New d820 with Samsung display

Well, looks like Dell tech support fun for me. I just got my new (well, certified refurbished) d820 today and overall, I like it.

The good: Nice keyboard, nice feeling touch pad, good weight compared to my 8+ pound 4-year-old Toshiba. I like the wide screen format and the computer is running cool and silent.

The not so good: Bright LEDs right under the screen, caps lock doesn't light up so I keep turning it on and not realizing it, keyboard a little loud. Speakers so-so (but I'm used to the Toshiba Harman-Kardons). Delete key is small and in a weird place for me, but I knew that before I bought it. Volume is by buttons - I prefer the knob so you can turn the volume down before you open the laptop.

The bad!!: The UXGA screen. I had read that dell has 3 screen manufacturers for this model, Samsung, LG-Phillips and Sharp. One guy on another forum had his company receive a whole batch of d820's together and he compared the screens. The conclusion? LG-Phillips easily the best for color saturation, Sharp pretty good and nicely bright and Samsung, just terrible. Bad viewing angles, light leakage, and most of all really washed out color.

I open the laptop for the first time and my first thought was - Samsung. The bottom 1/5 of the screen is light leakaged, the viewing angles are terrible, and the color next to my Toshiba is laughable. I bought the laptop for Photoshop work and this monitor is nowhere near up to the task.

So I call tech support. I get India (I thought small business support was still in the US?). The first mess-up is that since my computer is refurbished, they still have the warranty registered to the previous owner. So no next day service for me. Then after I clearly state the problem, the guy insists I remove the battery, pry up the plastic around my power button (leaving little marks on the new plastic), and try to unplug and re-seat the connectors. At this point, I just told him that I wasn't comfortable doing this myself (I was, but the connectors were not the problem and I didn't want to damage the notebook anymore doing hasty repairs on it).

I couldn't understand everything he said, but from what I understand I am supposed to wait for his call tomorrow (I forgot to ask what hours he works since I called at 7pm Central), because no one can do anything to my computer til it's registered to me.

I'm going to ask for an LG-Phillips screen to be put in, even if I have to wait for it. If they won't do that, then I'll let them switch it with another computer, but I'm not going to accept one with anything but the LG screen at this point.

Just in case they give me a hard time, does anyone know if they enforce the 15% restocking policy they mention on the outlet computers? If I have to, I'll just return it and get a T60p with flexview. I like this computer though, so we'll see what happens.

 

Another day, another problem.

Since I didn't think much of tech support guy #1, I tried again at 8am and got Indian tech support guy #2. He had no idea what to do and I wasn't even clear if he understood the problem. Pretty simple - screen is grainy, poor viewing angles, lots of light leakage, and add to that washed out colors. If I set the brightness low enough to see colors right, I get a dingy gray instead of white and can barely read web pages.

Finally, after 40 minutes, he sends me to American tech support. That guy keeps me on the phone for another 20 minutes, and tells me that the only screens they use for Dell d820 are Sharp. I tell him that I have an SEC3255 according to device manager, so that can't be true - and that plenty of people have talked about LG Phillips as well. He finally decides that they can swap out my monitor. A techie will call me by end of business day to schedule for Thursday or Friday.

It's now 5:20pm and no phone call. So much for next day support. I called with the problem Tuesday at 7pm and they tell me it may be Friday.

On top of that, about 10 minutes ago, I was using Adobe Illustrator and minding my own business, just seeing how I like the feel of the computer, when the display goes nuts. It breaks into 8 sections each flickering madly. They were all gray and white and stripe-y (probably because the screen I was working on at the time was in those colors). I powered off the laptop and back on and it's back to normal.

Never had that happen before on any computer. Bad LCD panel? Bad video card? I guess I'll have to call back and add that to the list of troubles, or maybe I'll just tell the guy who schedules to come out. I probably should have left it on and tried bringing up task manager, but it freaked me out so I just shut it down.

On top of that, the 7200 hard drive makes a noise like it's a ticking watch which is starting to drive me a bit batty. Maybe this computer isn't meant for me? Funny thing is I kinda like it if it weren't for all it's problems.

 

My thoughts exactly on the D620 I used which I liked a lot except for the screen.

 

Got my fingers crossed. Dell tech coming out in a couple of hours with an LG- Phillips screen - supposed to be the best of the bunch.

I had asked the phone tech to put in the notes that I wanted LG but he said all they had were Sharps. I said if I get a Sharp, so be it, but could you please put it in the notes that I'd like an LG. Looks like it worked.

I'm hopeful.

 

gooood luck!

 

Same here, love my E1505, but the first one, the VGA out failed, the second, the LCD glitches.

Otherwise, great laptop.

 

What video card do you have? while i realize it wouldn't matter for light leakage it does help with some of the color issues. And yeah, thats BS that you had to talk to India, when i called i miraculously got to an american who knew how much the screen sucked and he had them come out and replace my screen with an LG. good luck!!

 

I was lucky- my D820 has the LG screen, and while it's nothing to jump up and down about, it's decent. Light leakage is minimal, backlighting is somewhat uneven (slightly more dim at the right and left sides), overall brightness is OK. Viewing angles are limited: one has to stay in the center sweet spot.

While I have no "serious" complaints, given the otherwise high quality of this lappy I wish the display had more WOW factor.

 

I have the 512MB Nvidia card. Should be able to handle the job I would think.

The guy was supposed to be here 2-4 yesterday but called at 4:!0 and said he was miles away. Said he could come at 6pm or in the morning this morning. I said it was up to him because it didn't matter that much - I just hate waiting for people that don't come. He wanted to come this morning and said I'd be the first call of the day at 9am so we'll see.

If I don't like the LG screen, I'm not sure what my options are. The screen on my Toshiba is sooooo good and I just fail to understand why I could be 4 years down the road from having bought the Toshiba and having to make choices between tons of mediocre screens, just plain bad screens, or the Lenovo Flexview which is expensive (bought this one from the Dell Outlet - the same Lenovo would be $800 more if you include the Office 2003 Small Business that I got with the Dell).

I wonder if there's a cheap laptop I could buy in 15" standard size and put the Toshiba screen in it? Just a thought - don't know if they are swappable. It'd surely void the warranty though. I've considered going real small (12-13.3" screen) and then just using an external monitor for graphic work. I work from home and like to sit in my armchair and work. I put the laptop on my ottoman and a Wacom tablet on my lap.

More after the screen swap.

EDIT: He just called and has a flat tire and will be here about 10am. I'd say Dell Next-Day support has been good enough for a home user who didn't know 2 weeks ago that anyone offered next-day support, but not good for a demanding business user. I called with the problem at 7pm Tuesday and 10am Friday is the first time during normal business hours that anyone has been able to get here. If someone doesn't come soon, maybe I'll drive the 1/2 hour to Dell Headquarters (I am, after all, in Austin) and demand satisfaction. )

 

Lots of members had probelms with the 1505 screen

 

Interesting. The guy came out and replaced the screen with the LG-Phillips (lplab00) and at first I didn't notice a difference. Then I started tweaking it in the nvidia panel and it is much better. Still a bit grainy, but not bad. The color is sooo much better and so is the brightness and contrast. The viewing angles are much improved. The light leakage is not fixed at all, but it wasn't my biggest issue. There are dark areas in the bottom corners of the screen, maybe 30x30 pixels which has been noted by other people, but it's so small that it doesn't bother me.

I think this monitor is a keeper, but I am going to test it in all light conditions before I email the tech support guy that all is well.

For future reference for others, here is a thread of people with the same experience as me swapping out a Samsung SEC325* with an lplab00.
http://203.147.133.62/forum-replies-archive.cfm/588301.html

Here is a good color wheel to check your monitor with:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~accodev2/colorwheel/wheel/1.gif

Each block should be a different color - some only slightly different. If some are the same, the brightness or contrast is off or the monitor sucks. On the samsung,the top right 4 greens were all the same and the top two left yellows were the same. If I set the brightness down far enough to see the color differences, web pages were too dark. There was no setting which would make a good color wheel and good web pages at the same time. Now the yellows are all good. The top greens are still a little too much the same, so I am going to dowload the utility PowerStrip and adjust the color temperature of the green.

Also, try this when you think your setting are right. This is a photo that should have a very light pattern in the background.
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~accodev2/colorwheel/images/3gears.gif
It shouldn't stand out, but you should be able to see 3 reddish gears. If I have the samsung set to where I could see web pages at a reasonable brightness, I could not see the gears at all, just a white screen. This impressed the tech who came to switch out the screen. He said that the monitor had originally looked okay to him, but once I pointed out the flaws, he really saw them. (I had my good old notebook open next to the d820 with the same images).

So glad to see the LG, especially after the phone Dell support guy told me that they didn't have any.

 

Glad to hear your screen is fixed. I 'd like my system too if there is no BSOD and ATI Card. Lucky, u're living in Austin. Does dell has a store over there for walk-in customer?

 

They have a store in Dallas. They mention 2 in Austin, but I think they are both kiosks. Could be wrong though. Yeah, it would have been smart to go look at them I suppose. Then again, the LG and Samsung screens are pretty different and who knows what would have been in the store.

I'm still not sure I'm keeping this dell. It is still grainy and somewhat unevenly lit. Nowhere near as good as the Toshiba when looking at a white screen. Sorta makes my eyes tired. It's pretty good at colored screens, but for not for white, which most web pages are. The Toshiba's white is a creamy smooth color that's easy on the eyes; this one is a grainy greyish blueish white that is kinda not so good. I've been staring at these two monitors too much so I'm going to CompUSA or Best Buy today and get a fresh frame of reference. I like this computer except the screen and the touchpad (which recognizes my taps about 3 times out of 4 with the touch sensitivity on max), but maybe I'll go for an hp dv2000t and an external monitor solution.