E1505 Display Problems

I have a problem with my brand new E1505 notebook display. Certain images appear blurry/jaggged . Such problem images include, but are not limited to: graphics and photos in Internet Explorer, and also all the icons in the bottom right side of screen by the clock.

#1, why does my 5 year old monitor screen have better graphics than my brand new Ultrasharp WSXGA+ display? This is RIDICULOUS. While I'd normally be more patient with this kind of thing, my brother experienced the same issue on his 9300 he bought a year ago. The "fix" that the Dell tech person offered him made everything on his screen so small that he can hardly see it. Why would Dell do this???? The quality of the graphics on my screen are horrible!

#2, does anyone have a fix for this, that will keep everything the same size that it currently is??

Thanks so much. I'd rather not return this computer, but this is totally unacceptable the way it is.
~pondfrog

 

Your DPI is probably too high - Change your settings from 120 to 96.

How to get to your DPI settings: Right click desktop > Settings > Advanced > DPI Settings

 

and if 96 is too small, you can do custom and around 100-110 will be readable but not all messed up like 120. The "bad graphics" is far from that and actually just high resolution. Also it's not a dell problem, its simply the new higher resolution screens.

 

Thanks so much for the suggestions. You're very helpful.

I know it's frustrating to deal with someone ignorant on this issue, but it still doesn't make sense to me. My old monitor (17") is about the same size at my new 15.4" widescreen. And yet, to get the graphics the same size, I need to make them blurry on the new higher resolution screen??? It doesn't make sense. I want the graphics as big as they are at 120, but I want them to be at least as clear as my old monitor. This isn't possible??

 

Well, your new monitor on your notebook probably has a higher res. than your old 17" monitor did, so you'll have to expect that, and unfortunately, there's no easy way of making this possible. The 120 DPI setting emulates extra pixels into the images from their native resoltuion, making them look blurry (and bigger).

 

Well thanks for explaining it to me. I'll just have to live with it, because, from what you're all telling me, this is not a Dell problem, but rather a "new type of display" problem.

 

Hi,

I too have an E1505 and the display is just superb. I have the 15.4" widescreen with Trulife.

I am sure you have messed up something. I have ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 graphic adapter. The resolution of the screen is 1280 x 1024 pixels. As this is a widescreen with 16:9 aspect ratio, any resolution other than this will not look nice.

If there is a PROBLEM (genuine) with your screen pondfrog, then you need to get the notebook changed. But you might try reinstalling the display driver for GMA950 or ATI whatever you have in there.

Can you take a sharp digital picture (without flash) of your screen and post it here?

 

That's not your native screen resolution; it is 1680x1050 if you got the WSXGA+ display. SXGA is a standard 5:4 aspect ratio.

Try changing it to 1680x1050, and if you can't then reinstall your video drivers and it should give you the option.

 

Hi guys,

I took some pictures, but I don't think it's worth taking up the space on this website; the pics don't even highlight the issue that well. So, I'll just write it out.

The computer arrived at the following settings:
Display: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
Screen Resolution: 1680x1050
Color Quality: Highest(32bit)
DPI Setting: Large Size (120DPI)
These settings created blurry/jagged images, as described above.

Settings after xAMDvsIntelx's suggestion:
Display: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
Screen Resolution: 1680x1050
Color Quality: Highest(32bit)
DPI Setting: Normal Size (96DPI)
This fixed the blurry/jagged issue, but made everything smaller than I'd prefer.

Anyone have any suggestions, or need more information?

Thanks so much!!! You guys are so helpful.

~pondfrog

 

Guess what! I finally got ahold of a Dell tech person who understood what the problem is. He had me go to the dell website and search for "R98539.exe". We downloaded it, and now IE images/graphics appear clear at 120DPI.

Apparently, they're aware of the problem, and they created that fix for it. Seems to work.

The icons at the bottom right hand side of the screen are still blurry. He's trying to help. I'll post if he fixes it.

 

I know some people may not agree with me on this but if you wanted to display your text/icons larger at the LCD's native resolution, then you should have gone for the WXGA screen instead of the WSXGA+ screen...

 

Yeah SPEEDwithJJ, maybe I should have. I just want the option to have the icons small or big, and always have normal clarity.

There weren't a ton of screen options when I purchased. I would have also liked to have a non-TrueLife screen, but that wasn't available with the better screen option. TrueLife creates glare issues.

 

Another issue...

Once when I turned on this new computer, I saw a single bright red pixel, even when the background was supposed to be all black. After a restart, the problem went away. Is this something I should be concerned about?

 

Some dead pixels go away after a while - yours did, so I wouldn't be concerned.

 

yea a couple months ago my old toshiba scared me with a blue pixle that was pulsing during the windows xp startup. I got scared and pressed on the edges of the screen and it went away never to show up again. the toshiba is 2 years old now.

As for screen settings, go ahead and set the windows dpi thing to 120. All text should appear large and clear enough, the only draw back I have seen is your system tray icons are a little mutated due to not being a 2:1 pixle enlargment, but its not something you really notice as they are still quite small. Your normal icons should remain the same.

 

They're actually replacing the whole screen. They logged onto my computer remotely, and surprisingly they said they can see the same image I can on my screen... anyway, they said it was truly odd, so they're replacing the whole machine.

 

So, the new model finally arrived, and it's even worse. First, the screen on the new one bleeds even more light from the bottom. And the blurry IE images and icons are still there. So angry at this ****. I'm thinking all the Inspirons being sent out have the same problem. I'm sending the new one back. Not sure if I'll keep the first one or not.

 

Since you got a new model, you have to adjust your DPI again for the blurry images. Dell has all of them set to 120 which causes the icons to be worse than you can imagine. If you adjust to 96, that should clear up the blurry problem. As for the bleeding - you'll have to get your display replaced to fix that.

 

and quit using IE.