NC 6120 screen problem

Hi there. My company resently bought an nc6120 notebook with an 15" SXGA+ screen. After it was delivered to me i notised at once that there was som kind of problem with the screen. It got som kind of grainynes, that sparkled. This was evenly all over the screen and looked like it was som kind of hardware problem. I contacted my retailer who also notised this and they sendt it back to HP for repair/replaisment of the screen. Now after summer holliday i contacted them again and they told that HP had changed the monitor and didnt notice any problem, i addition to this had my retailers servic dep. changed the screen 2 times. And all the screens had the same problem, in addition they had som other nc6120 notebooks that had the same problem as ours. In result they told me that the screen on the nc6120 was supposed to be like this (the guy even told me that this was beacause the videocard on this notebook was so good compared to the Lcd screen !?!)

We have an HP nc8000 that is 1 1/2 years old with the same 15" SXGA+ screen, this and all other notebook i have used was without this problem. I addition did i update both videobios/bios and video driver. In windows i use native resolution with clear text activated.

Right now i am extremly frustraited over both HP and my retailer that is pushing me this losy product and refruses to fix the problem. In the end i would not recomend anyone to by a nc6120 with top specs (15" sxga+ 1400*1050).

Would apprichiate any responce on this matter.

attatched a picture of the screen where u can see the grainyness, it is a bit darker than the real thing, so the sparkling is a bit faded then in RL.

 

Olenor,

Sorry to hear that you're having the problem with your screen, but it does seem to be a common problem with their new notebooks. I have the nx8220 and have come up with a similar problem myself as well as other users on this site. Just search in the HP section for nc8230 or nx8220 and you'll find a few posts about this issue.

The sparkle/shimmer effect seems to be caused by a poor anti-glare/protective coating on the LCD (this is what I think) that seems to be a problem with a specific brand of LCD that HP has used in their notebooks. I'm not sure what the brand is but I know not all LCD's are like this. When my nx8220 arrived, I noticed this problem right when I turned it on and when onto the Google homepage (same as you). This is really noticable on solid white backgrounds. I sent the unit back to HP for an exchange (for other issues) and when I got the replacement unit, the LCD looked amazingly bright & clear vs the old one. I believe the LCD that is currently in my nx8220 is made by Samsung. The original screen was also dim and had dark spots/backlight was uneven.

A user on this site did a review for their nc8230 and stated that their screen was bright and sharp, while my review said that my nx8220's screen was dim, had the shimmer effect and was unevenly lit. Another user questioned me on the conflicting results as these 2 units are generally the same computer (slight difference in specs). As it turned out, I just got my new replacement unit and the screen was impressive.

So, with all that said, it's most likely a problem with the brand of LCD being used in your unit. If you still have an opportunity to get the unit exchanged (30 days if bought directly from HP), I'd suggest getting the unit swapped out and see if this resolves the problem. You may also want to contact HP and have them escalate the issue and see if they can replace the LCD with a different brand (Samsung preferably). Otherwise the other alternatives is to either live with it ( I don't like that option either) since you will get used to it after a while or increase the brightness/contrast/gamma settings. This will help hide the shimmer efect a bit, but not get rid of it.

Good Luck!

-Vb-

 

Hi there and thanx for the helpful response.

im not sure how to check witch brand the screen is. In graphics option it says that it's an pluganplay screen with serialnumber LGP2954, maybye LGP stands for LG brand, have searched LG's webpage for this, but didnt find anything.

Anyway, i seriously dobt if they will fix this problem since it's a fault with theyr choice of display. Talked to HP over the phone and the guy told me that since they allready have changed the screen on my notebook and that the tecnikan didnt find anything so they couldent do anything else. He furder adviced me to write a letter of complaint to theyr Customer relation team.

The truble is further complicatet because this unit is bougt thro our it-servic provider that only promotes HP notebooks. So i dont have any ideas to whitch unit i should extainge this one with. It is meant to be used by several users so the wide angel screen units with 1680 screen might be to extreme for my colleages (i could turn the resolutin down dough

In the end i it turns out to be weary risky to by a new notebook without having the opportunity to check it out first.

 

That's always the risk of buying anything without actually seeing/touching it for yourself. You just have to go off of pictures and that never really works out. There's no real way of telling what type of LCD in the unit without opening it up first, but for my LCD it happened just out of the blue. I uninstalled the display drivers for my unit (so I could install a different version). I had the device manager open at the time and the monitor had a ? beside it. I went through the steps to install the display drivers and during the install, the display type all of a sudden had Sam on it. I could only see the 1st three letters because a window was blocking the rest. My assumption was that it's a Samsung LCD. This could just be a freak thing that happened, but who knows.

Maybe you can try getting the LCD repaired at a later time. When all the bad LCD's have been removed from circulation, maybe they'll get it replaced with one of the better LCD's. It's worth a try since HP has given you no other options. You could always go the 15.4" WSXGA+ route. It's not that much bigger than a 15.1" non-widescreen model. It's just a bit wider, but not as tall and is only a bit heavier. The native resolution is 1680x1050, but a 15" non widescreen is 1400x1050. Just a few more pixels to the side is not too extreme in my opinion.

-Vb-

 

I've got simmilar problem as OleNOR with 15" sxga+ from nc8000. The screen is grainy and sparkling on the whole surface.

Anyone know how to solve this problem with 'home' methods? I don't want to send my laptop to the hp service and pay $500 or more for service.

PS: could it be not enough power/voltage from the inverter?

 

No, it probably can't be fixed for your specific display. It seems to be an effect which is relatively common nowadays with high res panels (at least that's my impression). Your only possibility is to ask HP for a replacement. Because my HP nx6325 had the same problem and also some serious backlight bleeding I did just that last week. I'm still waiting for the replacement.

 

Geez, that would be a problem, laptop was bought from the second hand market and it is without any warranty. So as I see, the only thing that I can do is return it and get my money back :/

 

Just wanted to add that some people have the theory this sparkling effect comes from some anti-glare coating on the screen. Other screens use different materials which don't produce the sparkling effect or at least in a less obvious manner. Since manufacturers like Dell or HP use panels from different vendors even for laptops with the same product number, experiences can vary for different users.

Edit: Just noticed Venombite already wrote about the anti-glare "theory". Sorry for being redundant.