Problems with Dell 1704FPT LCD

Question

Greetings All,   I've recently purchased a Dell 1704FPT LCD monitor for use with an NVIDIA 6800 GT AGP graphics card.   The monitor is hooked up through the DVI connections with the proper cable.    When scrolling pages with a lot of text (this is very evident in Internet Explorer), the text has a flickering, shadowed, look to it.   This is particularly true with blue/green text (the MSN homepage that Windows XP defaults to is very painful to scroll through, as the text flashes so much).    Still images of text look fine, and a few gaming sessions on the LCD have looked fairly good as well (although this 'flashing' effect is still in place with thin textures and text there too).   I don't know that I would consider this problem ghosting, as most images in games are not showing this problem, just text or very thin lines (such as a chain-link fence in Half-Life 2).   I have setup ClearType fonts (using the ClearType tuner), which had no real impact on the problem.   Allowing the monitor to do it's auto-adjust also did not fix the display.   Have any other 1704FPT owners had this problem?   And moreso, has anyone found a fix for it?    Thanks in advance for anyone's assitance.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

dklofton,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Here are some things to try and resolve the issue that you are having with the monitor.

Push Auto adjust button
Adjust Phase and Clock controls via OSD
Eliminate video extension cables
Perform monitor reset
Lower video resolution or increase font size

dklofton · Answer

Actually, I've found a similar post from a few months ago that sounds very similar to my problem:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=43612#M43612

Unfortunately, it appears that even sending it back did not work for this customer, as the replacement showed the same problems. This leads me to believe this may be an aspect of the display itself. I'm still hopeful that someone out there has experienced this problem and found a workaround for it though, as this problem asside, it seems like a quality monitor.

drew-and-not-u · Answer

Are you using the latest drivers for the videocard?

drew-and-not-u · Answer

no sweat, good luck with your screen issues.

drew-and-not-u · Answer

That's really wierd, have you tried using it with another videocard or on another computer entirely? You may have to call Dell to try to get a replacement. I suppose it's possible that it is an inherent problem in the model, but that seems unlikely.

dklofton · Answer

Thanks for the reply Jesse, however I'm not certain the suggestions will help.

- As noted above, I pressed the auto adjust button, and there was no visible change in the display.

- As I am using the DVI input, the phase & clock settings are not selectable from the OSD

- No extension cable is present. I am using only the DVI cable that was included with my display. It is worth noting that I had the same problem while testing the monitor with the analog cable & connections.

- I have performed the Factory Reset on several occasions, but it has not made a difference.

- The video resolution I am running in is 1280x1024 @ 60Hz. According to the LCD's documentation, this is the optimal viewing state of this monitor. I have tested at other resolutions however, and the problem is still present. Changing font size & switching to ClearType also had no impact.

Any other suggestions (or feedback on similar experiences with the 1704FPT) would be greatly appreciated.

dklofton · Answer

As compared to other LCDs (I work on a 1704FPV) and CRTs, I would say it is decideldy different, but difficult to explain.   When scrolling on other monitors, I've noticed that slight flicker, usually caused by the redraw of the pixel/refresh of the monitor.   With my 1704FPT, it's almost as if the colors shift while in motion.   Blue text becomes a darker, greenish color (and seems to change contrast/brightness as the screen redraws while it scrolls, giving it a flashing appearance), and black text develops a dark shadow.   The effect does seem more prominent on screens that have heavy green/blue content (such as a background or image) in addition to the text.

dklofton · Answer

Thanks for the suggestions drew-and-not-u, I will see how it performs on another PC. I fear my options with Dell may be limited to either getting a refund (although I am nearing my 21 day window), or learning to accept this monitor's image quality issues, as the post I linked above seemd to indicate that getting a replacement did not help.

Thanks again for your help, and hopefully others who may have ideas or experiences with this display will offer their insight too.

dklofton · Answer

I am currently running the latest Nvidia WHQL certified Forceware drivers, version 77.72.

drew-and-not-u · Answer

And you're not reffering to the kind of jumpy flickering which normally occurs when scrolling up and down quickly, correct?

Ant2005 · Answer

I've just bought this monitor and have a similar video card (Dell's NVIDIA 6800GTO with the latest Dell Drivers) and it doesn't have this problem as far as I can see. However, according to this thread:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=39259&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

there are two different versions - the 1704FPTt made by Lite-On and the 1704FPTs made by Samsung. I wonder if one has this problem and the other doesn't? Unfortunately I can't find anything on my monitor to tell me which one it is. If I do find out I'll post here.

Ant2005 · Answer

I think I've now seen the effect you describe.  On the occasional web page the text seems to change colour (or at least a very different shade of the same colour) when scrolling, but only when the text is moving.  I've only seen it happen a couple of times and now can't find which pages they were.   Could this be a result of the 6 bit pallette?  Perhaps it occurs when the text is in a colour that the monitor has to dither to reproduce properly, and it doesn't do this quick enough while the text is in motion, resulting in a different colour.  Just a guess - I don't fully understand how this 'dithering' works so I could be way off the mark.   For what it's worth, my monitor is the 1704FPTs.

dklofton · Answer

Thanks for the input, Ant2005. I ended up returning the monitor, as the problems on my system were a bit more than I was able to get used to. The problem I noticed was similar to as you describe (text changing color, but only when moving/scrolling).

I too suspect the reasons for it are because of the 6 bit pallete, and the dithering of a TN style screen. I'm glad to hear your monitor is performing well enough though.

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