text and pics not crisp

[mtbvert]

i just took delivery of a new dell e1505 laptop and have a problem. text and pics displayed on the screen are vey fuzzy around the edges. the resolution is set to 1680x1050, i tried to lower the resolution, but it won't fill the screen and is still fuzzy. any ideas? anything i may have missed? the machine has a 15.4 in widescreen display with the Intel 950 inttegrated grahics.

[Kiwi]

You simply don't have enough graphics power with that IGP (really poor video there). Dell will have to tell you how to make a 1024 by 6xx resolution work properly, or you should RMA the thing.

[mtbvert]

thanks, i will contact dell and try to get it fixed

[glc]

Just a minute here - the GMA 950 is PLENTY capable of high resolutions. Is 1680x1050 the native resolution of that screen?

[mtbvert]

GLC, i had read that same comment on the forums so it got me thinking. i was digging some more and i adjusted the DPI from 125 to 96, this helped but its still a bit fuzzy, but not super noticable. I do recall reading about a truelife view or something to that effect which affects font edges?

I also noticed that the chipset is listed as mobile intel 945GM Express Chipset. is this the same family as the 950 or did i get the wrong graphics? As for the resolution 1600x1050 is the native res.

thanks for the help, i'm going to bed, i'll be back in the am.

[glc]

Whatever, that's decent onboard graphics. Try enabling ClearType.

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

[mtbvert]

glc, my comment was a little ambiguous, i had meant that i read the intel 950 was a vey good setup, not the contrary. I setup cleartype and it looks much better now. i also have to realize that this machine is going to be very dfferent in many ways compared to my desktop, lke the keyboard for example.

so what do you think about the graphics? is 945 same as 950?

Thanks again for your help.

[glc]

The 945GM chipset uses the GMA 950 graphics.

[mtbvert]

thanks GLC everything looks great now. thanks for the help!

[mtbvert]

after tweaking some settings things are looking better, but i still have an issue. the letters on the screen seem to have a reddish shadow to them, most notably the back lettering. it drives me nuts, but everyone else thinks its fine. it kind of reminds me of when my lcd monitor went bad and would overheat.

Any seggestions or possible solutions? Can i return the laptop for a different screen?

[Josh1964]

I have seen the same when the font was set a bit too large or small. Try different font sizes maybe? Did you try cleartype?

[mtbvert]

i actually turned off clear type and it looks significantly better. thanks for all the ideas