Samsung Series 9 - Poor VGA output

Hey all - I have a Samsung Series 9 4XC running Windows 8, with the most recent updated drivers from the Intel site for the HD4000 integrated graphics card. Only, the output to the (coincidentally) 4mil:1 contrast ratio Samsung Monitor is extremely poor. The colours are "Faded", text is blurry, nothing is clean or clear. I've updated everything, ran clear type, tweaked with the monitor settings - and nothing seems to help. The clarity pales in comparison to my much older XPS1330, which is now 5 years old.

I'm wondering if anyone has encountered the same issue, and what they might have done to resolve it?

Thank you in advance.

 

How are you connecting to VGA? Is the dongle made by Samsung or a 3rd party?

I have a Samsung micro-HDMI to VGA dongle which gives an adequate picture on a VGA display. Not good, but better than a 3rd party dongle that I bought before the Samsung one became available.

John

 

The VGA adapter is Samsung, since the port is proprietary. I don't think you can get a 3rd party VGA adapter. This is the VGA port on the right side of the laptop.

I also have a micro-hdmi 3rd party adapter which displays perfectly (left side).

 

The pass-through VGA adapter should give a good signal. If it doesn't but HDMI-VGA does then you might want to ask Samsung. Perhaps the adapter is defective.

John

 

it's micro-HDMI to HDMI on the left, and "Proprietary" or "mini-hdmi" to VGA on the right.

It's the right side that I'm having issues with. The image is horrible. You're not having the same issue?

 

I was under the impression that the right side port is a Samsung-special mini VGA (there's no room for a full-sized VGA port), in which case the adapter shouldn't need any electronics inside. Maybe I'm wrong - I haven't bought one. Last time I looked the pricing of that adapter was higher than the micro-HDMI to VGA dongle (perhaps because there is no 3rd party alternative). I don't normally use an external display but like to have the capability to connect to a projector should the need arises.

John

 

Trying to connect to my Samsung LED TV (and one smaller LCD TV) using the micro HDMI to HDMI cable and no results (tried two cables). TV recognizes that something is plugged in (message on the screen goes from "searching for signal" to "no signal" when plugged in). Tried everything in the user manual, duplicate monitors, TV only as monitor, extend monitor with no effect and Samsung live chat was worthless. Haven't tried the mini VGA adaptor route on the right side of the laptop yet as HDMI is supposed to give a better picture.

 

I've plugged into a TV (not a Samsung one IIRC) using a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable and it worked fine.

Did you remember to press Fn+F4 a few times to step through the display options? Or, if you've done that, there are also the options in the graphics driver. Did you also try the input options on the TV.

John

 

I've done all of that and tried different HDMI ports on the T as well. The TV knows something is connected but it says it isn't receiving a signal for some reason. I don't know how else to check to see if it's a faulty micro HDMI port on my laptop.

 

You need to exclude software problems. In addition to using Fn + F4 to step through the display device options have you also right-clicked on the desktop and selected graphics properties and looked at the display options?

You will have to try at least two cables with each of two TVs to have good evidence that the problem is in the computer hardware.

John

 

I've done all of that to no avail. Unfortunately, the only thing left is for me to send it back to Samsung for warrantee repairs...a royal pain. Thanks for your advice.

 

I have a

Samsung Laptop
Samsung Phone
Samsung Tv (8000)
Two 27" Samsung Monitors
A Samsung Washer/Dryer.

Their support is so totally horrible, that this laptop will have been the last product I ever purchase that has the Samsung name on it.

I'm done with Samsung. They're the most incompetent company I've ever dealt with. Great for design, atrociously horrible with customer service. Unbelievable.

 

I have exactly this same issue, My Series 9 provides an awful resolution with the Samsung MicroHDMI to VGA connector.

I bouth a new screen and it is horrible to have this issue, not only that but the Port fails when I connect through HDMI, it blinks from time to time and is very anoying.

What was the result after taking it to SAMSUNG?

 

Hi yoshuacas, welcome to NBR.

Depending on your model, you probably have BOTH a Micro-HDMI AND a proprietary Mini-VGA port on your laptop.

The Micro-HDMI port requires either a dongle or a Micro-to-Full HDMI cable, both available cheaply from Monoprice or Amazon. In both cases is the signal completely digital and shouldn't degrade through the cable. However, Micro-HDMI was limited to 1920x1080 at the time the current Series 9 was designed. The new Ativ Book 9 Plus supports 4K through its Micro-HDMI, as member kitejumping shows here.

The Mini-VGA port requires a proprietary Samsung adapter. The signal is entirely analog, and hence subject to degradation through the cable. However there is no 1920x1080 resolution limit. I have personally used my NP700Z3A's Mini-VGA with 1920x1200 (although the digital HDMI looks sharper at the same resolution). The limit depends on the pixel clock generator on your particular model.

Of course you can buy 3rd party Micro-HDMI-to-VGA adapters, which have built-in digital-to-analog converters. That would give you BOTH the resolution limit of Micro-HDMI AND the signal degradation of analog VGA -- the worst of both worlds. It's still a decent fallback for users who do not have the Samsung Mini-VGA dongle, and who need to connect their laptop to a projector for business presentations (which often have poor picture quality anyway).

Regardless of whether the Micro-HDMI or the Mini-VGA port is used, should you select the Extend mode (as opposed to the Duplicate mode) when you enable the external monitor. Otherwise it will just use the resolution of your internal LCD, regardless of how high your monitor can go, and the result will look awful. This is covered in more detail here.

I apologize if you already knew this. Maybe it will be helpful to others. Of course if your laptop has an actual defect, that's an entirely different matter.