D630 Display Question

Wondering about the display on this machine....

Image quality and color reproduction is critically important to me since I use this laptop to train and demonstrate software with high resolution medical photographs.

That being said, the colors on the display are quite washed out. Dell already sent someone out to replace the display but there is no change. The video driver is the latest and greatest. When attached to an external monitor, everything looks great. But on its own, it's not very good. Bright? Yes. But not great with colors. Even the Vista, the taskbar looks dark grey instead of black and reflective.

I find it odd that that if I set the apprearance to 'Vista Basic' instead of 'Vista Aero' it gets better. Not great, just better. This laptop has the discreet graphics option -- Quadra 128MB 135M. Dell service tech was able to get it slightly better by adjusting the contrast, gamma, and brightness.

Wondering if this is normal...are my expectations too high...is it a case of 'it is what is'....? Input appreciated.

 

Try adjusting the digital vibrance.

Right click on desktop>NVidia Control Panel>Display (on the left side)>Adjust desktop color settings

 

I use a D630 for work and it's not a great screen. Much better than the XPS 1530 Samsung screen I had but not as good as other screens I've had.

It's not bad but I wouldn't say it's good either. It has a lot of light bleed at the bottom and the colors are washed out. The light bleed I don't notice unless the screen is completely black and maybe the colors could be improved somehow in software, I just don't know how.

I believe mine is an AUO or something like that.

 

I've decided to send it back. Problems with the Touch Stick, the display, and the Embassy Trust Center software is giving the machine fits when it's not on the domain. I had been using a T43 for years and loved it, so I've decided to go with what I know -- a T61p has been ordered.

 

Mine was wiped and installed by me company so it's just got xp and company approved software on it. Still one thing I notice is that it gets BSOD once in a while while starting up. Probably software related.

I'm thinking of a T61p as well. I just can't seem to make the decision yet.

kboyer I saw you had an xps m1530 too. I had that as well and returned it. I returned it because the screen was really bad. Why did you return yours? I noticed that your posts said it had pretty good performance initially.

 

I received a D630 in January and was extremely disappointed with the display quality. MUCH worse than my D610 (Samsung). Same issue as described by kboyer: colors washed out, blacks were grey instead of black. Tried replacing the AUO display the machine came with a Samsung--didn't make any difference. (I almost wonder if the both Samsung and AUO now source this display from the same 3rd party?) Also tried replacing my system board in case there was a problem with the video card--that didn't make any difference either. Ultimately I sent the D630 back and decided to stick with my D610 for a while longer. (After 2+ years of intense use the D610 backlight was dimming--I replaced the display with another Samsung--it was wonderful just like the first.)

I've noticed that the displays on the older D630's at my company are much better. The newer ones, however, all seem to have the "washed out" problem. I checked one of the older displays--it's a Samsung.

All the D630 displays in question are WXGA+.

 

Try adjusting the digital vibrance in the nvidia control panel.

 

Thanks. I don't have the D630 anymore, but I was using the Intel graphics--not nvidia. I tried adjusting all the available Intel options--didn't make a significant difference. The earlier D630's with much better displays were also using Intel graphics.

 

Oh ok 10char

 

I've purchased about 18 laptops over the years for personal and professional use, and never returned one of them. Then this year I returned two in 6 weeks, an XPS M1530 and a Latitude D630. The XPS had some significant build quality problems (for example, the wiring under the keyboard made the keys and the console cover appear to have waves), it was very hot, and it was a lackluster performer. I've always had pretty conservative/business laptops in the past but the look of this one coupled with the specs and decent price intrigued me. Lesson learned...

Mine is being picked up by UPS today. Dell was quite nice about it, despite the fact that this was my second return this month. The display was horrible. And I knew it wasn't the video card since the colors were beautiful when it was hooked up to a Dell 2407WFP monitor. They replaced the display right away but there was no improvement. The final straw -- booted it up yesterday morning and the display was dead. I called and started the return process immediately.

I had a strong feeling the D630 wasn't going to cut it for me, so I ordered a T61p last Wednesday evening. It arrived Tuesday morning. To me, there really is no comparison. The build quality of the T61p is superior, the performance is noticeably better (although the ThinkPad has a T9300 so it's not an apples-apples comparison). But for me the display is the most important aspect and this machine doesn't disappoint -- 15.4 WUXGA strapped to a NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL) -- an amazing display with the right brightness, contrast and fantastic color reproduction.

Everything just works, right out of the box, unlike the D630 which crashed repeatedly when the Embassy Trust Center fingerprint software was trying to provide authentication services. I'm still in the process of installing software, configuring it just right, and doing all the little personalization things we do to these machines. But so far, I'm very pleased.

 

The D630 is not known for its really great screen to be honest. It's a great laptop. Probably the only weakness is the screen/graphics. Probably is also the reason for its greatest strength: awesome battery life.

 

Follow-up note: I took a look at a new D630 that just arrived at work. It has a great Samsung display. Same level of quality as the older D630's (and earlier models). So I'm hoping maybe there was just a bad production run that has been worked through, or something like that?

(Again, back in January, I saw both Samsungs and AUO's that appeared to be equally poor. I don't have any explanation for this other than that maybe both companies were actually sourcing displays from the same 3rd party.)