Precision M6400 screen color as blue push/tint

The profil is for the RGB-LED LG screen! No wonder that it doesn't help you with your ccfl screen! Go buy an colorimeter or upgrade to a better screen. The WXGA-screen is the worst out of the M6400 screens you can choose.

 

Yeah.. I removed adobe gamma as soon as I realized it is not working. I also reverted to the default profile after adobe rgb 1998 and the e2e profiles didn't hit the sweet spot.

Oh.. when I apply the Spyder 3 profile, should I do anything under nvidia control panel?

 

No, the Spyder adjusts the graficcard by loading the profil. In the nvidia control panel you can do those adjustments by hand. When you calibrate your screen the right way there is no need for manual adjustments.

 

Could you or anyone else with that has had this issue resolved with a replacement CCFL display post your panel's Hardware Id here. If we can identify which panels dont have the flaw then maybe I can order that specific one from Dell.

Mine has the problem and is listed as LGD4C01.

 

Be forewarned... Dell has REFUSED to give me a refund. They cannot fix the problem and will not give me a refund. I have now had to go to dispute on my credit card. THREE laptops... FIVE screens... and COUNTLESS HOURS of time wasted on the phone and they tell me I am past my 30 day return period.

I got news for Dell... I have not had any of these laptops for any 30 day period YET!... much less one that I could use.

I should not have to do this... and I ain't gonna do it... I am done with Dell unless they mysteriously send me a computer that does not have any issues.

 

I got the replacement m6400 which I downgraded from a RGB LED to CCFL today. The problem over saturated blue is gone, but my red is off. For example consider this color chart:



By comparing the new CCFL to an external monitor, my red (FF0000) looks like a darker red (CC0000). CCFF00 looks like FFFF00 but darker (there's no green). 333300 looks like 666600. And html links 000099 (?) looks like 3366FF. I am not sure if this is normal or is calibratable.

Anyway, the Dell sales rep just called and when I told him about this problem he sound kinda annoyed

 

It is apparent that their skimping on quality screens is catching up to them.

It would not be so bad if I did not have to spend over an hour on the phone on 3 or 4 different occasions to be finally told that they are either sending a replacement or a screen... when ultimately neither will fix the problem. On three occasions they attempted to get a different screen sent and failed... every time they sent the same screen.

 

Now I have the exact problem as this guy http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19243123.aspx. I only see 1 shade of yellow on the CCFL, but I see 2 on an external monitor.

So far I have two failed RGB LED and one failed CCFL.

 

Hello.

I am the owner of M6400.
I got this laptop from dell outlet for reasonable $$$$ in very packed config - 8GB RAM, 2.5 quad, 1GB FX3700m, added 2x320GB 7200rpm WDs (came with one 320GB 7200RPM seagate). It came with 1920x1200 CCFL display.

The 1920x1200 CCFL display DELL add to M6400 SUCKS!!! It is SO SO SO SO F*#$&^% bad - it displays only 262K colors or so, so, so sometimes you dont' even see what is written on the banners - light yellow on dark yellow is light yellow. How crazy is that? back to 2002 technology?

I am owner of XPS m1710. Display On M1710 is reasonably good for laptop 1920x1200 and after being calibrated with my Spyder 3 ELITE it works very well, so yes I can compare SUCKS CCFL on m6400 with GOOD CCFL on M1710.

After thinking for few hours about how F#@($% DELL PLM is to even thing into adding this SUCKS into the top of the line mobile workstations as an option, I decided to spend some $$$$ on LED screen which should of display all 24 bit of colors - 16M. All good on paper - "das LED Screenen" - nice.

By spending 2 days on the phone WITH DELL UNSUPPORT and being redirected from one person to another in the endless chain (some crazy woman ordered me another CCFL display instead of LED in the process, I cancelled it next day) (these people do not know "gmail.com", so I had to spell it every time - I believe these are centers in some middle of nowhere) until I got, not sure how, to talk to totally reasonable AMERICAN support guy, who in 5 minutes has been more helpful than all these ###$ in two days. Do that guy helped me find correct parts (GREAT THANKS) - new display back cover and LED display itself. CCFL back cover does not work with LED as the cables are not the same for LED and CCFL.

I went for Samsung LED and sure I received LG LED.

On the invoice:
Paid for back cover K886F - $249
Paid for display RM244 (This is already LG part number) - $815

So I installed everything myself at home - installed LED into frame on LED back cover, then replaced the whole head from CCFL to LED, replaced bezzel..
Everything started...... Booted into windows - and I felt ... F#### - All colors of LED appeared to be way off. DELL had me again - nice work DELL.

So this is how I got to the point of owning LGD018E LED display which does have ability to display 16M colors as DELL anounces. Unfortunately DELL does not tell us what these colors are this is a litthe trick to sell - it works.

I noticed all greys on this dispaly are COLD (from 9500K to 12000K) and whites are... GREEN!!! So this display displays something and does it in very wide and RANDOM gammut way... Usually black to white is green to blue on this LED, depending on the brightness of the grey object displayed How bad is that? VERY BAD.

So I am not sure what color reproduction profile it that. Is it Adobe RGB green-whites? In reality I don't care - IE7 and windows interface on both XP and vista are not color managed so if I calibrate the monitor for Adobe RGB, White-greens will stay there anyway on every text, video, picture.

So if you have Windows you need 2.2 and 6500K - kind of sRGB with no 80cd/m^2 limit.

Now, cool part. It would be an easy solution just to calibrate this LED with Spyder 3 Elite....
No so fast. Spyder 3 Elite software cannot calibrate the LED displays. Yes they say they can and no they can not do it. All attempts of calibration results into GREEN everything - It is kile looking to the screen through the bottle of Absinthe So F(*#( stupid.
Maybe next version of the software for Spyder soft will be able to do LED, but 3.0.7 cannot.

So what to do now? THERE IS A WAY TO SET IT RIGHT, THIS LED.
SURE when you set it right it won't be 300cd/m^2 but 200cd/m^2 - not a big deal as if you really want to keep your eyes you will set it to 120cd/m^2 anyway. Yes black will be lighter (do not recall exactly but around 0.40cd/m^2), and yes it won't be able to display 16M colors anymore as every calibration involving video card LUT kills the colors out of total 16M - SUCKS.
(Sure DELL could of calibrate the LED array so the backlight would be uniform 6500K and then calibrate the LCD matrix itself. But it is too complicated for their small brains - and expensive. Who cares about quality our days! Lets' flud the worls with the cheap .).

To set LED right - you need:
1. GOOD enough reference LCD monitor. (I used 20' Apple cinema display)
2. Calibration device. (I used my Spyder 3 Elite)
3. Eyes.
4. Brain.

Steps:
1. Go calibrate the reference LCD monitor connected digitally (HDMI, DVI, Display PORT to DVI, No analog connections!) to M6400 for the profile you want to replicate on M6400 - I used 2.2 gamma 6500K 125cd/m^2 .
2. Open Nvidia control panel and go to the desktop color adjustments.
3. Select gamma adjustments. And goto green color.
4. Open image, or notepad or fomething white FF:FF:FF and put the window so halth of it would be on your reference monitor and another halth on the M6400 LED screen.
5. Click on the gamma adjustment curve for green. Leave only two reference points - at the ends of the curve which will be straight in our case.
6. Click with mouse on the top adjustment point and move it down until you see green tint dissapears from the white on you FF:FF:FF white. On my display it is 0.78 in the output for green. (note that the greenish tint depends on your position over the LED display - moving up and down will increse/decrese the green tint so sit straight and dot' move )
7. Remember the output value of the adjustment (input must always be 1.00).
8. Click apply when you actually sure that you ust removed the green tint.
9. Now do the same with the blue. Remember - curve must be straight, only two adjustment points - one on the top one on the bottom. Move only top one and only vertically. Input always 1.00. Output- you decide.
10. The goal of the blue adjustment - to get the white FF:FF:FF exactly the same way as on the reference monitor. IT MAY TAKE SEVERAL ITERATIONS including re-adjustment of the Green output. Check the brightness of the white point every time you adjust the Gamma keep it in range of your reference monitor white point brightness.
11. For me the final output values to match white on LED and my calibrated applpe cinema display are R:1.0 G:0.78 B:0.78.
12. Just for fun check yor white color temperature with calibration device. - my Spyder here gives me here 4011K instead of 6500K on LED - so definitely Spyder do not recognize LED backlight anyhow.
13. Use your calibration device to calibrate the LED on M6400. Do not set color temperature - just define gamma 2.2 and keep white point native.
14. After calibration LED colors must be fine and match your reference monitor colors.

I had to repeat the procedure 3 times before I got total match for my apple cinema display.

The procedure above work fine with spyder 3 elite. So my LED is kind of fine now...

I am thinking.... Will xps m1710 lcd fit into M6400? Maybe I will figure out in next few slipless nights...

I am not bying anymore DELLs... Not for next 2 years

I will buy Older Intel 2.6Ghz 17'' MAC. Need it for photos. LED MACs - not good enough colors.

P.S. You may think that your colors now are too vivid. That can be adjusted too but this will further reduce the total numbers of colors to dispaly.

 

For reference, my LED that has the over saturation problem is manufactured by Samsung. A technician swapped it to another Samsung LED, but problem persisted. Got a replacement m6400 with CCFL, but have color issue. The CCFL is manufactured by LG.