmware update to correct this.

* When will the firmware be released?
No ETA.

* Will the customers be able to download and flash the U3011 themselves?
Unknown at this time, but I doubt it.

This looks more like color profile problem than monitor problem. I have no problems seeing 3 shades of red on my U3011 in your image.

Yea, and just to be clear, I only have that problem immediately following a factory reset on the monitor. Once I calibrate with my ColorMunki, I can see the three shades of red, but even after calibration many of the colors are obviously wrong--very saturated and overly vibrant.

That is normal behavior with wide gamut monitors and non color managed applications. Do you get same saturated colors when running color managed applications,, like Photoshop or Lightroom?

It is definitely ~not~ normal behavior for any monitor, much less a premium one like this. After a factory reset, it should display reasonable color, color managed app or not. Regardless, the image shows up incorrectly in Photoshop as I describe, and with the eyedropper tool I can sample the colors and see that the red values have very different numerical values.

(The problem I have is that even after color calibration the colors still look horrible, but moreover what if I didn't own a ColorMunki? You're saying it's totally reasonable for Dell to expect me to need an expensive third party device just to have a usable piece of equipment?)

No, I'm not saying that. If you want to calibrate wide gamut monitor, you need device that supports wide gamut color space. Simple as that. Calibrating monitor with sensor/software that does not understand color space wider than sRGB will not yield correct color profile for anything other than sRGB, or smaller, setting.

And, yes, it is normal behavior. Regardless of the price you paid for monitor. If you pull monitor out of sRGB mode (into Adobe RGB, or Custom Color) you will get very saturated colors in any application that's not color managed. Set monitor to factory sRGB mode and colors should return to normal (although you will lose ability to see colors that are outside of sRGB color space).

I think you've maybe misunderstood my problem.

I'm saying that without calibrating it at all, immediately following a factory reset, colors are so overly vibrant that dramatically different shades of red are pushed right off the end of the spectrum and displayed as the same, fully saturated red, both in and out of color managed applications. This is not right.

After calibration, colors are still overly vibrant. I got a wide gamut monitor so I could make photographic prints without having to pull as many proofs. Now that I have everything calibrated, when I print an image with vibrant color, my Samsung (also calibrated, but not wide gamut) does a better job of showing me the color that will print than my Dell. 

I have a ColorMunki Photo. It definitely supports wide gamut monitors. I've calibrated my other screen, my laptop screen, my wife's laptop screen, my work monitor, my wife's work monitor, a projector, and my printer with it. Everything works beautifully and I get predictable results...except when dealing with the most expensive piece of equipment in the mix, my Dell U3011.

I do a factory reset: way off. I browse with Chrome (not color managed): way off. I browse with Safari (color managed): way off. I load images in Photoshop and MS Paint: both way, way off. I print the images and compare to my Dell: way off. Compare to my Samsung, perfect. All the other monitors: perfect. My projector: perfect.

I calibrate the Dell...same thing.

Sorry if I'm putting too fine a point on it, but it's annoying to post a real problem and have someone continue insisting that I have incorrect expectations. It is not wrong to want more out of my wide gamut Dell than my many year old Samsung.

Doesn't matter. Whether I set it to Standard, sRGB, Adobe RGB, or Custom, I cannot distinguish between the brightest two shades of red in the graphic I posted before.

I do see that sRGB isn't as saturated generally speaking. And, fully saturated red isn't as saturated. But I still see the brightest two shades of that red graphic as fully saturated and indistinguishable.

Nothing to be sorry about. To what color setting is your Dell U3011 set to after factory reset? Is it sRGB or something else? If it's not, try setting it to sRGB, and see if your colors are still saturated.

Severoon

I understand your problem, I've factory reset and seen the issues you are talking about. Pstannar is correct however. Even after I factory reset, then calibrate or not, if you jump into the sRGB mode I see "normal" colors in non managed programs like Chrome. I've been dealing with the over saturated look in non color managed programs for over a month. I finally switched over to Srgb mode and the images looked correct. I verified that the images looked the same on another non Wide Gamut monitor (just some basic monitor at work). 

When I edit images for print I keep it in Standard mode (because that was the mode I calibrated in) and the pictures match 99.9% when I send prints to WHCC or PROdpi labs. When I edit images for the web, I have gotten into the habit of switching my monitor over to sRGB mode on the monitor to see what it will look like on most people's computers who dont color manage. The image will look over saturated in all other modes of the U3011 because the monitor is trying to display a "Wide Gamut" even after a factory reset in all modes except sRGB. 

Now if this is not the case for you, then maybe you have something else going on or possibly a defective monitor. I guess that's what the warranty is for.