I've now got my second and third problems with a Dell L400 "refurbished"
laptop I bought. I've got the company that I bought it from to send me a new
CMOS battery to install, but I do not know what, if anything, I can do about
the fact that in a sunlit room where I work 2 days per week, my laptop
screen "washes out" and is significantly less bright than when I'm in my
apartment or even at work (where it's less bright but still pretty ok.) In
bright sunlight it is almost unreadable.

I have read that the reason this occurs is because the screen is backlit and
the sun overpowers the backlit screen and therefore the screen is much less
viewable. Is there any way to fix this issue, or is it simply an issue with
the technology itself and even a new backlight or screen would not fix the
problem?

CJ wrote:
> I've now got my second and third problems with a Dell L400 "refurbished"
> laptop I bought. I've got the company that I bought it from to send me a new
> CMOS battery to install, but I do not know what, if anything, I can do about
> the fact that in a sunlit room where I work 2 days per week, my laptop
> screen "washes out" and is significantly less bright than when I'm in my
> apartment or even at work (where it's less bright but still pretty ok.) In
> bright sunlight it is almost unreadable.
>
> I have read that the reason this occurs is because the screen is backlit and
> the sun overpowers the backlit screen and therefore the screen is much less
> viewable. Is there any way to fix this issue, or is it simply an issue with
> the technology itself and even a new backlight or screen would not fix the
> problem?
>
>

You are correct. Two things might make the sunlight less intrusive.
Turn up the brightness, and if there is a contrast adjustment in the
video driver, adjust for slightly higher contrast. Secondly, keep the
screen absolutely clean and *dust free*.

You might consider an inexpensive LCD monitor, or (this is serious!) a
beach umbrella. I use one to selectively block morning sunlight in my
office.

Q

That is an essentially insurmountable problem; the answer is blinds or
drapes. It's almost impossible to make a display that won't wash out
severely (to the point of total invisibility in some cases) in strong,
direct sunlight. The sun is THOUSANDS of times brighter than a laptop
backlight. While SVDs (sunlight viewable displays) do exist, they are
exotic displays that cost several times more than an entire consumer
laptops.


CJ wrote:
> I've now got my second and third problems with a Dell L400 "refurbished"
> laptop I bought. I've got the company that I bought it from to send me a new
> CMOS battery to install, but I do not know what, if anything, I can do about
> the fact that in a sunlit room where I work 2 days per week, my laptop
> screen "washes out" and is significantly less bright than when I'm in my
> apartment or even at work (where it's less bright but still pretty ok.) In
> bright sunlight it is almost unreadable.
>
> I have read that the reason this occurs is because the screen is backlit and
> the sun overpowers the backlit screen and therefore the screen is much less
> viewable. Is there any way to fix this issue, or is it simply an issue with
> the technology itself and even a new backlight or screen would not fix the
> problem?
>
>

Hi,

I have a problem with the touchpad of Fujitsu lifebook S series. The
problem is a recent one. When I first switch on the laptop, the
touchpad doesn't work, but when I restart the laptop again and
thereafter, the cursor can then be manipulated. Can anyone tell me how
to fix the problem?

Marco

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:457a04bf$0$11016$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> That is an essentially insurmountable problem; the answer is blinds or
> drapes. It's almost impossible to make a display that won't wash out
> severely (to the point of total invisibility in some cases) in strong,
> direct sunlight.

Not true. Transflective displays remain entirely visible in bright sunlight
(you can even turn the backlight off - the sun provides all the light
required). They just don't fit them to laptops.

tsangkinyip******.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a problem with the touchpad of Fujitsu lifebook S series. The
> problem is a recent one. When I first switch on the laptop, the
> touchpad doesn't work, but when I restart the laptop again and
> thereafter, the cursor can then be manipulated. Can anyone tell me how
> to fix the problem?
>
> Marco
>
I'd go look in the bios setup for touchpad/mouse options.
Sometimes you can set it to recognize/ignore/use together with an
extenal mouse.
It might be relevant to learn what you mean by "switch on"
I've taken to hibernating my laptops. I get issues on restarting
with wireless cards and other attached devices that don't recover
automatically when power is reapplied. Rebooting causes
most stuff to get reinitialized by the driver.
mike

I agree that transflective display can solve the problem, but there are,
to the best of my knowledge, NO laptops made with transflective
displays. Therefore, at a consumer level, the problem is insurmountable
(since there are no products that you can actually buy that solve the
problem, even if in theory such a product could be built (or, if such a
product is built for non-consumer use (e.g. military), it's
prohibitively expensive).


M.I.5¾ wrote:
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:457a04bf$0$11016$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>> That is an essentially insurmountable problem; the answer is blinds or
>> drapes. It's almost impossible to make a display that won't wash out
>> severely (to the point of total invisibility in some cases) in strong,
>> direct sunlight.
>
> Not true. Transflective displays remain entirely visible in bright sunlight
> (you can even turn the backlight off - the sun provides all the light
> required). They just don't fit them to laptops.
>
>

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:457d6066$0$13720$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>I agree that transflective display can solve the problem, but there are, to
>the best of my knowledge, NO laptops made with transflective displays.
>Therefore, at a consumer level, the problem is insurmountable (since there
>are no products that you can actually buy that solve the problem, even if
>in theory such a product could be built (or, if such a product is built for
>non-consumer use (e.g. military), it's prohibitively expensive).
>
>

Agreed Barry, they are impossible to buy on a laptop, but your point was
that such display was impossible to build.

M.I.5¾ wrote:

> Not true. Transflective displays remain entirely visible in bright sunlight
> (you can even turn the backlight off - the sun provides all the light
> required). They just don't fit them to laptops.

That's not true. Panasonic and Fujitsu, at the very least, used them.
(I don't know if Fujitsu used them on laptops qua laptops, but they
certainly used - and still use - them on tablet PCs. Unfortunately
there is a price premium).

> to the best of my knowledge, NO laptops made with transflective
> displays. Therefore, at a consumer level, the problem is insurmountable

Not true; several vendors offer either reflective or transflective
LCDs. Fujitsu CV, Portable One MX, NEC Lavie MX (probably the same
machine), Rugged Notebooks Inc
<http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/480584> etc. Unfortunately the
price premium is quite astounding.

A recent article on this topic:
<http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33750>

On 11 Dec 2006 08:41:54 -0800, zwsdotcom******.com <zwsdotcom******.com> wrote:
>
> M.I.5¾ wrote:
>
>> Not true. Transflective displays remain entirely visible in bright sunlight
>> (you can even turn the backlight off - the sun provides all the light
>> required). They just don't fit them to laptops.
>
> That's not true. Panasonic and Fujitsu, at the very least, used them.
> (I don't know if Fujitsu used them on laptops qua laptops, but they
> certainly used - and still use - them on tablet PCs. Unfortunately
> there is a price premium).

Yep, I have a Panasonic CF-72V with a sunlight-readable display. Works
great, if you don't mind buying a 3 year old laptop off of Ebay. ;-)

- Rich


--
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

user wrote:

> > That's not true. Panasonic and Fujitsu, at the very least, used them.
>
> Yep, I have a Panasonic CF-72V with a sunlight-readable display. Works
> great, if you don't mind buying a 3 year old laptop off of Ebay. ;-)

They still sell "outdoor-readable" displays in current models, though
now Panasonic's seem to be all high-brightness transmissives.

Fujitsu does offer transflective, and several MIL-STD-whatever
suppliers offer it of course, since it's a requirement for a
combat-ready computer.