Is this normal? Issues with 14.1" SXGA+ T60 screen?

When I set the background color to gray I noticed that some areas of the screen were a little brighter than the others. These brighter areas were randomly located. I checked this issue with some other colors like grayish green or grayish blue. The same effect is observable with these other colors to. Is this normal for an LCD screen? To see what I mean please check the attached pictures. Does anyone else experience the same effect with 14.1" SXGA+ T60 screens?

 

It's hard for me to tell if you're talking about some light leakage from the bottom area (which isn't unusual for a laptop, and all too common) or maybe the textured effect I kind of see? You see that a lot in Dell screens of certain models such as the e1505 http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2827

 

actually I am worried about the textured look. It is sometimes distracting. I suspect that this is the same issue that some other users reported as screen being "grainy"

 

Do you have it set to 32 bit color?

 

yes I have. Shall I be worried about this textured look? Would it possible to ask for a replacement?

btw, this screen is made by boe-hydis.

 

The TMD panel I received exhibits the same uneven lighting problem. The unevenness isn't random at all, it is just a symptom of the narrow vertical viewing angle, such that the top of the screen will always be darker than the bottom of the screen. In fact, if you view the screen from enough of an angle above the horizontal, the lighting becomes even, but the entire screen will be too washed out to use normally.

Oh the other hand, I don't have the grainy problem at all. That, I suppose, must be a unique symptom of the BOE-Hydis panel.

 

I am starting to beleive that lenovo is using cheap material. I have compared the screen with an IBM made T series laptop. Strangely, my screen is worse.

 

The panels may be of inferior quality, but I doubt Lenovo had anything to do with it. The LCD panels are manufactured entirely by third party suppliers. The 14.1' SXGA+ panels of the T43/p series are manufactured by Hydis or Samsung. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-58431
I suppose the Hydis panel no longer exists since Hyundai merged their LCD business with BOE, but the Samsung panel is the same one still being used in the T60/p. Once again this leads me to suspect that the Samsung panel must be a very good panel, compared to the BOE-Hydis and TMD ones.

 

so do you guys think that this "textured" or "grainy" effect normal?

 

My panel doesn't seem to have the grainy problem at all. Perhaps you can contact Lenovo and ask them to send you a Samsung panel? I have heard reports of users successfully acquiring NMB keyboards this way when they found out they received the inferior keyboards with their systems. Since Lenovo considers the LCD panel to be a servicable part like the keyboard, maybe this will work.

 

I will try that. I hope they will provide a solution. Currently I am in Turkey. Though the laptop was purchased in USA. good thing that I got the 3 year international warranty.

 

Not to be mean, but man you are picky. I can't see the effect you're referring to, but could it be related to lamps that light up the screen? I don't know how those work on laptop screens.

 

I dont get your comment as "mean". I am sometimes picky.As a scientist it is my nature to be picky . But in this case, it is really there. If you got the boe-hydis display by chance, I suggest that you set the background to, say, gray oy grayısh tones. If this effect is present on your screen, you will pick it up. And you will realize how it degrades the image quality. Monday, I will do some testing on another T60. Though, I do not yet know the screen brand on that one. But I suspect it is Hydis.

 

I was just making sure you didn't take it that way, it's hard to know how people are saying things online.

I have a 14" hydis on my t43. I'm not sure if it displays what you are referring to; do you see it in the pictures?

 

I think I see it. But I am not really sure of it. If you check the pictures that I have previously attached, you will see that the effect is more visible. Try to cacth the pixels that does not match in brightness. These pixels are close to each other. I do not mean the uneven lightning or the light leakage. But rather the sudden brightness changes in closeby pixels. It was difficult to document by taking pictures. I had to first make sure that the effect seen on the pictures is not an artifact of the digital camera. As abaxter pointed out, same effect is visible on the dell e1505 screen. Th

 

Ok. I have confirmed that my screen is defected. I compared the screen with another T60, which also has 14.1" SXGA+ boe-hydis screen. The textured look is not present on that display. Tomorrow, I will call the support service in Turkey. I hope they will be helpfull as the support service in USA. To bad I did not notice this while I was in USA. The service center was located only two blocks away :-( Does anyone have experience with IBM support outside USA?

 

I had the same problem on my T60 after updating the BIOS to version 1.06. When I went back to 1.04, the problem went away.

the display problem looked as it I had switched to 8-bit rather than 32 bit, and was especially noticeable with the Office 2007 backgrounds.

 

How do you determine if you have a Samsung or Boe display?

And Jmmm - May I ask what software are you using for the calendar? Is it the Xrain or something like that? Thanks

 

mikez: this page will tell you the parts that shipped with your system. find the part number for the display, and then search on that at ibm.com:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/partslookup/partsLookup.vm

 

I had the identical problem with unevenlighting and graininess in a T60 with 14" SXGA+ screen. The problems occurred after I upgraded the bios to the 1.06 version. When I reinstalled the 1.04 bios that the unit originally shipped with, the screen problems disappeared. A number of others have have noted this in this forum. IBM technical suppport was unaware of this when I called them, but will be looking into it. I have no idea whether the bios effect is present with all the T60 screens, or only those from a particular manufacturer. I would check your bios.

 

I have the TMD screen. I downgraded the bios from 1.06 to 1.04 and the problem disappeared.

 

Jmmmmm,

OT, I would also love to know what software you're using for the calendar! It looks cool.

Thanks!

mbdriver

 

It's a great little program called rainlendar. I've tried a bunch of different desktop calendars, and this is the best I've found. It isn't the most user friendly at first, if you want to customize it, but once you figure out how, it has enormous capability for customizability. It's a really well-thought out program, I highly recommend it.