CCFL backlit LCD in R2?

The latest M17xR2 from the Outlet came with a 1920x1200 CCFL backlit LCD.

Did Dell ever sell the CCFL backlit WUXGA display with the R2 version, or was the RGBLED LCD always the only WUXGA option?

It's a yucky LCD...dark and uneven brightness (says it's an SEC5443).

 

Yes, the R2 was configurable for a short time with the CCFL 1200p LCD screen from the R1. What's more likely however is that someone had the RGB, it broke, was replaced with a CCFL and they threw a fit and sent it back, which now you have just bought again.

 

Man...am I spoiled with LED backlit displays or what!

Was the CCFL display from the R1 known to be crappy? If I had spend umpteen thousands of $$$ on the R1 and got this display, I'd be wanting my money back!

 

yeah, it was somewhat subpar for the laptop it was in, but still better than most. Most people complain about dim displays, I had mine @ Max all the time and still didn't seem like it was enough. It's half the reason I got my R2, half for the RGB, half for the i7.

 

Seems a little OT here but can we put a RGB LED on R1?

 

Yes! But you will need to unplug the BIOS battery for half a minute before turning the system on

 

The dynamic contrast is what always pissed me off to no end about that display. There's no way to disable it.

 

CCFL or RGB LED?

 

The CCFL..

 

I ordered the standard resolution CCFL display with my R2 to save a buttload of money on the build (its a very expensive upgrade to the RGB LED in Australia) and it came with the RGB LED screen anyway.

To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement. I then checked if they gave me the blu-ray drive for free and they had...

Im not sure why - I did get the system very fast - less than a week - which was three weeks early, so maybe they had it sitting around and the manager said to ship it without building a fresh one?

Seems the specs of the laptop you get can shift either way, anyway.

-Ash

 

I know it's hot there, so have a glass of water, I think you're having a heat stroke with hallucinations

Seriously, that's a helluva deal you've got yourself.
NOTE: if you ever need to replace the system, make sure to swap, as they rarely make such mistakes twice

 

Yeah ill be fine - my invoice actually shows all of the extras on it, as if I had paid for them.

Also, I dont seem to experience any of the flicker or power brick issues everyone has had either, so I have to say that this is the luckiest machine I have ever bought. All my other machines previous to this have had some kind of issue.

Another hilarious thing - I usually disable powerplay on all my ATI cards and that was the first thing I did with this notebook. I have been playing games all along with it switched off.

Today I decided to furmark it again with GPU-Z and it turns out my primary GPU was stuck on 300mhz core 400mhz ram...

It was loading at 100%, and the secondary card was running at 700/1000 and loading at about 40%.

I was literally running less than half speed all along

So I played around with settings and finally worked out switching powerplay back ON gave me my full speed clockspeeds - and a massive increase in performance.

And I was already more than happy with this machine.

-Ash

 

how to tell if you have ccfl or rgb led on your system? how do you distinguish the two? i just hope to have gotten as lucky as you.

 

First way is by looking at it. RGBLED you will notice right away by it's brightness and vivid colors. CCFL lit display is darker and not as vibrant.

If you can't tell visually (in which case you're probably fine with having CCFL ), a less relative measure is by the number of levels of brightness. When adjusting the panel brightness, a CCFL panel will have 8 levels (7 if you don't count the initial level). A RGBLED lit panel has 16 (or 15 if you don't count the first level).

 

with alienware OSD, they all have the same levels of brightness. I have the RGB and only 8 levels.

 

You can just look for hardware ID SEC5443 for the monitor in device manager. That's the RGB-LED.

 

I've reinstalled windows a few times, so anytime you do that it just loads the generic PNP monitor driver.

 

No matter what driver you're using, it's not going to modify the hardware ID reported by the hardware itself. Mine is listed as the generic driver, too.

 

I see what you're saying now, I skipped over the 'hardware ID part' for whatever reason. Thanks mine does say that.

 

are you sure MONITOR\SEC5443 is the RGB LED?

 

i believe so.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...fficial-dell-xps-m1730-owners-lounge-104.html
I came across that thread googling sec5443 and Afaik the xps m1730 did not have an rgb option. however, it's possible the panels are the same ad the backlighting is different, it would suck since that means our rand new computers are using 3year old LCD panels, but it's possible.

 

man, i searched the internet and ccfl and rgb led seem tohave the same hardware id SEC5443.
so i'm not lucky i guess.
i just checked my service tag and got this:
1 MW24N MODULE..., LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY..., 17WUXGA, SAMSUNG..., M17X10

 

you probally are(lucky and have the rbg screen), like I was saying, it's not the panels that are different it the backlighting. I *did* order the rbg option and unless Dell has been fooling a lot of people it has rbg backlighting, it's jst that the LCD panel is very old.

 

but how can you be so sure since other people who have ccfl claim that their hardware id is sec5443?
wouldn't it mention RGB on my service tag? by the way laptop was refurbished.

 

the xps 1730 did not come with an rbg backlight panel, which is why I linked that thread. I think you can find which panel it has via your order number, but I don't know how you could find the build specs with the service tag. I'll check when I get home.

 

ok thanks.
let me know what you find please.

 

R610K€170CT = Dual CCFL

K1NFP€170CT = RGB LED

 

order page part number for the RGB LED is 320-8856 that's all the information I have.

 

Like I had written in my original post here, my panel reports as a SEC5443. It is not RGBLED.

Also, if your display driver is not installed properly, you will not get the correct hardware id's for the monitor. That happened when I had 10.6 installed. I don't remember what it showed, but it was not anything that one could use to identify the panel manufacturer. Once I reverted to 10.5, the panel ID showed up correctly (this is on the M17x in my sig, which DOES have an RGBLED display and also shows SEC5443).

 

I asked this somewhere else but maybe this is the thread to ask in..


Can anyone decipher the difference in these two displays?

R610K Liquid Crystal Display, 17WUXGA2CCFL, True Life, Samsung (My Old System)

and

K001R Liquid Crystal Display, 17 Wide Ultra Extended Graphics Array, Alienware M17X (The refurb they sent)

They are both 17WUXGAs and both 1900X1200...just curious if one is better/different then the other. Obviously the first is a CCFL, just curious if the second one is ccfl also.

The latter screen is not functioning correctly. I have green static int he background of the display. If I hook it up to a external LCD it works fine, so I am assuming it is the actual display and not the gpus.

 

yeah, which is why I looked in the first place. I think that the CCFL R1 and RGB R2 use the same samsung panel, the back light is just switched. I'm not sure how else to verify the back lighting except to open the LCD panel up. That would explain why people can 'upgrade' to the RGB panel in their R1's too since it's the exact same LCD.

 

Nah they don't use the same panel. The SEC5443 id is just to identify it as a Samsung. Someone already posted the actual panel model number in an earlier post.

 

yes that's right!

 

Yup those are it, +rep. I've verified the RGB LED one by looking at the back of the panel itself awhile back when R2 was first released.

 

nice one! so now it is confirmed!!!
edited my signature