Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

No, you are limited to using two screens in total. This can be two external monitors or one external monitor and the laptop screen.

 

Hello,
I have Dell M4500 since 2010 with i7-720Qm and nVidia 1800M graphic card and 1600x900 HD+ wled display. Since day one I have problem with switching to the external monitor, that nobody from the Dell service didn't manage to solve even after 7 interventions.
When I pass to the external display or projector via DisplayPort+ or VGA cable after few minutes the picture on my internal display start to lightly flicker and has kind of interlaced lines along the screen. This remains after I switch back to only internal scree and happens weather it was before in dual monitor mode or only projector mode. The lines and flickering remain on the internal screen for hours after detaching the cable or after software switch back. It happens in any mode: Windows, in uBuntu linux and in Bios. It is the same if I turn off the computer and detach the cable then. Since it is premier covered guys from Dell tried many things, they changed the keyboard, complete motherboard with graphic card twice, display three times and laptop cover twice also, and off course updating bios and check of memory and CPU but nothing gave the results.
I am confused with this, since computer after all this changes is praticaly new but the problem still remains.
Is this the systematic problem with this Dell M4500 configuration or it is unique.
If somebody have some info or opinion about similar issue I would appreciate information.

 

I have a setup similar to yours:

M4500 with 1800M graphics, but the 1920*1080 display and Q840 CPU. I am using this machine with an external display (24" 1920*1080 LCD) and the internal screen simultaneously, my external monitor is connected through the docking station DVI-D.

In 1.5 years, using Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.04 and Mint 12 (based on Ubuntu 11.10), all in dual screen mode, I have not had any issues whatsoever. So the problems you are experiencing are at least not a general issue.

Since you have the issues both in Windows and Ubuntu, even in BIOS, we can safely exclude an OS issue. Most components have been exchanged, so it should not be an issue with the display panel or motherboard/GPU.

What does that leave in the way of possibilities:

- A compatibility problem in the interaction between the 1600*900 display panel and external screen. If this was the case, Dell should know about this, because you can't be the only person affected.

- A power supply problem?

Let us look at the differences between our systems:

- different CPU (should not be important)

- different internal LCD screen

- connection to external display is through docking station DVI on my system

You cannot change your LCD, but do you have access to a docking station to test connecting the external LCD through the docking station connectors?

If in doubt: Dell has a program that allows you to exchange your machine for a new (current model, comparable features) machine under warranty, at no cost to you - after a certain number of service calls is exceeded. It certainly sounds like you should be eligible, but others on this forum have more experience with that.

 

@recluce
many thanks for the answer. My thinking is very similar like You said.
Even after 3rd time I have said to DELL that there can be only 3 issues: 1600x900 Samsung display that they are using, processor or instruction in the chip for switching back between the screen. But for some crazy reason they continued sending technicians to my work place to change completely same type of the internal display Samsung 1600x900 3 times, and the motherboard with graphic adapter and the back cover. Once they took computer to the dell service center and did complete check of the machine of usual problem list they have but not for the flickering - interlace problem that is reported. On the end last technician should try to check LG display but again he brought the identical Samsung display. On the end they have concluded that my problem is too specific and they didn't do anything after. Therefore, I will contact them again.
At first I thought that problem is just with VGA connection, but the same thing happens with DP++ connection and with number of different external displays and projector and with the docking station that I have. Finally it leads to the only 2 possible issues: 1600x900 Samsung display or the i7 720QM processor or the combination of these 2.

 

I have a similar problem - alternating interlaced light and dark horizontal lines across the screen, which are visible for all colors except black, red, green, blue, magenta, yellow and cyan (colors which RGB values consist only of 0 or 255). When it starts it affects even BIOS logo during boot, and the problem disappears after about one hour.

I can trigger it by waiting for power scheme to disable my LCD (Windows 7 x64), and then enabling the screen by moving mouse cursor. It seems to happen less often with old nVidia drivers. Setting screen disable time to 1 minute seems to at least allow me to trigger the issue easily.

I have 1800M graphics, 1600x900 display (Samsung 156KT, hardware ID SEC544B), i5-540M, BIOS A10. Already got my screen lid replaced (with LCD), then only LCD, and the third time the motherboard.

 

@CrackPL Yes this is the problem. Dell technician came again for the last time changing palm board and i/o and as expected no use.
On the end Dell service conclusion is that Samsung 156KT - 1600x900 display has problem with M4500 configuration and they are sending me new M4600 finally.

Aside of this stupid problem with display everything else was nice on this M4500 and it served well.

 

Too bad. I bought mine from a Dell Partner, what means that I am unlikely to get a replacement. Moreover, M4500 has only two screen options - 768p (too little screen space) and 1080p (too small pixels for me, FHD should go in 17"), 900p does not exist

 

Yes, M4600 doesn't have an option for 900p which was the perfect size. Also it was announced before release of M4500 that 900p will have an option RGB led but on the end it was just a WLED. Anyway for the replacement they offered FHD for free and I have asked IPS RGB FHD for which I will need to add 230e but this is good screen.

 

There isn't such a thing as "too many pixels" (and "too small pixels" is saying the same in other words), just wrong OS settings - at least for Windows 7 and most Linux distros. Or are you still using XP?

 

Great to know that Dell came through in the end!