2405 High Pitched Squeal

I bought one of these bad boys, and I expect the shipment today or tomorrow. I'll post the resulting behavior after keeping the monitor online for 24 hours thru some crazy graphic renderings.

I bought the big guy Dell2405 because the cost-benefit ratio is excellent. If the monitor is bad, then there are many posts suggesting that perseverance thru trade-ins worked out for the better. Moreover, if the monitor is bad, then a casual researcher would find many more complaints about the Dell2405.

I bet worldwide Dell has sold at the very least 500,000 units. If just 1% of these units did have issues with the monitor, then I would be reading many more negative reviews on one feature or another. Do the math because I bet the percent is more like .01%.

Honestly, I trust CNET and their online community more than many other electronic reviewers. 2 out 95 users had issues with the high pitched squeal. If I had to read each post all over again, I bet I could find maybe 2 more that had issues with the squealling. Now, either the remainder 91 posters are Dell's stooges, they are scared to post somethingbad, or the 91 posters were actually *honest*!! Them honest? Nah. ;-)

"My opinion on dell was that it's a company that delivers low cost, low quality hardware (almost all dell pc's in the company I work for have died). After reading some good reviews of this monitor I thought it was time to adjust my opinion. Very strange though that this issue is not mentioned in the revieuws I've read." --- ignarus

Yes, very strange this issue is mentioned only a couple times on the CNET reviews on the Dell2405. Also, very strange how these reviews "changed" your opinion so fast. I believe you will always think dell "delivers low cost, low quality hardware (almost all dell pc's in the company I work for have died)". I have had successes and failures with many manufacturers and all of the failures were simple misunderstandings, a failure to communicate, or a failure to negotiate.

Message Edited by Manito on 03-06-2006 12:36 PM

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@RSL_Mongoose wrote:

I am used to a square screen and don't know if I will like the widescreen, I am still tossed up in deciding on the 24" or the regular 20".

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You'll get used to it quite quickly, although it might depend a bit on what you need the monitor for. For watching movies and playing games widescreen is great (and for games that don't support widescreen you can always set the monitor's scaling to 1:1 and use 1600x1200 resolution). I suppose lots of screen area is also good graphics and video editing etc.

The problem I've noticed with widescreen is that reading text might be hard if the text fills the whole width of the screen. 2405FPW is so wide that you might need to turn your head if the screen is close to your face (mine is at a distance of 50cm). Nowadays I never maximize my web browser, but instead I keep the browser window only a bit over 1000px wide, so that it would be easy to read all web pages.

I do programming for work, and for that a 20" screen with 1600x1200 resolution would be good enough for me. At my workplace I have a 19" with 1280x1024 and it feels a bit cramped after getting used to 2405FPW, but on the other hand I don't think the difference between 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 resolutions would make much difference in my programming environment.

What will you be using your monitor for?

Just an fyi.  I passed on the 2405 and the possibility that IF mine had a whine, it might be replaced with a refurbished unit????what????that's bad customer service as far as I'm concerned, and I'm a long time dell customer(just bought a new XPS 600 PC a couple of month's ago)

I purchased a Samsung 244T from tiger direct.  yea, I know, it's expensive, but it's a next gen. panel running at 6ms response and is high def. compliant for the next version of windows coming out.  Plus i could get it in silver which looks stunning.

since I keep my monitors an average of 5 years, i decided to spend more to get the next gen. technology to last me for awhile.

the monitor is absolutely unbelievable.  I have had mine for about a month.

"it might be replaced with a refurbished unit????what????that's bad customer service as far as I'm concerned" --- jnjboc

Units can become labeled refurbished as quickly as opening the box, sealing the box again, then sending the unit back to the distributor. Refurbished units can easily look and perform as new units. Yet, a distributor sending refurbished units to replace new units is bad customer service. This makes as much sense as turning down an offer on a sports car because the sports car has 60 miles on the odometer.

Message Edited by Manito on 03-06-2006 11:14 PM

Moreover, according to reviews, the Dell2405 can display HDTV quality television through the HD composite cables from the HD receiver.

Blah! I bet when the 2405 arrives tomorrow I will forget all about posting on this forum thread because I might be enjoying the monitor too much.

Honestly, I believe folk are more likely to post negative reviews rather than positive reviews. And more likely to exaggerate on both positive and negative reviews. Heh. Right? ;-)

Message Edited by Manito on 03-06-2006 11:36 PM

I got a 2405FPW that has a manufacture date of January 2006. There's a slight high-pitch noise after it has been on a while (room temperature is like the mid-60's Fahrenheit). The noise is nowhere as annoying as my ear-piercing battery charger, but it's noticeable in a quiet room. However, I don't really notice it when I've my workstation on (with six 15K rpm hard drives and six system case fans), I have a higher noise floor than what the 2405FPW emits. Of course the 2001FP that was replaced didn't have that noise at all... They should have used a separate AC adapter like the 2001FP...at least then you can move the source of the noise farther away or even shield it.

My 2405FPW has been operational with zero noise for two days now. I am mainly a MMORPG and RTS gamer and streaking and ghosting was not visible except, as CNET stated, the DVD playback does appear to be mediocre. However, when I watch DVDs, I would rather watch them in my living room and not on my computer unless I am gaming as well. I ask my local cable provider for a HD capable cable receiver so I can test the reviews stating the 2405FPW HD capabilities from the component connections of the cable receiver. Moreover, my dead pixel software returned positive results.

Thus far, the monitor has performed as advertised. If you are wanting to wait for the industry to finish the latency standardization and to wait for the upcoming blue-ray technology to become prominent, then the 2405FPW is the monitor I found from my research that will give you the most for your money.

Do not become concerned about the squeal. If the squeal was more prominant in this monitor, then many more negative reviews would exist on the internet. As I said previously, I would guess only .01% of the monitors has the squeal from my research.

Interesting how the AC was built-in the monitor unlike my other LCD monitors. I can understand how this could cause over heating resulting in the squeal. When I first operated the monitor, heat began to build up in the top right corner, where I assume the adapater is located, and then I could feel the heat being redistributed among all the vents. Maybe the issues with the monitors that squeal is the lack of heat redistribution.

For the folk with problems, you have my best regards and I hope ya try a few trade-ins before running away from the monitor.

I think I'm going to take the plunge and give the 2405fpw a try as they are 20% off right now.

I'll update you with my results!

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@delacruzn wrote:

PS - do a search for 1920x1200 wallpapers and download some high-res backgrounds when you first receive it. You'll be very pleased.

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I had problems finding big enough wallpapers. ;) Luckily I found a nice one with 800x1200 resolution. I have the picture in the middle of my desktop, and the left and right sides I set to solid black.