How to detect 'grey lines' !!!!

Or grey lines revisited

Right-click on the desktop -> Properties -> Desktop Tab
Set Background to None (the top slot)
Select the darkest Grey (NOT black) from Color
Click Apply
Click OK

If you have ‘grey lines’ (or if may expect to have them soon) you should see:
1. Slightly lighter horizontal grey bands (not necessarily all) across the desktop, which should be solid grey
2. maybe a few vertical bands
(but no diagonal or non-linear figures)
3. Tap lightly on the back of the screen (the top of your notebook) and you see extensive rippling not necessarily related to the spot which you are tapping.

If you have it, it is unrelated to drivers, software, OS (it's also in DOS and Linux), resolution or memory.
It's either the graphics card HW or the screen; maybe both, but nothing else.
It's dependent on temperature: it doesn't show as clear on a machine just started as on a machine running for a while at top performance, and it may take a while to show sufficiently clear (which may explain why Acer engineers don’t see it)

And it is unrelated to the non-sense of left and grey sides changing shade (and similar issues), which are simply due to the 'normal' functioning of any screen trying to fit an image in a space.

If you have it, and your machine is on operating temperature for a while you also see it on other backgrounds (e.g. Windows XP dark blue background) as well as wallpapers (it shows on the greenish Acer wallpaper from the factory install on my TM8106. You may even see some sort of psoriasis on this particular wallpaper).

If you take a sceencapture, you’ll discover that the lines are not in the screencapture (just move the picture in an area of the screen that isn’t affected (which makes me beliweve the video memory and probably also the card is OK, and that the screen or the connection between card and screen are the source of the problem)

Just the results of a little testing after my screen developed lighter lines on backgrounds that should be solid.


Drio

 

Drio,

Very useful information, just one question, with the "darkest" grey, which one is that, if possible can you post RGB or HSL values for it, that way others can use it and be sure they are using the "correct" test case.

I don't believe mine has this issue (I've certainly never noticed anything) but it's always nice to be sure.

Thanks

 

You can easy see grey lines and background noise with Nokia Monitor Test (or just any screen test) using Brightness and Contrast screen. "Noise" is visible under Linux also but it looks like it have some kind of "regular" texture... I've been testing it with an old Knoppix so if you have any newer Linux distribution it could look quite different... Grey lines are just a matter of this LCD design - irregular grey noise is the real problem...

 

@ Arla
my grey is:
Hue = 160
Sat = 000
Lum = 120
Red = 128
green = 128
blue = 128

But it also shows in other backgrounds as well as some wallpapers.

I wouldn't want to suggest this is a universal problem; actually I am quite sure it isn't.

@jaad75
My screen manufacturer (according to Everest) is:
LTN154P1-L02
This is the same screen that has caused problems for a few TM8204 users (note that I use TM8106)

I used the following utility to see if there is something on the screen while in DOS
CHZ Monitor-Test 1.01
http://www.chzsoft.com.ar/cms/?Downloads:DOS-Software
(it's a German site, but the utility is at the top)
you'll need a formatted floppy to put it on.
Ionly used it to see if the 'grey screen' showed the same 'feature'. It did. (as with pc config from http://www.holin.de/cindex.html

It's a lot cooler here (mid UK) today, and it shows that ambient temparature matters a lot, the lines don't show as clear as the last two days (with excessive heat).

As said, I am convinced it (the lines) doesn't have anything to do with software, since the 'pattern of lines' is fixed at the same positions on the screen irrespectiv of software, OS, resolution etc., and doesn't showin a screen capture (unless I move the captured image to where the lines are.

I logged it with Acer, but I'll need the achine for work the next two weeks, and I want to see it wireless interference may influence the patterns (it could be that my neighbours have their TV or wireless access point at the other side of the wall of my temparary home office.

I don't know about the 'noise', probably don't have an eye for it as 'non-graphicer'. But I do know that some of the stuff posted on notebookforums.com, e.g. relating to changing shades of grey, is just non-sense. As an example: If I have to fit a 400x400 pixel image in a 300x300 pixel space on the screen, my software has to do some manipulation of the image. Some softs will have smarter algos for this than others, but all create some sort of a distortion.


Drio

 

If you're talking about wallpaper posted there, you should download it and watch in native resolution. As far as I could check, "background noise" has nothing to do with the heat. It looks like there is a problem with "color translation" between GPU and notebook screen, because someone reported that there is no problem with external monitors. And if it is true that only some TM8204 have this problem it looks to me like hardware issue. Once again: regular horizontal grey lines are not the problem - you may like it or not but that's the way how this type of LCD is designed.

 

So the 'noise' is different from the 'lines'; my lines definitely being a LCD screen problem since they don't show up on an external one (tested it last night on an external LCD).
Still strange that it shows suddenly where it hadn't showed in the previouse 4.5 months while the machine has been running more than 50% of the time.

Have you accidentally used the DOS program from CHZ to see if your nosie problem also shows under DOS?

Thanks for your comments

Cheers

Drio

 

Not yet. But as I mentioned before, there is a problem with Linux (Knoppix) also. Noise seems to have some kind of "texture" and looks different than under Windows, but the thing is that I was unable to set native resolution in my version of Knoppix...

 

Hi

Ambient temperature about 12 degrees Celsius lower when I started after a 10 hrs switch off.
No lines at start up, let's see what happens next

Surely it is temperature related in my case

Drio