Dell Plans Fix for Widescreen Monitor Glitch
Some vocal Dell customers have lit up forums, both at Dell's site and elsewhere, complaining about an image-quality issue with the new 20-inch 2007WFP widescreen LCD monitor. Today a spokesperson said the company has heard the complaints and is moving to correct the issue.
The problem--which appears to be impacting only the $459 2007WFP--causes noticeable banding lines to appear where there should be smooth transitions from a light to darker color. Dell's Philip Ventimiglia, corporate director of displays marketing, says the issue stems from the monitor's active color management chip, which lets you choose from one of three viewing modes: desktop, multimedia, and gaming.
Unfortunately, when using the DVI input some users have noticed this banding in the desktop mode, Ventimiglia says. So the company decided today to disable the desktop setting in the monitor's firmware. Dell posted the announcement on the forum late Thursday.
Ventimiglia says only a handful of people have complained about the banding, despite the fact that the company has shipped more than 25,000 units since its launch about 30 days ago.
"We're not going to argue that it's not there; we're just going to fix it," he said.
The company is changing the firmware on shipping units; current owners experiencing the problem should contact the company (a moderator in the forums is offering customer assistance).
While it's possible to do a firmware upgrade on the existing monitors, Dell instead plans to simply replace the monitors of unhappy customers.
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It affect the 24" version too.
This isn't a fix-- they're just disabling a feature. Are they going to give people a partial refund for reduced functionality? Do they even know what went wrong?
This isn't a fix-- they're just disabling a feature. Are they going to give people a partial refund for reduced functionality? Do they even know what went wrong?
Stupid Dell mouthpiece.That writeup is wrong in just about every way:
"found the problem to be pretty rare"
Yeah, rare in that it only affected every 2007wfp, 2007fp and 2407wfp. In the grand scheme of things, that is rare.
"Turns out the reported banding is caused by the desktop mode"
Actually, of the three modes, there was less banding in desktop mode than other modes.
"Dell has now updated the firmware to disable this mode"
Again no. What the firmware does is adjust the ACM controls and turn of Faroudja video scaler/processor in desktop mode. Desktop mode is the only that actually will be banding free.
"...complaints and is moving moving to correct the issue."
You said "moving" twice.
Dell is not disabling 'desktop mode', they are just disabling the Faroudja video processing in desktop mode. This banding problem also affects the 2007FP model as it uses the same chips.
"which appears to be impacting only the $459 2007WFP"
I'm pretty sure there were a "handful" of 2007FP owners voicing the very same complaints as WFP owners. . .
Lies, its not the monitor its the video cards that are just crappy that cannot support high screen resolutions
Did you read the article? The whole thing? Try the LAST sentance. Then go have a great Memorial Day.
"While it's possible to do a firmware upgrade on the existing monitors, Dell instead plans to simply replace the monitors of unhappy customers."
What about us users who bought this monitor at a greta price. Dell will not replace our monitors. Is it possible to fix this ourselves?