Is my Amilo M3438G normal?

Hi; I have an FSC 1.6GHz, 80GB Amilo M3438 since yesterday. Testing it, I found some issues that worry me:

- The screen has no true red. The RGB 255,0,0 color looks more like orange. I didn't notice it until I filled with red the whole screen in the search for dead pixels, but under this circunstances it's very, VERY notorious. I don't have much experience with TFT displays, but I found this weird and it's not a software issue.
- The screen has a white shadow in the top and in the bottom with dark background when it's watched from about 1.5m (5 feet), but, fortunately these can't be seen at work distance, so I think it's a minor issue.
- Last versions of Everest and CPU-Z report that RAM is running at 400MHz (DDR2) instead of the 533MHz of the FSB. Is this value right?
- I tried to update BIOS with the official files downloaded from Fujitsu's page, but it returns an erase error and the PC completely freezes, making me unplug it (I thoght I destroyed the notebook ).

BTW, is there any way to push refresh rate over 60Hz? This seems the only value in screen and GeForce drivers, both in WindowsXPH and Ubuntu Linux.
Has this CPU enogh power to play HD video? I tried it with WMV9 media (Gears of War trailer, 10000kbps, 1280x720 at 60FPS), but it hardly could mantain 30 FPS.

Sorry for my english

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Spanish version:

Hola; tengo desde ayer un FSC Amilo M3438G a 1.6GHz y con 80GB. Probándolo encontré algunas cosas que me tienen mosca:

- La pantalla no tiene un rojo puro. El color RGB 255,0,0 es más bien naranja. No me di cuenta hasta que buscando píxeles muertos llené toda la pantalla de rojo, pero así se nota un montón. No entiendo mucho de TFT, pero esto me parece raro y sé que no es del software.
- La pantalla tiene una fuga de luz en los márgenes superior e inferior que se aprecia con fondo oscuro y a bastante distancia (no a distancia de tecleado).
- Las últimas versiones de Everest y CPU-Z indican que la RAM va a 400MHz en vez de a los 533MHz del FSB. ¿Es lo normal?
- Intentando actualizar la BIOS a la última oficial, el programa da un error de borrado y bloquea completamente el ordenador, teniendo que desenchufarlo para apagarlo (ya creía que me lo había cargado ).

Ya que estoy, ¿se puede poner la pantalla a más de 60Hz? Sólo aparecen éstos como opción en los menús de pantalla y GeForce tanto en WindowsXPH como en Linux Ubuntu.
¿Tiene el micro potencia suficiente para mover vídeos HD? La prueba que he hecho con WMV9 (un vídeo de Gears of War a 1280x720, 60f/s y 10000 kb/s) y apenas aguanta 30f/s.

Hi; thanks for you answer.

For sure, 60Hz are not such eye stressing in a TFT than in a CRT, but I feel a bit uncomfortable the image and I think that this is the reason (I guess the backlight panel flickers 60 times a second). The TFT I used to use in the office works at 75Hz and it looks more "stable".

You can do a simple test to check the orange: open Paint, enlarge the blank image and fill it with pure red (255,0,0 in RGB) with the ink tool. A friend of mine has brought his cheaper and brandless laptop and whilst its screen looks also "orangized", is more red than mine (mine's red is almost pure orange). I didn't notice this issue easily because blue and green look awesome and they match the default Windows XP theme (very few and little red areas to see there).
I want to use Photoshop (as "aficionado") in this computer, so I need accurate colours. Maybe there is an accurate way to compensate the excess of yellow in the red by drivers or colour profiles.

The white shadows can be seen when I get farer from the PC, so the angle is belower (don't know if the "belower" word exists ) than in normal use.

The BIOS update was attempted with the official executable for Windows. Maybe I'll try the DOS version.

The video is true 60FPS (and its quality is A-WE-SO-ME, BTW). They can be appreciated in some less complex parts (fortunately WMV has frameskip ability so playback matches correct speed despite not being at full framerate) but most time it runs at 30 UNsmooth FPS. Oh, and my CPU is a bit slower than yours. I'll see if I can find the download link for this video.

Thanks and sorry for my english (feel free to correct me )

Hi Ruptured; Hola, Arcano Thanks for your help, but now I'm sure about the problem

I'm looking at Arcano's picture in my Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930 Super Bright CRT display and both squares look almost the same I call "red", far from what I see in my Amilo. I also plugged another 930SB CRT (with nice settings, maybe a bit dark) to the Amilo in cloning mode and red in its TFT and in the Mitsu are absolutely different Doing this, the CRT looks a bit cold and the TFT looks overall a bit warm, but in the CRT red is just red while in the TFT red is truly orange. Period.

Other people who saw the displays agree me.

So I phoned FNAC.es this morning to send them the laptop back. This disturbs me since I've been waiting a long time for this machine and I actually like it, but there's no way to make me keep this unit. BTW I'll try to switch to a M750 or M760 version (easily found a CPU bottleneck while benchmarking in Doom 3 and 3DMark05) and with a 100GB HDD if possible; else I'll get another unit with the same specs than current, because in fact I really liked all the others aspects of the machine.


Ruptured, I also tried the refresh "hack" but I can't tell I see different before and after. I think that change doesn't take effect.
The Gears of War video can be found in the official XBox page, I'think, and the file is called "gears_e3_720p.wmv", sizes 102.3MB and lasts 1'27" (10000kbps aprox.)


Thanks for your help, guys (and wish me luck ).

Yes, I did; but didn't check it in DXDiag nor via FRAPS+VSync in games... I'll try it when having the new unit

Since the following info is only related to the spanish market, only has interest for somebody living in Spain and my Spanish is better than my English, I'll write it in Spanish:

Me temo que el Mediamarkt más cercano me cae a unos 700km. (vivo en la punta más alejada de la mitad de la península que no tiene ningún Mediamarkt, je) y, a diferencia de FNAC, no venden a distancia ¿o sí?. En FNAC me ha costado 1449€ más portes, aunque ahora lo han subido a 1499€. Se han ofrecido a cambiármelo por uno igual sin costes añadidos o por uno mejor pagando la diferencia si llegan a tenerlo (esto ha sido idea mía, ya que aunque ahora no tienen ninguno mejor, creo que conozco a su proveedor y éste sí que tiene otros modelos).

Hello again. I'll probably have a new 1.6GHz unit tomorrow but I'm still worried about video performance. Will it be able to play 1080p video? The (only) 720p test I'did wasn't good enough.

In the worst case, will I be able to upgrade the CPU in a future or is it fixed/solded/engaged (don't know the correct word) to the mainboard? I'm a newbie in laptop computing

And what about the graphics card? I think it's a MXM removable card.

I can't believe this. The new unit has arrived and IT'S RED IS ALSO PURE ORANGE! What's going on with this?

I'm sure about this, Ruptured. This can not be right. Just look at Arcano's head to head; they're almost the same color, they're almost pure red, but I have pure orange (in fact it would be great to have an orange like this "red wannabe").

Two different units and both of them with exactly the same failure, and I think that this might affect to the whole serie. I wonder if the best idea is to tell FSC to repair this unit since I don't want my money back from FNAC but an operative Amilo.

Well, since I can't take care of this until Monday, I'll do some HD tests BTW during this weekend.

I think this patch can help in HD playback without nVidia's Pure Video Decoder:

http://www.support.microsoft.com/def...b;en-us;888656

I'm afraid I have no digital cam But is very simple, any other display has to be in true orange to match these Amilos' "red", not kidding. Image quality is excellent except for this "color confussion", and tech support has told me that this could mean there's an error in the inverter wire of the screen or something similar (didn't understand it well). Being this in two different units, I think than an assemblement failure of this kind would be a serial failure, so if I request a replacement to FNAC, like FSC has recommended me, I¡ll probably get another "orangized" Amilo but it's the only spanish shop that I know where I can buy the M3438...

Anyway, I've done other HD tests, playing "The living sea" (720p) and "Coral Reef Adventure" (1080p), both of them from WMVHD page, and the Halo 2 cinema teaser trailer (1080p). First was perfect (well, a bit grainy, like in the other videos), second was nice, but it could be better, and third is smooth but laggy. It's strange since CPU never hits the 100% top. Maybe there is an overlay problem, since FRAPS counter can't be seen on screen. I'll also try the hotfix and "Batman Begins" 1080p trailer.