XPS M1210, my eye is watering

Hi, I have had this lappy since June 20 (ish). I love it, games are great, its light and portable, but seriously, my eyes really hurt! i have used windows to increase font size, used quickset to increase internet explorer's size. But my eyes allows feel sore, never really happened with my old desktop, not sure if it is the srceen or me in general. But this 12' is really killing me. There is still a sense of regert, esp. when using office, its really hard to edit essays etc.! anyone in the same boat?

 

I had that problem with a 14" WXGA LCD too. If you don't want to take it back, consider getting an external monitor. Personally, I like the Dell 2007FPW but you might find something cheaper that you like more.

 

Can i still return it? i got it in hk, but i am now in australia, dont want to get external, cos i dont use it at home that often, hence i got a portable lappy...

 

Come on grandpa! Man up!

jk jk. I know exactly what you mean. Are you using your laptop for a long time non-stop? If I go on for maybe 6+ hours, i start to feel the strain, my eyes water, and I get a headache. But besides that, theres never any visibility problem. Do you have vision problems?

 

Yeah i sort do, since i started using this lappy my left eye developed a spot inside the eye ball i can see it in the mirror (i am serious) but not sure if its the lappy.... and yes i do stay in front of the srceen for very long hours, as i have to! not that i want to!

 

sorry forgot to say

i keep on thinking its a mental thing, telling myself that its not the lappy (protecting it!)... i aint sure!

 

People who buy 12", like me, are supposed to be only using their 12" for portability usage, such as university, work etc. Don't you guys have a desktop at home with a bigger screen?

dL

 

I use my 19" LCD monitor with my 12" laptop while I'm at home.

My roommates find it funny.

 

I really dont know what to say. I mean if you need to use it for long periods of time, I would try to use it on a larger external monitor as possible. But it sounds like in your situation you cant do that. If you really cant I would just take it easy for a while. Like do some work for 2-3 hours then just close and rest your eyes for half and hour if thats at all possible. Try and take breaks to let your eyes rest. Other then that it sounds like you've turned up the dpi and everything so theres not much else you can do.

 

It probably too bright. Lower the brightness on the screen it should help.

This is a common thing with LCD they are much brighter than CRT for what reason I dont know.

 

thanks man, i really shouldnt stay in front of the srceen for too long really!

 

yeah the size of the m1210 is not the issue, because the resulution is lowered to make up for the smaller LCD size. The text on my 15.4 1680x laptop was probably smaller than it appears on my m1210 1280x res.

 

get your eyes checked. Seriously. a 12.1 is small but should not hurt/strain your eyes. You might need glasses/a new prescription

 

My eye doc told me with my eye prescription that I'm better off not wearing my glasses. I wear bifocals and it's close enough but not far enough that he's right, I take my glasses off when using it and it works great.

 

Got my M1210 a week ago, and I can't stand small fonts either. Have had same prob with a 14" laptop before. The remedy is simple, but not perfect. Play with font size/res using either Display Properties, or Dell QuickSet or MS Accessibility Wizard, or all these together until you get the final look you are most comfortable with. Bear in mind that sometimes you need to restore the hi res/ normal font size because some apps windows don't fit into the screen. It happened to me with Dell QuickSet Power Management Wizard. So you go back and forth.

As to Internet browsing you can change font size with Firefox. You can do it with IE provided you check "Ignore Font Sizes specified on web pages" at tools>Internet Options> general - accessibility.

I join the voice of common sense expressed here by others :
a portable laptop is for portable work, not for long hours use at your desk. This is why a PC or a wide screen monitor were created for.
Hope it helps.
Oh yeah - see an eye doc.

 

Also find the screen a bit small but getting used to it.

I'd recommend you get Gamma Panel,

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Gamma_Panel_d2796.html

It's free and lets you tweak the screen image quite a lot.

I found the colour temperature of the screen just too high (blue), which I find hard to look at.

Put gamma panel in your startup folder.
Go to it's settings and select blue, then turn the gamma down to about 0.9, and the brightness down to -20. Save this as a preset and hide it, it hides in the system tray. It starts up each time how you left it.

Also worth checking out the Opera browser. You can zoom a page by holding ctrl and using your mouse wheel, or with +/- keys. The zoom works differently to Firefox's, in general I think better, but each have pros and cons.

Alex

 

When your reading or looking at a computer screen(concentrating on something) then you blink about 1/3 that of when your just walking around or whatever. So thats part of the reason that they hurt. Some eye docs might suggest eye drops that you use 6 times a day or whatever. But talking to an eye doctor would be the most important thing you could do.

 

Thanks everyone for the response.

I got my eyes checks and its all fine, the doc said 'go and do some sports, and forget about it, its psychological. But if u use the small screen for everything, u should get something larger when used at home, it would help to relax your eyes, as u can sit further away.' (i.e. for movies etc., i guess).

So i did and got a 17' LCD from ebay. it feels much better as i am not stuck when the small screen all the time.

Thanks again everyone!

 

I'll like to give a humble suggestion. That is to "rest your eyes for about 10-15 mins after about an hour of working in front of your laptop." Hope this helps as well.

 

Laptop issue aside, I suggest you to contact a doctor about it rather than these forums... Seriously, I mean for your health.

 

IF you read alot of stuff on internet. Switch to Firefox browser, they can enlarge text as big as you want, not like IE. Hit Ctrl and "+" button to enlarge text. I use that alot on my 17" screen. Another way to enlarge text is : hold Ctrl button and scroll down ur mouse wheel.