Blotchy Gradient problem again..need help - Page 3

no go on photos..

Sorry all, I tried, but the effect is impossible to photograph, at least with my camera. I tried several different lightings, etc.. but no go. Maybe someone else can try.

The corona's could be due to your gamma, brightness and other settings. I had to adjust my settings down a couple of notches as the 8890 backlight is very bright. From memory I have gamma at 0.85 and brightness at -20.
I also dim the screen backlight down a couple of notches.

If you have followed my instructions, in 16 bit mode you should see little boxes of about 2 x 2 mm contained within the 16 x 16 larger grid. In 32 bit mode if your system is working properly you should see a smooth colour gradient. If your system only gets to 6 bit colour depth then you will see slightly smaller boxes (about 1 x 1mm) in 32 bit mode than in 16 bit mode (you are going from 5 bit depth to 6 bit depth rather than 8 bit colour depth).

In fact if your system works correctly ie. smooth colour gradient you will eventually see *larger* colour banding due to an optical illusion in 32 bit mode. You have to stare at the screen for about 20 seconds to see that effect.

So to summarise, at 16 bit mode you will see 2 x 2 mm boxes, switch to 32 bit mode you should see smooth colour gradient. If you see smaller boxes (1x1 mm approx) your system is not displaying 8 bit colour properly.

/eludwig - that BIOS version number seems to be missing its last digit (I think) I thought the latest BIOS was 889BV3T7 (ie 1.00.03.07)? Could you check this?

By the video I assume you mean the LCD - Nullboy I can assure you that the LCD is anything but horrible. I would rate mine as better than anything else I have ever used and/or seen bar none. If you feel you have a problem with the screen, contact PC Torque (assuming you purchased thru them) and tell them your concerns.

If you are referring to the external video onto a CRT not being sharp that is a function of video settings. I initially found it appeared to be less sharp than my Toshiba but after tweaking the display settings it came good. Mind you compared with a DVI compatible LCD monitor the CRT is blurry - but I would expect that (CRT's are analog vs a digital DVI input LCD).

aussie,

I will check the full version number tonight and post it. That was just the name of the .exe that Sager sent.

Doh!

It turns out the BIOS that Sager sent me was the same one I was using! The file names were slightly different, which confused me. 3T7 is the one I am on now.

I can never remember which one is a dime and which one is a nickel .

Gotta watch those cultural differences. Like me spelling colour as colour and not color, or aluminium vs aluminum or trunk vs boot, zac vs nickel (or dime - still don't know which one is is which ), or our large trucks having 22 wheels vs your 18, petrol vs gas, mobile vs cell phone, car vs auto, g'day mate vs howdy, Honest John vs George Bush.

And jsut to tllotay cfonsue you mix up all the lteerts in the wdors and you can siltl raed waht I tpyed. The fsrit and lsat ltreets msut be in palce.

Definitely sounds like there is some difference then. I would love to know what is going on - if it is a different LCD or purely software.

Hey aussie, you have any place where I can host these images? I just got my 8890 back today and I have some pictures of the blotchiness. They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped due to moire effects, but the blotchiness is definitly visible.

Try www.villagephotos.com

hm.. yeah, last time I used village photos, my bandwidth was gone in 20 min, literally. These pictures are also rather big as I didn't compress them much from their 4mp resolution.

display

My laptop is also suffering from this problem but I think I know what the problem is. We just simply need the drivers for the display panel cause XP is loading its own drivers which is mucking things up. when I connect an external monitor the colour gradient issue is gone and it shows up perfectly, but not on the lcd. does anyone have the lcd driver or know who manufacturers the lcd.

Hi yusufl, which laptop do you have? This problem is specific to some of the 8890 SXGA screens.

If you have the colour gradient or blotchy effect then it is likely that your LCD is a 6 bit colour depth unit. It would appear that due to LCD shortages, Clevo, who make the mobo and install the LCD into the laptop, have been forced to use the lower spec'd screens.

However, before anything else run thru my test procedure (it was not clear if you had done so) and if the problem shows up with that procedure then it is likely the LCD is the lower spec'd unit.

Unfortunately I don't know what the LCD model number is for the units that show up this problem. We do know that the original 8 bit colour depth units were made by Sharp (I posted the model # in some other posts) and display the colours without the banding/blotchyness. The only way to confirm this is if someone very brave was to pull the LCD out of its housing so we can find out the exact part number. I know Adam did it with one of the original 8890's but of course it had the 8 bit Sharp screen in place.

Your external monitor was it an LCD or CRT? If it is a LCD it will only show up the problem if it too is a 6 bit colour depth device. I can demonstrate the effect on my old Toshiba screen because it is only 6 bit. My 8890 which appears to have the 8 bit LCD in it only displays the problem if and only if I place it in 5650 colour mode (what windows calls 16 bit colour - refer to my previous posts as to what 5650 colour mode means).

Whilst drivers have some impact, exhaustive testing by several forum members seems to indicate that it is not a driver related issue (I really wish I was wrong and would gladly like to be for those 8890 SXGA owners who experience this problem, but so far no one has been able to fix it by driver changes ).

As a final note, if it were a driver issue then those who never see the blotchy effect (like myself) would have to have different drivers. That is not the case, I run the stock standard drivers from Sager's website and Microsoft's XP Pro + SP1 + all updates.

hi Aussie

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Granted you might be correct about the display thing, but why I say we need the display driver is because at work I recently installed some compaq lcd's and when I switched the pc on they were all blotch and the previous monitor the pc had, a hp crt had none, so I loaded the driver for the lcd panel and blotchiness was gone. SO I am just hoping that a simple lcd driver will sort this out. I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT IT IS NOT A ATI DRIVER ISSUE cause on my external display,(a hp 17 crt) there is only glorious smoothness.

One more thing, there is another thread about blotchiness, is it possible for the mods to consilidate the 2 into 1.

Yusuf.

Hi yusufl, from what we know there is no specific driver for the LCD's. The only driver is the standard Micosoft ones that come with the OS. When Clevo finally release the 8890 service manual we may be able to work out some more info but unfortunately for now we are stuck in limbo land. For those with SXGA screens that work well - keep them for the others they have to make a decision .

As to merging the threads, I agree. How myrkat would even being to do that I have no idea.

I spoke to a clevo techi today and he agreed with me/us that the lcd is the problem and he said that he will phone the headoffice in Taiwan tomorrow and he will let me know what they say, The other option he mentioned was that I upgrade to the the UXGA 16 inch but that will cost me. If I here anything I will let everyone know. By some luck clevo will have a fix for us.

You actually spoke to one of God's little helpers .
I am not worthy to be in your presence...
/grovels at feet

Clevo actually admitted that there were two types of SXGA LCD's?

How much were they asking for the upgrade to UXGA, yusufl?

don't know yet they will let me know during the course of the day, I changed the background by the way and it doesn't bother that much anymore, but I am yet to try out any games on the system and I hope the quality won't be that effected. Oh anyone know when doom3 is being released?