S96J Graininess Issue Thread

I just tried to photoshop something and it was absolutetly impossible with the grainy screen. I moved over to my sister's Acer 5612 and it was perfection. Honestly, it's a huge difference. I wish I could physically bring my laptop to all the naysayers and show it to them....<sigh>

 

Well, looks like I won't be purchasing this laptop afterall.

 

well, young chi, it doesn't seem to be a problem affecting ALL screens, just a WHOLE BUNCH of them...i dunno if you can take solice in that

 

I have this issue/problem too on my z96j. I dont appreciate the skepticism of Eddie. This issue is real. It does not happen on every windows. Sometimes I see 3 windows explorer windows next to eachother that all have white background. I then open a fourth and it is not completely white. It has grey splotches on it.

The best description ive seen is that where there should not be a difference in color, there is one. It doesnt happen all the time. In fact, looking at my screen now there is no hint of it. Other than this issue i must say its a really nice screen. At this point im not sure if its big enough deal to be dissatisfied. When it does finally show itself im just a bit dissapointed...

 

So is this a problem with the AUO AOU (What ever its called) screens, or the X1600? (software/hardware)

 

On a side note...

I never had any "grainy" effects on my s96j BEFORE i put in ATI TRAY TOOLS. If by grainy you mean that the screen looks dirty with grey splotches. Before I put tray tools in, the screen was great with dark colors, after I put in the tray tools, it began to look like crap, when I took tray tools out, it stayed there.

I reformatted the laptop, now it's all gone... o well... might as well... ati tray tools wasnt that useful for me anyways... what's a few points in 3dmark for overclocks.

I think this has something to do with x1600's and tray tools...

 

memph; you mean the wxga screens ?yes it seems like the problem is coming from the screen , or mayby ...

tianx; can somebody confirm this ??
is there somebody who has graininess right after a clean format and a minimal reinstall (no special drivers)?

 

Me. But I own a Z96. SHOULD be the same for all S96 owners. I say it is the screen. Output to an external monitor is flawless.

 

w3j s96j z96j all 3 have this. How can it be the screen? All 3 have completely different screens! Aside from the fact that this is present on many other brands with an x1600 and that this can be captured with a screenshot.....Its not the screen. I am 100% sure of that. If i had to guess i would say its the ati driver. Reducing the hue gets rid of it completely. It also makes it a lighter blue but it does dissapear.

 

I just used ATT to put the contract +1 and the grainyness when away...

 

Reducing HUE gets rid of nothing. I cannot capture the issue in a screen shot. Output to an external monitor is flawless, as I mentioned before. Like others have said, I think it is the AU-whatever LCD's that cannot display all the right shades of color, and therefore use two close shades to make it look like it can. Try viewing the screen from a low vertical angle. Issue becomes more noticeable. Reducing HUE just changes which colors react weird on this screen. Doesn't solve a thing.

 

I should be getting my Compal HEL80 today. I am very tempted to try swaping the LCDs, which should be compatible, just to confirm where the problem lies. I don't know if I want to tear both machines apart today though. Anyways, if I do, I will let you all know the results of my testing.

 

USAPatriot, please expand on this.

dunktank, I, and I think most of us, would greatly appreciate you doing so.

 

Didnt try the screen shot but others posted theirs. Reducing the hue to negative left got rid of it completely. Try it. I did on the comcast page and it went away completely. if it wasnt hue then saturation. Under alvivo panel there are two values hue and saturation. The one on top if lowered to left most value gets rid of it. The low verticals seem exactly the same on any glossy lcd i have ever seen. That is why glossy screens have inherent low vertical viewing angles. It is not the lcd that is the problem here unless you think that 3 completely different lcd's from different manufs share the same quality. The chances of that are slim to none.

 

Eddie, you don't understand. I'm sorry.

Let's get a few things straight:

1. The graininess only occurs with certain shades of color.
2. It is the HUE you are talking about. When you change that, every shade of color outputted from the computer is changed slightly. This slight change causes the blue used in the comcast background to be outputted to the screen in a color it can display without having to use two similar shades. The problem is, now other shades that looked fine before have changed, and certain other things that were not grainy before are now. If you are working with a certain color, then you can use the HUE to make it look better. But if you are working with more than one shade of color, the HUE does no good. It just makes different things look grainy.

Are all the LCD's from different manufacturers? I thought that this occured pretty much exclusively on the AUO panels. I could understand that, but if all the panels are coming from different manufacturers.... then... I don't know what to tell you.

But when connected to a CRT displaying the EXACT same thing, everything looks perfect on the CRT while being grainy on the LCD. Other people have been able to capture the graininess in a screenshot, which I haven't; images look perfect from a screen shot. That rules out the X1600, so the problem has to be either something between the X1600 and the LCD connector that does not exist between the X1600 and the VGA out, or it has to be the screen.


PLEASE NOTE: I am not complaining. I LOVE this screen. I am just trying to help resolve this issue and make it clearer for everyone, in hopes of making people happy. Also curious towards an answer of what exactly is going on. Oh, and it wouldn't be that bad if someone found a solution, making a great LCD even better.

 

auo last year was not a manufacturer. If it was then asus did not use them. I didnt research it but i ve never heard of auo. I guess only one way to find out

 

So once you reformmated and installed the drivers without ATI Tray tools, no more graininess? You're sure? I'd rather not reformat if I don't have to but if that's the only way to get rid of it...

Krista

 

Krista, I had the issue before I even installed any graphics drivers. Try booting up a live CD or something before you go and format your system.

 

Figures.

I've been kind of busy this last week and haven't been using my laptop, but I'm going to try the screen shot thing and see if the graininess remains in the screen shot. If so I don't think it'll be the panel, but I am curious if we all have the same panel.

It's not bothering me quite as much as it was. I don't think I'll be doing much of my graphics work on it though.

Krista

 

Ok so if this reply appears like a very nasty "i told you so" that was exactly my intention. Alot of experts here like to undermine my exprtise and it didnt bother me at first but after a while when all you guys chip away at everything i said it got to me so here is what i did. Had the z96j screen taken off and put on the z70va and the z70va screen put on the z96j. The z96j with the z70va screen still displayed the same identical anomaly everyone was talking about while the z70va looked exactly like you expect. Perfect without the anomaly. Anyone else care to challenge what i laid claim to from the get go? I hope not. As for the cause. That would be the ati driver. Thanks anf good luck hope this end this stupid topic once and for all

 

All I did was open up a program where the grainyness was visible a black box.

Then I opened up ATI Tray Tools and went to Videos & Colors > Color Settings > and slid the contrast bar from 0 to 1. No more grainyness.

 

That didn't even do anything. Still as grainy as ever. Eddie, thank you very much for the help. People want to unite and start bugging ATI about this now? "Give us a driver that fixes this!"

 

Well it did for me.

And now my screen is perfect but yours isnt!!11!!11!11111!!!


AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

 

Glad you think so.

If anyone finds an actual solution, or atleast the answer as to why this is happening, please post here.

 

I was really thinking about the Z96J but now I dont know. Is this the screens or the drivers?

 

Try what I told you.

Im running the latest Catalyst Mobilities btw.

 

try running a video.

 

I've tried CAT MOB 6.6, 6.7, Intel drivers, and Asus drivers. I've booted the knoppix and used Linux drivers. Nothing has worked. I tried what everyone suggested about messing with the contrast and the hue. No good.

Problem is not the screen as proven by Eddie, most likely the X1600 or something between the X1600 and the LCD.

 

Not the screen read my reply above

 

Any chance to get a 7600-7800 into the Z96J?

 

Video cards are NEVER upgradeable. You are stuck with the x1600. Better then the 2 you mentioned actually. Look at compal if you want the 7600 or at 10lb desktop replacements if you want higher

 

So that article explaining how the AUO monitors only display 200,000 somethingish colors instead of 16.2-16.4 million colors is crap?

 

Any idea if ATI has been informed of this? I saw a while back that older Omega drivers didn't help, but have ones since then fixed it at all?

 

ATI could giving a flying frick.....this is square on Asus.

 

Crap or not the same screen put on the z70va looks just as great xept it doesnt have the same effect on comcast.net background color.

 

Is Asus aware of the issue? How bad is the graininess? Anyone have any other screenshots/digital cam pictures of it? I need a laptop in 2-3 weeks so I'd like to know that Asus is working to correct the problem and in the meantime know that it isnt terrible where it is very annoying.

 

Anyone want to work toward a solution that actually solves something? Right now, I would just like to locate the source and cause of the problem. Here are the facts:

1. Issue exists with all current drivers. Across multiple operating systems.

2. Issue does not exist with any monitors connected via the VGA out. However, it affects all LCD's connected via the main lcd output.

3. Issue is static on screen. Pixels that display one shade brighter for one color will display one shade higher for all other affected colors. Same for pixels that display shades lower than what they are supposed to, and all of the "correct" pixels.

Considering this, the issue is not directly with the X1600 because it can display find via the VGA out.

Therefore, it must be something that affects output to the main lcd, and the main lcd only. This could be in the form of hardware, or perhaps a glitchy video BIOS that causes incorrect colors to be output.

I really don't see any practical fix in the future for this. A hardware level repair/replacement would be too costly and difficult. The only type of fix likely to be seen is either an update video BIOS, and updated system BIOS, or some sort of driver that somehow addresses how the X1600 outputs to the main LCD.

Any ideas based on this information as to the source of the problem?

 

In my case, it only shows up after using certain apps. So after boot up I don't have it. I don't have it at all during ordinary use. But it is evident after running, for example, City of Heroes, whereas it isn't evident after running CS:S. Once it's there is stays until I reboot.

It looks like freckles of lighter colored pixels and is only really discernable on darker colors obviously.

 

They are NOt working on the problem. Dealers have no feedback and no returns. I wont be calling them anytime only becuase the % of people co0pmplaining is very minute. I can safely speak for most other dealers as well. There is no problem with the lcd. Some people just expect perfection and there is no such thing. If this is a warrantble problem and you feel it is make your voice heard. Call asus directly. As far as i know people are not calling.

 

Eddie: Do you notice any graininess on other websites, games, or images in the z70va? The issue could possibly still be there but it just no longer affects the comcast website.

 

I wonder if the signal is being filtered or dumbed down in some way to be transported over an analog signal.

Anybody underclocked their X1600 to see if it could be artifacting from too much heat?

 

Didnt get that far into it. Just checked comcast and solid blue background. The sceens are fine. Fact still remains this affects all x1600 platforms including z96j, s96, and w3j. New screens placed on these platforms show the same. Problem is not with the lcd. Problem is not with the actual pixels them selves. The fact that all 3 platforms received outstanding feedback for months before someone on the forum pointed out means that people were very happy until someone told them it is defective. Unfortunately i have to conclude that you will live with it indefinitely unless there is a new driver that either better calibrates the colors texture or some atio tool that helps it. Sorry that just the way it is going to be. I will no longer persue this. See ya

 

I tried underclocking the core and memory- no help whatsoever.

Eddie, do you still have the Z96 screen in the z70va so you can check further? All it would take for the screen to appear fine on the z70vz is if the graphics card on the z70va outputted a color blue one shade below what the x1600 puts out.

I really think it is a hardware level issue on the X1600 in relation to the video output from the x1600 to the primary lcd. Hopefully ATI will be able to release some sort of software, be it bios or driver, that allows for a work-around.

 

I am done dude. This is not worth my time. I had to pick appart a perfectly great laptop just to prove someone wrong in the first place. Nothing wrong with the laptops here. Not the z96 not the s96 not the w3j. Get over it and use it just like the people used them months ago and raved about the quality. Now that someone said "screens are bad" everyone has a complaint?. I wont be doing any more research. This does not constitute all this effort. I am surprised people can live with the reflective sceeens but complain so much on an issue that is not even a deterent to anything. Someone open minded said "i wont be doing video editing" on it. Did you even try? This is just annoying. Best screen on an asus barebone just got ripped for no good reason. I just dont get it. Its really a shame and disservice to the newbies who read this and think they are getting a bad screen.

 

I'm out too. If anyone finds a solution, PM me.

Agreed. I tried to reason and tell people that it is still a great computer, and a WONDERFUL screen, but no one will listen as long as the issue still exists. That is why I have been trying to work towards a solution.

Sorry about that. I didn't force you to do it... just asking a few favors if they were convenient. I agree that there really isn't anything wrong with the notebooks. Read my review on www.asusforum.com to see my opinions on the screen and the notebook.

 

Wasnt talking about you. A few experts here seem to think they know better. It gets kind of annoying. Knowing what i know and seeing what i see i kind of expect people to believe me even if i have a hunch. My hunch was 100% on point. It took a whole days work for 2 people and all orders delayed just to prove it. You are all very welcome i hope the few people that are actually dissatisfied with the screens find their next laptop better.

 

So your saying that you took off the screen that was in the S96J and used it on the z70va and it looks fine?

 

He took a Z96 screen(WSXGA version) which also exhibits the issue and put it in a z70va. the Z96 worked flawlessly in the z70va. I think he also put a z70va screen in the z96 and the z70va screen showed the weird graininess in the z96 chassis.

Point is, the screen is flawless. It's something with the X1600 and how it outputs to the main LCD.

 

Is it still like that eddie? do you have pics?

 

Eddie is out. So am I. It won't make a difference. Live with your notebooks the way they are, or return them. That's all I'm going to say.