Attn: W2 owners, need help with monitor issue.

I have owned a w2 (w2994vc) for 4 days now, and im quite pleased with it.
However there is one major issue that i need help figuring out.

Sometimes the screen flickers.
The best way i can describe it is flicker, like you see on an old fasion CRT monitor set at 60 hz, it's just a little worse.
I do know that refresh rate Hz is not really a factor on TFT's, and what i'm talking about here is not panel response time either.
I've desperately tried to figure out causes and patterns, to why this happens.
I have out-ruled that it has to do with any electrical disturbance from devices near by.

I have found 2 ways i can make it stop, for shorter or longer periods.
One is if i close the notebook, which makes the screen turn off, and then when i open it again it usually does'nt flicker.
Second way is if i pull out the powersupply plug, then it wil immidiately stop the flicker. It stops before it turns down the brightness of the screen (which happens 5-7 sec. after disconnecting AC power).When i put in the AC plug it may or may not start the flicker again.

I would really hate to make an RMA on my new laptop, but it seriously annoys my eyes, and i constantly focus on it when it does this.
I need to know if other w2 owners see the same as i, and hear opinions about this.

Thanks.

 

Not at all. And trust me i would notice i returned a z70v because the backlight bothered my eyes. The W2v has a great screen and if it does stop for periods of time it definatly should be sent back.

 

Yes , it definitely does'nt flicker always, and those tricks i mentioned, is also very persistent in fixing it, for a random period of time.

On a sidenote: I've been somewhat of a TFT monitor freak for a while for desktops, and compared to the best of those, i honnestly am not that impressed with the monitor on the W2. I'm talking about response time here. These w2 monitors must be atleast 25 ms slow. All you need to do is grap a window and drag it around the screen to see trails. ( letters get bold, and changes color). On a fast desktop TFT you would'nt see that, but maybe that's just how far the standards are on notebooks. This w2 is my first laptop, so i dont know how much to expect.

 

I dont notice that on my W2V maybe its the flicker thats making it apparent when u drag a window across. Or try updating the drivers sometimes ive had strange issues like that on a laptop before and had it be drivers not the flicker the other thing.

 

You could have a lose wire........ One thing that I love about the W2 is not only are all of the removable parts accessible, but all of those important cables that can become loose are as well....... I don't know if you'd want to check that out, but it's the only thing I could see that would cause it unless there's some other detail that you're forgetting to mention.

 

I assume you mean videocard driver. I doubt that it will make a difference, but i *have* been looking for a new driver, with no luck.
Apparently ATI insist that you get newer drivers through Asus for mobility cards, and as far as i can see there is no new one out on the asus site. Correct me if i'm wrong.

What i see as being slow response time is there, whether the flicker is there, or not.
I've seen my share of slow, and fast, TFT's for desktop through the years, and believe this is a typical slow response time issue, but am somewhat surprised that you can't see it. With absolutely no offence intended, maybe it's hard to see when you just bought, and payed a whole lot of money, for a new laptop?
Ofcourse i could also be wrong, and it could be related to the flicker issue somehow, and it may just be that i got a bad monday model monitor.

Just to get this sorted out for sure: If you take this window and drag it around on the screen while looking at what i have written here, you see absolutely no signs of the black letter getting a bit thicker and turning blue'ish ? Also those grey bars that seperate posts, will kinda move a little up and down, and get wider, when you move the window up and down?

Ofcourse, the response time(as i see it) is really not a concern for me as such, i just mentioned that because you said it is a great screen.
But the screen flickering is the big main problem.

Thanks for the help in this matter..

 

I've tried to explain it as thorough as i can, so i don't know what detail i could be forgetting to mention.

I have about 10 years experience in repairing and building desktops, but no experience in notebooks unfortunately.
I would however love if i was able to check all the cables myself. I would need a little directions as to what to open, to do it though. I dont want to void my warranty, but if its that easy to do, i dont think it would be a problem, with a little guidense.

 

I honestly didnt check i know exactly what your talking about ive been using lcds forever. i will check my W2V for that and get back to you. i just mean i didnt notice off hand but i really didnt check for that. Do you notice it when playing the games?

 

Yes. You gotta look for it to see it tho. It's more on some color combinations. This is not a major problem ,and the monitor is ok for games, just not near as fast as the best (desktop) TFT's (like, for example, the Viewsonic vp191, 8 ms with P-MVA panel).

 

First....... on a 17" widescreen panel like the W2.... you're not going to get faster than 12ms........ We sell those viewsonic extreme panels and the 8ms are obviously great, but you're not getting that on any laptop yet.

If you take your keyboard off, you can actually check all the cables that I'm thinking could be loose.... take a look at this diagram I did to show someone something.... notice the screws at the top that are under the battery.... remove those, then flip the notebook over.. remove the keyboard cover (thats the thing with all the holes it in..... then the keyboard comes right off.......... under there there are cables to the right.... they're thick.. those are the video output cables to the monitor.



Also...... hook up an external monitor to the vga out plug...... then tell us if you can reproduce the flickering and let us know if it's happening on the external monitor as well. If it's not then it's the panel itself...... whether a loose cable (my opinion), or something's wrong with the screen..... but doing that proves it's not the video card itself.

 

Thank you PROPortable.
I am going to buy me a smaller screwdriver tomorrow, to be able to take it apart.

I now have my desktop TFT hooked up to the notebook, and will be testing with it, the rest of the night.
Actually i can see already that the W2 monitor flicker right now, and desktop TFT do not. But i'll keep testing so im 110 % sure. Right now im at 99 %.
The more i look at this, the more it looks like an old flourecent light behaves. And it also seems to get worse, but that may be imagination due to my increased attention to it.

 

I don't think you can change the refresh rate... but have used many different crt and lcd monitors..... the screen on the w2 is one of the best I've seen... so I'm going to have to say something must be wrong with the panel ... that is if that cable isn't loose... that would be my first suggestion because I've only very rarely even seen any of Asus' panels fail.

 

Your right. It's 60 hz , and that it also widely recommended for tft's, even those that can be set higher.
I'm not gonna say much more about the quality of the monitor, before i have this issue solved. Exept just mention that now where i have my vp191 tft and w2 right next to eachother, and showing the same on both monitors, the w2 falls VERY short on response time and colors. There is a world of difference.
It may be that the w2's monitor is very good compared to many other notebook screens.
It may also be that i change my opinion if my w2 screen gets replaced or repaired.

 

I think you have an issue.... We've got some vp191's at the office and it's indeed a great panel... but the w2 should shine next to it as well..... I think something's wrong with your screen.

 

Hey Speedy K,

Is it the backlight that's flickering on yours? Because I think I have the same thing happening on mine and I was just thinking about talking to someone about a waranty claim. One thing I have noticed is that the flickering seems to be related hdd activity. Nothing happens when the cd drive is started up so I assume it's not just a power draw issue. It could be the cpu too I guess. I'll have to try harder to isolate it and I'll also check out the cable connections as you've suggested Justin. Is the power for the backlight supplied by the same cable as the signal one?

On the refresh rate issue I can see what you mean too but it's actually better than the desktop I use at work. Having said that the desktop I use at work is a piece of c%$p so that's not saying much

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

I'm still trying to figure this out.
I've come a little further.
I'm now 110 % sure that no flicker occurs on a monitor connected to the vga plug.

Today i'm concentrating on making sure that no flicker happens when im using the battery only.
Until today i have pretty much only used AC power, and every time i unplug the power, the flicker goes away immidiately.
My first run on battery only, is showing no signs of backlight problems.

I'm not so convinced that it has to do with harddrive or cpu activity, but i can't completely out-rule it either, and will keep it in mind.

So, status so far is that im fairly sure the backlight, or the electronic that control it, is bothered by something that has to do with the AC power/charger.

Please see if you can confirm my findings about AC versus battery.

BTW. i called asus service center today and they were ready to pick up the computer, but i told them to wait till i figure out a bit more for sure. I would HATE if it would come back not being fixed.

 

I've monitored my W2V for the last couple of days (sorry, bad pun) and I'm now almost 100% sure the flickering only occurs when it's running on AC power. It still seems to be associated with the HDD activity too. It's not exact (i.e. the screen doesn't flicker every time the hdd light comes on) but generally if the system is sitting there without any hdd activity the flicker doesn't really seem to occur and when the hdd starts up the flickering does too. This is a bit hard to pin down though so I couldn't swear by it.

Are you having any luck with your system Speedy K?

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

Well, i have decided that there is no way i can live with this problem, and i have to let Asus pick it up for repair.

The fact that only you seems to have the same issue, gives me a little hope that this actually can be fixed.
What i don't like about it is that its a problem that does not occur all the time, and they will have to really look for it over several hours.And i fear that they may be too busy to do that, and maybe will not fix it, or maybe change the monitor, but the problem is elsewhere. On the other hand, there has not been one day i have not been bothered by this for hours, so i guess it should'nt be that impossible for them.

I'm not gonna get the computer picked up before monday.
I will let you all know what happens.

 

Thanks for the update. I'm going to talk to Asus UK about mine too and I may as well get the issue of the PCMCIA remote sorted as well at the same time (mine hasn't worked from new).

I'll let you know how I go too. Hopefully we both have some luck.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

After eight long days I got my laptop back from Asus Holland.
Before it got shipped, I found out that the flickering only happened when the brightness was set to maximum, or at the step below maximum.
So it turned out it was a bad back light, and Asus tested it, agreed, and have replaced the monitor.
And it looks like the flickering is gone.
Right before I had to ship the laptop, I discovered that one of my speakers had gone bad, and I reported that, so it also got replaced.
How is it going with yours, Philip?

 

I've been putting up with mine so far because I've been using it a lot. Like you I also discovered that it doesn't flicker on lower brightness settings so I've been running it that way for now. I'm going to talk to Asus next week about a couple of issues though and hopefully they'll fix mine easily too.

Thanks for your help and the update Speedy_K

Phil
W2Vc-U005P