I am trying to decide whether to send back my Acer Travelmate 8200, I need HELP!!!!

[enlighten]

I received my Travelmate 8200, I love it in terms of speed, looks and just the shear specs of thing. But as most people are finding the screen sucks. Now what I need to know is when you tap the back of your screen do you see ripples running right through the screen, basically does every little vibration cause rippling. The reason I ask this is I travel on the train everyday and the vibration of train causes the screen to ripple. Now I am trying to find out if this is normal for this laptop, do you guys have the same problem, do you think it will get worse over time?. I also have a dark splodge one the bottom right of the screen, very small but do you guys know whether this will spread or not?. I would love to keep this notebook as it is so fast, but if the screen is messed up there is no pint, please let me know what you guys think, I am finding it hard to make a decision.

Thanks

Enlighten

[simont]

if you're not happy with it you should try to get a replacement. there is something wrong with your screen - there shouldn't be any 'dark splodges' on the screen.

i can tap on my screen like i'm playing the piano and there are no ripples. if i press down hard it will ripple, but so will just about any other screen.

[czm2000]

Pretty much the same thing as Simont said. No ripples from tapping. I have to push harder than I care to, to get them to show up. Most laptops I've owned you don't have to push too hard at all to see ripples. As I sit here typing this I decided to do a test. I started banging on the palm rest with my palms to see if I could get any ripples. The entire laptop was moving with each pound. Absolutely no ripples. I then just josseled the entire laptop pretty violently in the eair and got no ripples. Interesting enough, if I pick the laptop up and bang one of the corners (again harder than I care to) on the desk I can get a slight ripple but it's hardly noticeable and barely lasts a split second. OK, I'm done beating on my new notebook in the interests of helping you. I hope you found this to be helpful. I'm sorry to say you may have a problem with your screen. I'm actually quite pleased with this screen. I can find some I like better, but I can easily find a lot worse. The way I have it adjusted is great. Very crisp and bright. You can serach the forums for other threads on that, but I fear they won't help your situation.

Good luck.

[The Doctor]

I found that by the time the laptop was shaking hard enough for the screen to ripple, the Gravisense had been set of and parked the HD arm...

[golfkwesi]

I concur with czm2000: no issues with the screen. As far as brightness, etc. here are my thoughts:

1. I have owned a TM8104 for the last year and have been very satisfied with the screen & brightness.

2. My new TM8204 is even a bit brighter, but I wouldn't mind if it would go a few notches brighter either.

Expectations I believe are a key reason (except for the obvious defective screens reported) why some of us are happy and others upset.

For some reason many on this forum have their own ideas about what a $2,400+ notebook screen "should be" when there is no "standard" by which we can truly measure.

So far I am a happy and satisfied owner of the 8204. I'll patiently wait for the little tweaks and fixes of the driver issues.

[czm2000]

I concur with czm2000: no issues with the screen. As far as brightness, etc. here are my thoughts:

1. I have owned a TM8104 for the last year and have been very satisfied with the screen & brightness.

2. My new TM8204 is even a bit brighter, but I wouldn't mind if it would go a few notches brighter either.

Expectations I believe are a key reason (except for the obvious defective screens reported) why some of us are happy and others upset.

For some reason many on this forum have their own ideas about what a $2,400+ notebook screen "should be" when there is no "standard" by which we can truly measure.

So far I am a happy and satisfied owner of the 8204. I'll patiently wait for the little tweaks and fixes of the driver issues.

Well said.

[cdd543]

No screen ripples on mine either. I had an 8103 and to it seems like the same screen.

[enlighten]

Thanks a lot guys, you have all basically confirmed that I have a defective screen. Czm2000, thank you especially for going to those lengths to check the screen, that was a great help. I just have to tap the back the screen and I get ripples, so based on what you said I will definitely send it back for a replacement, hopefully the next one will be better. This is a great laptop, unfortunately there is a 2 week wait until new ones come in, never mind!!!. Do you guys agree that I should not have to pay to ship it back, I know the company I ordered it from will try and charge me. Anyway, thanks again to all of you.

Enlighten

[czm2000]

Glad I could help.

You definitely shouldn't have to pay to ship it back. Especially if you are going to keep your business with them for the next one. If it's any incouragement, there are some others who had problems and loved the laptop except for one reason or another. In giving the TravelMate a second chance they found themselves pleased that they had. Obviously mistakes can happen and I'm sorry you had to go through this at all, cause God only knows how mad I would be. But you could find yourself pleasantly surprised by the next one and let's hope that's the case.

Good luck.

[enlighten]

Thanks, I am keeping my fingers crossed the next one will be perfect, I will keep you guys updated.

Thanks again

Enlighten

[iBorg]

Enlighten - I just wanted to add my name to the list of those with flawless screens. NO ripples, stuck/dead pixels, "dark splodges," "light leak," or anything else. The brightness is, of course, subjective, but this screen is the best I've had, out of 3 PowerBooks, 3 iBooks, and 2 PC laptops in the family, one Dell, and the other Gateway.

Yours is defective, and should be repaired/replaced!

[wynand32]

czm2000, you seem to be the exception: someone who received one of the first 8204's, and have a flawless screen. As happy as I am with mine, I have the ripples. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, really, but then again I have a Tablet PC that I use for my really portable work; so, not much moving around. If I tap my screen, however, or move the notebook quickly, it's ripple-city.

Everyone else with a perfect screen: when did you get yours? There was a week or so delay between shipments, and I'm wondering if Acer didn't do a refresh on some of the components...

[czm2000]

I think I got one of the first. I had it for several days and then wrote my review before most even got there's. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's perfect but it's pertty darn close. I do have the flaw that has the grey line or whatever where every 2 pixels is 5% less contrast than the rest. But it doesn't bother me since I probably wouldn't have noticed it unless someone pointed it out to me. I actually just took a break from Illustrator CS2 to check the forum. I'm designing a logo for another new location/corporation my company is opening. I'm using gradients and the like, and the images look flawless.

I did have a dead pixel at delivery, but again, I was able to massage it out. Still hasn't come back :) But I guess other than that, it is pretty darn good. No light leakage, very crisp, bright. Actually, in my review the pics of the screen are pretty bright and that was before I got wise and adjusted it. It's even brighter now. I guess I got lucky. I got it on February 3rd. They were supposedly released on the 28th. So I had to get one of the first. The funny thing is, I'm one of those who actually prefer the super brite gloss screen like the one I just had on my M680 or the Sony's or the Qosmio's. But I'm not bothered by this scrfeen at all. I miss the gloss but other than that, I'm extremely happy.

[jjfcpa]

enlighten

I sent my first 8204 back because I thought the screen was very dim and I had the ethernet issue and didn't find out about the fix in time. I got my 2nd one and I have to say, the screen is much more acceptable, the new eeprom fixed the ethernet issue, and it has worked pretty flawlessly over the weekend.

I really love the speed, keyboard is good, trackpad is good (buttons not so good), utilities are buggy, and build quality is at least as good as Dell, perhaps even better. Not as good as a Thinkpad, but more than suitable for lugging around.

I hope you have better luck with your 2nd one...

[czm2000]

For the heck of it. Here's another pic. Just took it so if you want to compare, go to cnet.com right now. I chose it because they generally have a lot of pictures and color on their homepage. I took this in upclose macro mode so it should show any and all imperfections. It actually looks a lot better in person, so keep in mind however it looks to you, it looks better and brighter in person. Pictures don't really tell the tale. But I'm hoping this might help some people. You can see the page is pretty bright. I have a dark background so the open window is a pretty good comparison. I scalled this to 800px in width but if you click on it you will be taken to the full 7.1 mega pixel shot in it's full uncompressed glory :D and of course it's going to show everything right down to the pixel blocks in the LCD. Hey, take a close up of any LCD, you'll see the same thing.

Hope this was helpful is some way.


http://designingcyberspace.com/8200/images/LCD_0031w800.jpg (http://designingcyberspace.com/8200/images/LCD_0031.JPG)

[golfkwesi]

For the heck of it. Here's another pic. Just took it so if you want to compare, go to cnet.com right now. I chose it because they generally have a lot of pictures and color on their homepage. I took this in upclose macro mode so it should show any and all imperfections. It actually looks a lot better in person, so keep in mind however it looks to you, it looks better and brighter in person. Pictures don't really tell the tale. But I'm hoping this might help some people. You can see the page is pretty bright. I have a dark background so the open window is a pretty good comparison. I scalled this to 800px in width but if you click on it you will be taken to the full 7.1 mega pixel shot in it's full uncompressed glory :D and of course it's going to show everything right down to the pixel blocks in the LCD. Hey, take a close up of any LCD, you'll see the same thing.

Hope this was helpful is some way.


http://designingcyberspace.com/8200/images/LCD_0031w800.jpg (http://designingcyberspace.com/8200/images/LCD_0031.JPG)

czm2000: is there any way for each of us to determine the nits of our screens...could there be a variance that we are not aware of?

[czm2000]

I suppose there could be. I believe I read somewhere that they are suppose to be 185 or some such thing. To put that into perspective my 21" Widescreen is like 300. That said, I'm fine with the brightness on the 8204 and actually have to turn the brightness on my 21"er down.

I thought after having taken the pictures, they might not help anyone with an 8204 since you will be looking at a picture that was taken of my 8204 screen on your 8204 screen. That may be too many degrees of seperation. But hopefully it will help those who have another monitor to look at them with. Does the picture look brighter/darker than people thought the screen would be? It looks the same on my 8204 screen as the screen did when I took it :lol:

Just kidding. I know this is a serious issue for some and would be for me too. I don't mean to make light of it.

Good luck to all who may be struggling with this. I just wanted to try and put it into perspective and let everyone know that there are some that are just fine to some users. The point being, they're not all bad.

[cdd543]

czm2000, you seem to be the exception: someone who received one of the first 8204's, and have a flawless screen. As happy as I am with mine, I have the ripples. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, really, but then again I have a Tablet PC that I use for my really portable work; so, not much moving around. If I tap my screen, however, or move the notebook quickly, it's ripple-city.

Everyone else with a perfect screen: when did you get yours? There was a week or so delay between shipments, and I'm wondering if Acer didn't do a refresh on some of the components...


My screen is perfect. Mine came from newegg this week..manuf 1/06 as many others on this forum.

[kwright0614]

Good posts! I was also trying to decide to return my travelmate 8204 because of screen problems. I have the light leakage and this tends to wash out my screen. I made adjustments to the gamma and brightness which helped a lot, (thanks to this site) but the light leakage is still there. It appears that light leakage is not the norm so I will also send my back for a replacement. I will let everone know how it works out. Thanks

[enlighten]

Hey Guys,

Glad to see the thread is still going. CZM 2000, I wish my screen had looked like that!!!. I have organized for my laptop to be returned, there paying the shipping back, so I am pleased there was no disputes. I asked the guy if there had been any other returns due to the screen, he said there had been no returns yet. There is a new batch coming in on Thursday, so it should ship out then, hopefully I will get it around Tuesday/Wednesday. I will let you know if the screen is better on this one, fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!.

Enlighten

[czm2000]

I will cross my fingers for you. Good Luck!

[chanon]

Be sure to update us on how your new laptop screen is.

After reading lots of posts about these screen problems and Mattrix's thread http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=129795, it seems that more 8204s have these screen problems than not. I can live with mine for now, since other positives of the notebook more than make up for it - and I wouldn't want to go through changing 3-4 notebooks like Mattrix just to see the same problems (I need to get work done now). So I'm waiting to see if any of you guys who get replacements get good screens. (I've had mine for over 7 days already...)

[enlighten]

Hey Guys,

I received my so called new laptop yesterday, I say so called new as it had fingerprints on the buttons and touchpad and the bit of fabric that protects the screen was creased. Initially I was angry that I had been sent a laptop that someone either returned or had been fixed in some way. I guess that will always will be a mystery. Anyway I thought I would still give it a go, since I had nothing too lose. I am glad to report that the screen is much better, not perfect but better. There are no dark splotches and there are still ripples when I tap the back of the screen but they are very faint. The last screen out of ten in terms of ripple was a 10 (10 obviously being loads of ripples). I would put this screen around about 2. It may be my imagination but the screen seems brighter as well and there is no light leakage, so over all I am very happy. The only thing I noticed is that when I go into the graphics card properties and click 3D, you know the funky little car, the screen flicks too black for a second. This also happens when I load some application, just before the full program pops up, it flicks to black for a second. Do you guys know how to fix this?. Thanks in advance for your advice and also a big thanks to everybody for convincing me to send the last laptop back, I now have a better laptop albeit a bit used.

Thanks again

Enlighten

[Falafel]

Maybe they fixed your laptop and sent it back? Check the serial number and see if it matches your old one. The fingerprints could be of the person who fixed it.

[Falafel]

One other thing, can you let us know what the model number of your screen is. I wonder if they gave you a different model.

[enlighten]

Hey

It is definitely not the laptop I returned, they shipped this out before I returned the other one. I will need to get back to you on the type of screen.

Enlighten

[chanon]

Wow, thats good news.

[Mattrix]

I concur with czm2000: no issues with the screen. As far as brightness, etc. here are my thoughts:

1. I have owned a TM8104 for the last year and have been very satisfied with the screen & brightness.

2. My new TM8204 is even a bit brighter, but I wouldn't mind if it would go a few notches brighter either.


How many notebooks have you owned? You comparing bad apples to bad apples.

Run this util, aparently some people have a different LCD panel.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_everest_home/

Would be interested to see what model LCD you have. I've had 4 8204's, two of them had ripples, two not.

[czm2000]

golfkwesi has a good point in the screen being brighter thatn the 8104 and he's not the first who has seen both and said that. If the 8204 screen is in fact a bit brighter how come noone was complaining of a dim screen on the 8104? Or were they?