Dell 2005FPW "Screendoor" ?

[daddyorchips]

Right I need some members' opinions on this one...

I recently purchased a Dell 2005FPW from Dell. I was very happy with my purchase at first, but within minutes I began to notice several problems with it. The backlight was crap - massive leakage in ALL the corners. However, more annoyingly, I kept getting distracted by a very visible mesh/diamond grid-like pattern that overlayed anything that was moving/animated on the screen. This could clearly be made out whilst playing Battlefield 2 for instance: most noticeable whilst I was running about or things were mobile on the screen. I found the effect would reduce or disappear if I leaned in within 2-3 inches on the screen and was also invisible at certain angles (I could also make it appear/disappear by moving my head from side to side whilst focusing on a part of the screen). The biggest niggle was that, at any reasonable viewing distance, it was incredibly prevelant. Would this be the infamous screendoor issue??

I called up Dell and arranged a replacement. They shipped another the next day, and whilst the new one had a much more uniform backlight, the "mesh" effect was still there, clear as day. It's really irritating as I can't help but focus on it and if it wasn't for this I'd be perfectly happy with my screen. Wondering if I could get away with it, I rang to arrange another replacement. Next day, I found yet another Dell box waiting for me, only this time they didn't collect the old screen. Turns out Dell decided to ship me a 2001FP instead though. Out of interest I tried out this screen: its backlight is perfect though lighter than the 2005's, and the mesh effect, though still actually there, is very hard to make out (you have to lean in really close to certain parts of the screen to see it).

Now I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm considering dumping the 2005FPW and keeping the 2001FP all because of this one problem (it's THAT annoying). However, I'd really rather go with the 2005, on the basis of it being widescreen and having the noticeably higher contrast ratio. What I'm really concerned about is that ALL 2005FPWs suffer from this irritating mesh effect, so in effect I'd be wasting my time ordering any further replacements.

Does anybody know this to be true? How many of you 2005FPW owners suffer from these same symptoms?

I'd REALLY appreciate any input. Cheers guys!

[Atomic]

Mine's perfect.

No backlight problems or 'mesh' (?) effect...

[Nemeliza]

Mine's perfect.

No backlight problems or 'mesh' (?) effect...

Me too.


Or maybe we are just easily pleased!

[Nick F]

I have not had any of the problems you have mentioned, get your monitor changed or money back.

[Atomic]

Sure the mesh effect isn't down to an interference problem?

Have you got the signal cable clear from all power cables?

[SilentDeath]

Can you get a picture showing the mesh effect?

As others have said, its could be a issue with interferance. If your using DVI, see if VGA has the same problem (if it has vga input).


Whats the infamous screendoor issue?

[daddyorchips]

It's hard to capture this "effect" as it's only visible during motion. I'm unsure a still would show it up. I'll give it a go tonight anyways.

I did wonder if it could be some sort of interference, but short of sticking the screen on a high shelf and plugging it into my spare PC downstairs (which I've already done), I'm not sure what else I can do to test this theory. I did try plugging the screen in via the VGA cable but for some reason the picture suffered from overscan at 1680x1050, making it hard to judge (attaching it to an ATI X800 XT PE).

>Silentdeath, am surprised you haven't heard of screendoor. Look it up on the HardOCP forums for plenty of complaints about it

[Detective]

I have heard some people have had some backlight issues with th 2005FPW, but I have to say mine's been perfect with no issues whatsoever and I have no regrets about buying it. Games look fantastic - although lack of widescreen support on some games - eg BF2 is a pain (the fix everyone keeps mentioning doesn't work for me).

[Chemical_Ali]

i only backlight issues with my 2005FPW, so i decided to return and i bought the 2405FPW instead and have no problems with it.

[SHISH]

I`ve had some problem with backlight leakage and one monitor which had this effect but it was cleared up by replacing a faulty dvi cable. One other (2001) had a similar problem but turned out to be the video card dying and not liking to ouput high res/fast motion video.

[Rys]

The screendoor effect is down to the panel used, and won't ever go away. You either notice it, like the wires on a Trinitron CRT, or you don't. And now you've brought it up, I see it again on my Philips

[unreal]

My 2005FPW is perfect, no dead pixels and minimal of the infamous backlight leakage. I don't seem to have the screendoor effect on it either, and on the HardOCP forums they clearly found out that most/all of their 2005FPW's didn't (last time I read about their opinion on it).

Call Dell and get a free replacement

[8bit]

Dell stuff isn't really built for gaming, they make general purpose, one-size-fits-all stuff. I've got 2 Dell TFTs on my work PC and they're fine for that but if I watch a vid or have a sneaky game of something they show their inadequacies pretty quickly.

[Gipo]

I don't see the fuss with the backlight 'problem'. I had it on the hitachi 17in tft and that wasn't a big deal. I think I have the backlight problem on my 2005fpw, but it doesn't affect performance or viewing pleasure at all...

[unreal]

Dell stuff isn't really built for gaming, they make general purpose, one-size-fits-all stuff. I've got 2 Dell TFTs on my work PC and they're fine for that but if I watch a vid or have a sneaky game of something they show their inadequacies pretty quickly.

Surely though they have changed - as technology moves on the gaming performance wouldn't have come to a halt now, would it?

If you check anywhere the 2001FP and 2005FPW have fantastic response times, and even better performance than most monitors of the same timing (I think anandtech made a good comparison). The 2405 probably has fantastic performance too.

[JCashin]

Considering buying 2005 (or it's big bruvver) so with all this chat, wots it really like ?! Use my system for DVD, TV & photo stuff. No big gaming for me. Some reviews in those back hander mags say DVD playback not too good (ghosting/blur). Thanks