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2007 WFP (A02) Flickering!
Hi,
I bought a 2007WFP monitor recently and I really like it, BUT it "flickers", just like a CRT on 60Hz refresh rate. I decided to make this a seperate posting, since the problem has been mentioned before please move my thread if you feel this is inappropriate.
The flickering is only visible in some specific (midtone) areas, e.g. 50% gray, and very bright or dark areas are generally not affected if my eyes can be trusted.
I'm using the monitor with an Ibook G4 800Mhz (32MB Radeon 9200) via the VGA adapter, and at first I thought the flickering could be caused by the bad/weak signal quality - although a friend's Dell 21" TFT worked fine some months ago, so I defibrilated my old PC (AMD 1700+, Win2k SP4, 512MB RAM) again to see if this could indeed be the cause of the problem.
I tried a Radeon 8500 128MB (VGA and DVI), a Matrox G550 (VGA and DVI) and the internal Geforce 4 MX (VGA), but the flickering is still there, even with the PC.
The monitor is calibrated with a Gretag EyeOne since I'm using it for graphic design, but it doesn't matter which profile I use, flickering is still the same.
I'll call support again on monday to see if they know anything, but do you have any input on this?!
--
And since we're talking about the 2007WFP, some minor observations:
The Bad:
- I had to return the first one since it ran so hot I could barely touch the top area.
- Both my current (A02 made in China) and the faulty one (A02 made in the Czech Republic) have the flickering.
- Both still suffer from VERY faint gradient banding, even when properly calibrated.
- The gamut is good overall, but the blacks are clipped quite severely (for a TFT), and very noticeably so compared to a 23" Apple Cinema Display.
- The "contrast" setting is not available" via DVI, which is quite annoying if you plan on calibrating the monitor.
The good:
- No discolorations, casts, darkening etc. whatsoever, VERY homogenic display, I hope it stays that way (unlike the Apple Cinema Displays)
Cheers,
Phil
I bought a 2007WFP monitor recently and I really like it, BUT it "flickers", just like a CRT on 60Hz refresh rate. I decided to make this a seperate posting, since the problem has been mentioned before please move my thread if you feel this is inappropriate.
The flickering is only visible in some specific (midtone) areas, e.g. 50% gray, and very bright or dark areas are generally not affected if my eyes can be trusted.
I'm using the monitor with an Ibook G4 800Mhz (32MB Radeon 9200) via the VGA adapter, and at first I thought the flickering could be caused by the bad/weak signal quality - although a friend's Dell 21" TFT worked fine some months ago, so I defibrilated my old PC (AMD 1700+, Win2k SP4, 512MB RAM) again to see if this could indeed be the cause of the problem.
I tried a Radeon 8500 128MB (VGA and DVI), a Matrox G550 (VGA and DVI) and the internal Geforce 4 MX (VGA), but the flickering is still there, even with the PC.
The monitor is calibrated with a Gretag EyeOne since I'm using it for graphic design, but it doesn't matter which profile I use, flickering is still the same.
I'll call support again on monday to see if they know anything, but do you have any input on this?!
--
And since we're talking about the 2007WFP, some minor observations:
The Bad:
- I had to return the first one since it ran so hot I could barely touch the top area.
- Both my current (A02 made in China) and the faulty one (A02 made in the Czech Republic) have the flickering.
- Both still suffer from VERY faint gradient banding, even when properly calibrated.
- The gamut is good overall, but the blacks are clipped quite severely (for a TFT), and very noticeably so compared to a 23" Apple Cinema Display.
- The "contrast" setting is not available" via DVI, which is quite annoying if you plan on calibrating the monitor.
The good:
- No discolorations, casts, darkening etc. whatsoever, VERY homogenic display, I hope it stays that way (unlike the Apple Cinema Displays)
Cheers,
Phil
- Oops, mixed up the numbers, that should infact read Radeon 9500 128MB.
You are definetly right, those are relatively old cards, but as I said, the ibook ran an older Dell 20" without any flickering. (Probably was a 2001FP judging from the model history)
The Matrox G550 is indeed very old, but still has very good and up to date drivers (Jun 06) and monitor tools, you can manually set it any res/ratio and hz you want up to 2048 x 1536. The card is also renowned for it's very good signal quality which I can attest to.
The 9500 on the other hand is definetly able to output such high resolutions, after all it's running a 23" Apple Cinema Display and a 19" CRT simultaneously without problems.
I also tried using higher quality double shielded cables, doesn't make a difference.
Thanks for your input,
Phil - Unfortunately I don't have access to a more recent video card at the moment, but I'll try to get my hands on one.
Having said that, and it bares repeating, when the 23" 1920 x 1200 Apple Cinema Display runs fine with the 9500, the 2007WFP should be just fine, shouldn't it?!
Since the monitor doesn't "care" about how old a card sends the signal as long as it's the correct signal, I don't see why the 2007WFP at 1680 x 1050 should be flickering, unless it is a faulty unit.
I thought there would be some kind of DIY fix for this, which is why I posted in the forums and haven't called support yet to return the monitor. After all I would really like to keep it.
Thanks for your effort!
Cheers LeonAnderson
7 Posts
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Posted August 8th, 2006 01:00
Yep. Same problem here. My 2nd 2007 FPW came in today.... and it still flickers with VGA. So I ordered a 256 GeForce card. That's coming in tomorrow. I'll test it w/ DVI. and if it still flickers... BOTH monitors are going back to dell.
Samsung 21" here we come.
- Just off the phone with Dell Customer Service, they were helpful but the service guy said he had never heard of a similar problem, so they'd like to replace the monitor.
This would be the third one, Dell definetly needs to tighten up their quality control.
Cheers - Well, after the third one turned out to have the very same problem, Dell agreed to exchange it AGAIN (for the fourth time), and surprise surprise, the new one is no different, BUT it has uneven backlighting, a green cast all over the left half, and a slight magenta tint on the right half as a "bonus".
Back to the flickering:
Since it should be near to impossible that all four monitors are indeed faulty, I am beginning to think that this may be a glitch in engineering and not caused by a defective unit.
My 23" Cinema Display ran fine on the very same desk, on the very same computer, using the same power outlet and the same 6x extension lead, I tried different sockets, cables, computers and cards, profiles, settings, so I GUESS I can rule out me being at fault.
I have found a very simple way of making the flickering visible to even the weak eyed, with a simple black and white pattern, and have since documented the problem on video.
I'm going to edit and upload the video later today, so you can see what I'm talking about, and I'll call up technical support in the next days to see what they make of it.
FWIW, the new one is a Rev 03!! model (made in Czech Republic), and if my eyes can be trusted, the banding is MUCH worse than on the ones I had before (all Rev 02) LeonAnderson
7 Posts
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Posted August 14th, 2006 18:00
Fickering w/ the GeForce FX 5500... 265 MB DVI and VGA.Returned them both to DELL for a full refund.Buying a Samsung 215WT instead.- Well,
The flickering is gone.
I'm not 100% certain, but it seems to be caused by the cables.
I tried the new VGA and DVI cables from the new monitor today, and while the flickering is still partly there with VGA, it's completely gone when using DVI.
This is good news but bad news, because I tested the first two units with 5 different cables side by side - with every one of the OEM VGA and DVI cables that came with monitor 1 and 2, and with another high quality double shielded VGA cable I had previously used on my CRT. The flickering was there, with both monitors, no matter what cable I used.
I kept one pair of the OEM cables, sent the other pair back along with monitor 1.
When exchanging monitor 2 some days later, I received a new pair of cables with #3, so, again, the "old" pair was sent back.
Testing monitor 3 with the cables that came with it (VGA + DVI) still had the same strange flicker, so I had the monitor exchanged AGAIN, to the current monitor #4.
Now, assuming that the flicker is indeed caused by the bloddy cables, this would imply that 3 out of 4 monitors I received were shipped with defective, and/or insufficiently shielded cables. And my CRT cable is apparently defective too, although it works fine with the CRT.
The good news is - since I'll have to return monitor #4 YET AGAIN, due to the funky color cast in the left half, I'll even find out if the cable problem is still there! (-;
I suppose Dell blindfolds their workers before they send them to work in the quality control department.
Cheers
SR45
2 Intern
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12138 Posts
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Posted August 6th, 2006 20:00