1704FPT 17" Monitor Dark on Top and too Bright

I just got a Dell refurb 1704FPT Ultra 17" LCD monitor. I have two
problems with it:

1. It has a dark gradient on the top of the screen; in order to view
the entire screen (uniformly bright), I have to either tilt the screen
toward myself, or sit up straight and look downward at the screen.
Viewing the screen perpendicular results in the top being dark and
harder to see.

2. The monitor is too bright: I work at home in a softly lit room, and
I have to turn the brightness to zero, and the contrast to about 13%,
and still the LCD is hard on the eyes.

Compared to my Hitachi 19" CRT, the Hitachi is easy on the eyes, very
adjustable, and super sharp and crisp. The Dell LCD appears to have
thicker dark areas, which is cheap-looking.

Is all this normal for LCDs ... or do I have a defective monitor ?
Any other comments appreciated.

SteveH

 

Of course the monitor is defective. No monitor, CRT or LCD, should have
dark areas, light areas or any other anomaly present. Send it back.

 

I would say that this is probably why it was "refurbished"

-gg-

 

Although it sounds as though QA was asleep when this monitor went past
their station. I bought a refurb 1704FPT 5 months ago which looks like
the 1905FP I bought new (although smaller, of course).

 

That would surprise me, as refurbs are well-tested (better than the new
ones). Anything broken doesn't go back for sale.

Unless they missed it

Tom

 

Oh I agree, I'm just stating that perhaps there is a chance that this is
why it was refurbished... maybe it just wasn't caught. :-\

I've got a Dimension 8400 that was refurbished, runs just fine.

 

Thanks for all the comments ...

Since you actually own a couple of these LCDs, can you tell me if yours
appears darker toward the top edge, if you look at the screen straght
on? I kind of had that issue with my old ThinkPad as well.

Also, my screen looks sharper when I switch to 1280x1024 (native mode)
.... but it would be nice to choose my resolution (1152 is better for
me, but does not look very sharp or pleasant).

Thanks,
SteveH

 

It is always going to be sharpest at the native resolution. That's a
weakness of LCD displays. You can't resize and get good results. Some
panels are better than others, but it is still inferior at the 'wrong' size.

Tom

 

I have recently got a 2005FPW monitor which has native res 1680x1050,
and I've temporarily been using it with the analogue input at 1280x800,
from an older computer. The display quality has been excellent, even
though it is not the native resolution.

Cheers
Tony

 

Definitely not.

I run them at their native resolution (including my ThinkPad R40).

 

I recently bought a Dimension 5100 with a 1704 FPt monitor. I also
found it to be too bright out of the box and adjusted the brightness
down to zero as you did which was an improvement. I also found the
picture to be too blue and adjusted the color controls to a warmer
picture which might make the monitor less hard on your eyes. As for the
gradation in color from top to bottom I find this to be very sensitive
to the tilt of the monitor just as it is on a laptop. However when
viewed straight on I find the picture to be uniform in brightness.

As I grow more accustomed to the 1704 I like it more and more and it
certainly looks much nicer on my desk than my old 17" CRT monitor.

Good luck with yours,
Jerry

 

Well folks ... I appreciate all the useful comments.
Just returned the monitor today (UPS picked up). Only took 2 hours on
the phone w/Dell-India, one hour of which was convincing them that the
monitor was indeed defective (so I would not have to pay the return
postage).

I just looked at LCD monitors at Circuit City. A Samsung that I kind of
liked, and which has good reviews (730B at $250), had a similar issue:
was dark on top, as compared to other monitors on the same shelf. I am
thinking that this issue might vary within a model as well ... but
Circuit City said they will charge me 15% restocking if I return
anything (if I'm not happy with it). Actually, I could also by
something else of equal value (like another monitor of the same model).


Once when I bought a TV, I had the store open the box, plug it in, and
let me view it before taking it out the door. Sometime there is a fine
line between "defective" and "not satisfied".