Dell 2005FPW "Screendoor"

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!

Mine has no screendoor effect at all. I know what you mean by that since my Dell XPS Gen2's display has the screendoor effect (Samsung display).

The 2001FP was great but I ended up sending it back because of its poor black level output ..I'd recommend making sure you're satisfied with it before keeping it.. Try a game at night with all the lights out , something dark like Doom 3 / Riddick / Thief ..I tried everything to get an acceptable level of black but no go, My CRT sitting right next to it (dual monitor mode) looked better in every game I tried. Dell was nice and even paid the shipping charge / gave me a full refund.

A good CRT is still king when it comes to gaming.

Fair enough mathesar, this is another reason why I'd rather plump for the 2005FPW (I'm not even tempted to go back to CRT though). I just need a few other members' opinions on the anomaly I've described...

Well I had to go through three 2005 fp displays to finally get one that had very minimal light leakage. The blacks on this thing are nice, they are pure black during the day and at night with the backlight they are almost full black but not quite.

as i was reading OP's words, i was thinking..........since maybe Dell might be recycling lcd's, and say joe bob turns his in for new one, sandy sue gets joe bobs fubr'ed one

i was thinking would be neat, is to get a UV (clear unnoticeable) market, and make a line on it, and let people know thats a bad one........i highly doubt thatd viod the warentee

just a thought tho

soulsaver_8229

I have the same problem you are describing as screendoor(moving objects). I always heard people describing screendoor appyling to non-moving things as well, so maybe we are seeing something different.

From what I understand, screendoor is the effect where you see the black lines between pixels, so they are a bunch of little squares with black lines between them. What you are describing seems like a "sparkling" effect rather than screendoor effect, which I noticed on my 2005 as well. The screendoor effect makes each pixel clearly visible, the sparkling effect makes it impossible to tell which pixel is which it seems like there are tiny black dots everywhere yet there are not.

Do I make any sense? lol.

Why is it I can't see any sparkle or screendoor problem with mine? In fact none of the 3 I got had the issue. I know exactly what both those issues look like since as I said various XPS 2 displays suffered from those problems and the 2005 simply doesn't have them. This 2005 looks better than my cousin-in-law's 19" Sony Xbrite.

bump for more opinions on this matter...

I dunno, but I'm contemplating buying the 2005FPW and now I'm getting cold feet!

I picked up my 2005fpw on thursday, no problems and no "screendoor".

I purchased the 2005wfp as well. I have sent mine back 4 times and i keep getting the same probelms. I havent noticed the "screendoor" problem , then again i havent really checked.

My main thing is the horrible backlighting problem, i even asked Dell to send me 2001 model and they denied my request stating that you can only get the same model.

I do not like buying from companies like Dell but i got a decent deal on the monitor so i decided to invest in one.

If it wasent for the backlight problem i would be completly satistifed with my purchase but knowing i just forked over 500 dollars for something that is not perfect frustrates me to no end.

How the hell do you guys get them to send you FOUR replacements? The backlight issue isn't even considered a defect and therefore doesn't get you a replacement. I sent mine back once because I had interference lines on the screen from the internal power supply. My new one is an older revision (A01) with a small amount of backlight leakage but I can live with it. I don't think its fair to send my monitor back 4 times because of a non-defect that people shouldn't bitch so much about.

sarconus said:

I purchased the 2005wfp as well. I have sent mine back 4 times and i keep getting the same probelms. I havent noticed the "screendoor" problem , then again i havent really checked.

My main thing is the horrible backlighting problem, i even asked Dell to send me 2001 model and they denied my request stating that you can only get the same model.

I do not like buying from companies like Dell but i got a decent deal on the monitor so i decided to invest in one.

If it wasent for the backlight problem i would be completly satistifed with my purchase but knowing i just forked over 500 dollars for something that is not perfect frustrates me to no end.

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I'm in the same boat.. On my 5th monitor now.. (4 replacements).. Backlight was the issue in the first 4.. This last one they sent was refurbished, and has over 10 bad pixels (most in the center of the screen.. Rather than sit through another 1 1/2hr wait to talk to someone who I can't really understand who will basically say the video card is causing whatever problem I have (since the video card is in a non-dell computer), I just ended up calling and arranging for a total refund, as, like you, I believe that if I'm spending over 500 clams on something, it should be a quality.. Frustrating to me as well..

i just got my 2005 last week and I dont have a mesh problem but all my MPEGS look like camera negatives. UPS is picking my monitor up tomorrow and im going with the 2001.

These are some of the same problems that drove me to buy my Apple Cinema Display, so far i absolutely love it.

JayD said:

How the hell do you guys get them to send you FOUR replacements? The backlight issue isn't even considered a defect and therefore doesn't get you a replacement. I sent mine back once because I had interference lines on the screen from the internal power supply. My new one is an older revision (A01) with a small amount of backlight leakage but I can live with it. I don't think its fair to send my monitor back 4 times because of a non-defect that people shouldn't bitch so much about.

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If it intereferes with the normal function of the monitor then it is a defect. In this case you cannot use black backgrounds without major distraction and color distortion (leakage makes everything lighter) so it is perfectly reasonable to return it even 100 times.