Screen Trouble with the D620

First, I don't mean to be one of those whiners who are never happy with their system. It's just that I shelled out a lot of money for this baby, and I'll be using it for several years, so it's fair to expect a good system.

I just got the dell d620, and initially I was very impressed. It's extremely rugged and solid, I love the shiny screen latch, the distinctive "no fooling around" business look, the magnesium casing, the smooth and solid hinges, the graphics card, the fingerprint reader, the 4 hr battery life, the dual-control touchpad and pointer, the lack of bloatware, the quiet fan, the 3 year free warranty, the dual-core processor, and the Wave Embassy security software. I'm even fine with the mono-speaker.

There were very few hardware problems- the touchpad is a bit jumpy sometimes, failing to recognize that I'm moving my finger for a few seconds, and the bottom right of the keyboard has a lot of flex to it- more than there should be on a notebook this good. Other D620 owners, does your keyboard flex there?

But if you think about it, half of the laptop is the screen, and the screen is the reason the rest of the laptop is there.

I don't like the D620 screen very much. I got the WXGA+.

-the fonts are a bit too small, causing eyestrain, but I know that can be easily fixed by changing font size. This is a minor problem.

-the backlighting leakage at the bottom, which is also relatively minor.

-the contrast isn't that great, and blacks are washed out. (but apparently this plagues most matte screens.)

The real problems are:

-the annoying screen sparkle makes spreadsheets look a bit like pastel-hued glittery white paint. Most of the sparkle has a reddish hue to it for some reason. I'm pretty sure I could also detect the sparkle while watching DVDs, which was disappointing.

-the poor viewing angles are Really Annoying. I even found myself moving my head around depending on which part of the screen I was looking at, just to get the brightest and clearest view. There's no way to get the whole screen at the "just right" angle! (well, no duh, I understand that the angle will always be different from various parts of the screen, but from the normal viewing position, the whole screen SHOULD look great!) Also, it was very hard for multiple people to watch either a computer game or a DVD; my family much preferred the DVD on the old and pretty small TV to the high-resolution computer screen, because the LCD screen was very hard to view correctly.

All in all, this computer gives me eyestrain, except when playing games.

Here's where you come in;

1) Would I be able to return this whole system to Dell (I'm still within my 21 days) for a complete refund? Has anyones successfully done this? Since this screen problem is so common, I'm pretty sure it's an inherent quality of the "normal" screen, and so replacing screens would be useless. Also, since I probably have a "normal" screen, Dell might frown on my returning it; if it's not defecting from the "normal" screen in any way, how is it "defective"?

2) What screens would you recommend instead of the Dell, on a computer of about the same price range (1300-1500 or so USD), durability, and performance. I'm thinking about ASUS S96J or even... V6J. I'd probably like to go with a glossy screen because of the increased viewing angle. I've seen several glossy screens and they are (relatively) phenomenal (ie a HP nz1000 or something screen with amazing viewing angles, where the white on spreadsheets looked like a bowl of fresh milk, no shimmer at all.)

I'm in no big hurry, I just need this resolved by mid-august.

 

Look at adjusting the touchpad sensitivity. That may help.

Three screen manufacturers make the D620 screen: UO, LG and Samsung. Figure out which one you have. That dictates how much light leakage, viewing angle you have.

 

I adjusted the touchpad sensitivity way up a while ago, and while it does help, there's still a bit of jumpiness every now and then. (not a big deal)

I tried 127 dpi fonts (to match the on-screen ruler thing exactly) and cleartype, and they sure make things easier to read. I've also tried to figure out what brand of screen I have, but all of the standard ways don't work (ie under hardware management or whatever it just says "normal screen")

It's hard for me to get a good picture of the screen w/o using a flash on my digital camera. I'll keep trying, though.

I may just keep this screen. (I have a friend who wants a D620 really bad also).

Cy

 

The screen sparkle bothered me at first, and was really worried about it before I recieved my machine. I ended up getting the AUO screen and was a little dissapointed, but it has only taken about two days to get used to it. Honestly as long as I'm not looking for it and I'm concentrated on my work I don't ever really notice it.

If you are really serious about editing photos and absolute spot on color clarity and crispness(which, honestly, you should be doing on an external monitor anyway) I would return it untill you get the samsung screen which is appearently the best of the lot.

Edit: also, if you go the Nvidia route, you get quite a range of control over the screen.

 

Cyrus - I experianced the same problem with my D620. Had the LG-Phillips WXGA+ screen originally, and Dell replaced it with a Samsung. Both screens had the same sparkle problem. Looks like it could be a problem with the anti-glare filters being used by these manufactures. Anyway, I'm returning my unit, however it's costing me about 7% of the purchase price (read the fine print). Some more detail at: http://forum.us.dell.com/supportfor...essage.id=21944&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

 

Thanks for the replies.

I have a Bad (possibly good ) update.

Ah, I checked and I have the Samsung screen, and there's still that sparkle. Wierd. And the viewing angle is poor- I try to get people to watch games or DVDs on my laptop, and every time, someone seems to complain "I can't see anything from here!". I compared the viewing angles against an older Fujitsu, and the Fujitsu beats the D620 in brightness, contrast, nice colors, and viewing angles.

Even then, I was nearly happy with my laptop. But now there's "software" issues.

-The Windows Login and the Pre-boot authentication system fight each other, and so every few times I turn on the computer, Windows login refuses to let me on, and I have to start over. Sometimes the pre-boot fingerprint authentication tells Windows that I'm a valid user and so there's no "press Ctr -Alt-Del" and password, and that's the way it should be. Sometimes I'm brought to the Windows Login, and required to scan my fingerprint again. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes my user name is capitalized, sometimes it isn't. This ticks me off.

-The Computer froze during a Windows "start up" where there's a black screen with the Windows XP Prof. and loading bar. Nothing helped. I had to remove the battery.

-The next day (today) the computer froze after I exited a game (Halo) and pressed the power button to bring up the "turn off computer" menu. It just displayed the wallpaper, and nothing helped. I had to take out the battery again. One shouldn't have to remove the battery every day.

-Again, today, I tried to start it up. It accepted my fingerprint, and then said that it couldn't initialize the TPM (trusted platform module)! So it's now running dell diagnostics.

The two f(reeze)-ups today made me especially determined to return this thing. I had partially accepted the screen, but now I'm desperate.

What's the best way I can return this to Dell and get all of my money back?

I'm still within my 21 day period (barely) and I'm glad it's Dell small business I'm dealing with. How exactly should I contact them?

edit- I was rushed. What I mean to say is what is the best division of Dell Small Business to contact, and how should I go about it? Of course I'll be completely honest.

Thanks greatly

Cyrus