XPS M1330 led screen problems and correct replacement?

Sorry for the long first post, but I wanted to both show the problems I've had and explain what is going on so I could hopefully get some answers.

I've had my M1330 since Sept and have had minimal problems up until recently.

It started with noticing some bright white dots on a bright colored/white screen that seemed to disappear with a dark screen. They looked like individual tiny LED lights behind the screen. There were two most noticeable on the left middle-lower screen, but also more dimmer ones scattered all over.

Then, starting a few days ago, I would get these weird symptoms with the screen all of a sudden freezing with strange distortions and color blocks, etc, even one total screen of multicolored vertical bands, seen here:



It would either then go black and recover a couple minutes later or it would go black and not come back, forcing me to shut off and turn it back on. If it recovered it would give me a popup saying the display driver stopped responding:


Well, I have the home service warranty, so they came to fix it yesterday. They replaced the screen and the motherboard, took almost 3 hours . But, after he finished and left, I started using it and noticed the colors seemed more washed out, especially the reds. My "XPS" background, which is red, used to be very vibrant and I actually thought the color was awesome, but now it looks almost pink and the screen doesn't seem as bright.

So, I tried looking up online if this was a common problem and saw people said there were different screen variants with different characteristics. So, I looked up under the hardware manager as to what screen I had to see if that explained the differences and I found that under hardware ID it said the monitor is a SEC5441 screen.

From what I've seen searching google, people have said this is a CCFL screen. Did they replace my LED screen with a standard screen?!? Would the standard one even fit in the thinner LED screen lid?

 

Sounds like they did replace your LED w/ CCFL.

Call them back and ask for another replacement.

 

My recommendation is that you don't exhale the smoke directly onto the M1330 the next time you roll n smoke one, duuude*.
*Sorry, it's not a laughing matter and I'm sure you weren't laughing at the time - my bad

I personally don't know of that ID but I wonder how they can manage to squeeze the thicker CCFL screen in there! Space (thinkness, to be more exact) is the one reason why LED-based builds do not (cannot) come with the higher-resolution 2MP webcam module.

So before you threaten the poor Dell CSR on the other end of the phone line, try to double-check with him/her what panel type it really is. Then scream (if it is really the case) so that they extend your XPS Pro warranty another year for your trouble

 

Lol, yeah, looked like I was having an acid trip or something when my screen started acting up.

Anyway, I saw the Dell guy replacing the screen and the replacement looked pretty thin, not really noticeably thicker than the original, yet I didn't look at them size-by-side either. It at least looked way thinner than the LCD module that came in my old Inspiron 8200.

If I call and tell Dell about the hardware ID for the screen, are they going to have any clue what I'm talking about?

 

Well, I chatted with a Dell guy online and told him about the "hardware ID" and he said:

"To be honest, I have no access to be able to tell which company manufactured each screen we send out, if we send another replacement, there is still a fair chance it would be made by the same group."

Then said that the part they sent out was the same as the original part, both LED.

But still, the screen's colors seem way off and doesn't seem nearly as bright as before... that and the hardware ID being the same as a CCFL screen?

Either way, they're sending a new screen, so we'll see if that changes anything.

Edit: So, I opened up the screen. It is Samsung model# LTN133AT05-001. Unfortunately, I can't find anything that says whether it's an LED or CCFL backlight on Google. It is only 2.8mm thick, though... very thin!

 

Well, that's probably your best bet; I'm not sure how you will compare the two (it's not like a replacement unit where you get a few days to do a side-by-side...). But i would suggest using a video camera amd/or camera in an artifically-lit environment so that when you take a pic of the new panel, it will be under the exact same lighting conditions.

OMG, you got really big ones, lol
If you couldn't find the model number via Gogle, I guess no one else will, either. If you do manage to figure out the riddle, plz let us know.

 

I'm going to try to get a pic of it before and after, definitely. I was planning on using a room with consistent lighting and use the same shutter speed and apeture setting on the camera for each. Unfortuately I'm also having problems with my Nikon D50 I'll have to see if my girlfriend's Olympus will allow me to set those manually.

Haha, as for opening it up, I mess around with electronics all the time, I wasn't worried. I watched the guy do it yesterday too, so I had some idea what it invovled.

Update: Dell courteously informed me that the replacement part is on backorder and that they'll inform me when it is available Although, maybe that means I'm actually getting the LED screen.

Edit: Searching Google again gave me a link to supplier of the Samsung Screen, which I looked at yesterday, but today now says it has an LED backlight. So, the screen I have apparently DOES have an LED backlight, yet I am still disappointed with the performance and I hope to get one that performs as well as my previous screen.

 

Hello,

I just had my LED 1330 screen replaced and the hardware ID is SEC5441 too.

Did you ever figure out if this was a CCFL or LED?

Thanks,
Tom

 

I'd be very surprised if they fitted a CCFL inside the LED case. it sounds to me as if this SEC5441 is a new LED screen from Samsung. So now we have three LED screen suppliers: CMO, LCD (Toshiba), and SEC.
I wonder which had the brightness and colour you liked before the new one was fitted - I would guess it might be the CMO as I think that is brighter than the LCD (Toshiba).

[The fault you originally described is probably more likely graphics chip/motherboard than screen so I wonder if they really needed to change the screen out at all]

 

Several people have reported getting a Samsung LED with their 1330s. Many of them have said that the colors are off/slightly blue. You can probably fix that with the digital vibrance settings for the video card.