Dell 2300MP display color problems

Question

The department I work for purchased a Dell 2300MP projector a couple of months ago for weekly departmental meetings. After the third or fourth meeting I started getting complaints that during some of the PowerPoint presentations that the colors appeared to be washed out. I ran the projector through the diagnostics that are on the projector and everything appeared to be fine. However I did notice a problem when I viewed the color wheel that is in PowerPoint for selecting additional background colors. There was not any separation for the different shades of yellow and green. The blue and red sections of the color wheel was extremely dark and there was not anything even close to looking like light blue or pink. Any of the sections that should have been either light blue or pink were white and gray was non-existent. I tried different six different VGA cables and four different laptops to rule out any problem with that side of the equation. I also adjusted the color settings on the projector. The only time that I was able to get any type of decent separation of color was when the brightness and contrast were turned down so dark that it made the projector impractical to use. I called technical support on 8/24/2005, explained the problem, stepped through some things with the tech, and a replacement projector was shipped to me which was received on 8/25/2005. I was disappointed when I put the replacement projector through the same set of tests to encounter the same problem of colors not displaying properly. I called technical support again on 8/29/2005, explained the problem that I was having the same problem with the replacement projector as with the original, a second replacement projector was shipped to me and was received on 8/30/2005. This time the technician informed me that if I still encountered the same problem with the second replacement projector that I would need to talk to Customer Care to see what could be done to resolve this problem. On 8/31/2005 I started putting the second replacement projector through the same set of tests as with the others. Again I was disappointed that the same problem of the washed out colors. Just for the fun of it, I borrowed a projector from another department and did a side by side comparison. There was a night and day difference between the two dlp projectors with the borrowed projector properly displaying the PowerPoint color wheel and dell displaying a washed out color wheel. This time I called the Customer Care number that the last technician had given me. After explaining the problem to the Customer Care representative and providing the express service tag numbers for all three projectors, I was told that there was nothing that Customer Care could actually do for me and that I needed to talk to technical support since it was their problem. I was then transferred to technical support where I got to explain everything again. The technician explained that all he could do was ship me another replacement but did not feel that would resolve this problem. When asked what I thought should be done to resolve this, I replied that either someone should either authorize that a better quality unit be shipped or my company should receive a refund. The technician put me on hold and supposedly talked to his supervisor who had determined that shipping another 2300MP projector or the next projector model up would resolve this problem. I was told that I would need to talk to Customer Care when further inquiring about getting a refund on what is a defective product line. Knowing that Customer Care would most likely bounce me back to technical support, I politely ended the conversation before taking the chance of loosing my temper since it was obvious that this was going no where fast. Perhaps someone can provide some insight or a resolution for correcting this problem.

y0s1771 · Answer

Looks like your issue is a design limitation. Especially if you already have 4 replacement.   If you want refund you should contact Customer Care If you want another exchange then contact Technical Care.   I don't think 2300MP can fix your problem or maybe you can ask for upgrade to 4100MP.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Check your email.

rdombkowski · Answer

When I contact Customer Care about getting a refund, I am told that they are not able to help me and that I need to talk to Technical Support. When I contact Technical Support about getting a refund or having the projector replaced with something like the 4100MP, I am told that Technical Support is not able to issue a refund and that they do not believe that a different model of projector is going to resolve the problem.

rdombkowski · Answer

Chris: I have just finished emailing to you the contact information you requested. I have also included the Service Tags and Express Service Codes for the original projector and the two replacements.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

rdombkowski,

The 2300MP was designed to maximize visibility in typical office environments. The setting “white intensity”, increases the brightness of whites and “close whites” to improve brightness and contrast. A very bright white can sometimes make colors appear less bright or washed out (and even sometimes appear a slightly different color). If color is more important, the “white intensity” setting can be turned down in the All Images setting or you can select RGB or Movie modes. Try these suggestions in the Powerpoint Presentations.

rdombkowski · Answer

Chris:

I apologize for not responding until now. A familiar thing of too many projects and not enough time.

After another couple of conversations with another gentleman at Dell, it was suggested that there was a driver problem with the equipment that I was using to test the projectors with. I tested the projectors again after updating the video drivers on an Insprion 7500 and Latitidue C820 and the problem of washed colors was no longer present for the most part.

I did have to do some minor tweaking of the whiteness setting for each of the laptops. One liked a higher whiteness setting than the other. But for the most part each everything worked as originally expected.

This is the first time that I have ever encountered a situation where the age of the video driver caused such drastic display problem with a projector. I also apologize for being difficult and demanding regarding this matter.

Please let me know if there are any questions and/or concerns.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

rdombkowski, Thanks for the update and fix.

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