DELL P1110 monitor too bright

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  • edited December 2006
    Thanks to all who contributed to this Forum. I too was having problems with my Dell P991 being to bright. After researching both the resistor and software fix, I decided to go the software route. Purchased the cable from the guy in Canada and it arrived in about a week. Dowloaded all the software and additional parts and after several misssteps on my part, I got it all working. My monitor is now fixed and looking as good as new. Thanks again.
  • edited December 2006
    walterkay wrote:
    If it's supported there will be a menu item in the monitor settings (when you push the monitor joystick or whatever) called COLOR and Image Restoration appears in the Easy and sRGB tabs.

    Well then i suppose that it dont support it..dang..


    Nevermind, got the red color turned down, but i still have one problem, when a load the file to the monitor and adjust the colors everything is fine, but when the monitor goes to sleep and wakes up, the colors are all screwed, and i need to reload to file to the monitor and readjust the colors.

    Does anyone knows why the monitor wont save the settings ?

    Regards
    Ronni
    Denmark
  • edited December 2006
    Dark0n3 wrote:
    Well then i suppose that it dont support it..dang..


    Nevermind, got the red color turned down, but i still have one problem, when a load the file to the monitor and adjust the colors everything is fine, but when the monitor goes to sleep and wakes up, the colors are all screwed, and i need to reload to file to the monitor and readjust the colors.

    Does anyone knows why the monitor wont save the settings ?

    Regards
    Ronni
    Denmark

    There should be a 'Final Setting' option in winDAS.
  • edited December 2006
    walterkay wrote:
    There should be a 'Final Setting' option in winDAS.

    Yes, don't forget the Final Setting as I wrote above. And after that, turn the monitor off! Otherwise the controller will forget any settings of the OSD. Took me some hours to figure out.

    Have fun
    Peter (Germany)
  • edited December 2006
    Hey guys great thread......Did the resister fix on my P1110 used a 5.1M ohm .5W worked great. Now I have ghosting, whats the fix for that? Or is it my Cable? TYIA
  • edited December 2006
    Rodday wrote:
    Hey guys great thread......Did the resister fix on my P1110 used a 5.1M ohm .5W worked great. Now I have ghosting, whats the fix for that? Or is it my Cable? TYIA
    It was the Cable!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this is like a new monitor........YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!!
  • edited December 2006
    Hi

    Tried the final setting in windas, but no luck, the problem is the same..

    Maybe its somthing inside the monitor that there is broken..
  • edited December 2006
    Dark0n3 wrote:
    Tried the final setting in windas, but no luck, the problem is the same..
    .

    And did you switch off the monitor immediately after the final setting?
  • edited December 2006
    Yes i did, the color options are saved, but when i turn on the monitor its got a very redish color.
  • edited December 2006
    Hello, again! I fixed my Dell P991 some months ago using the cable and WinDas... But as time passed, the brightness increased slowly, it's not as worse as it was but anyway... now I have a new problem. After switching on, the monitor makes some glassy sound, bling-bling-bling, the image has some shaky horizontal lines (not retrace!) ... after a few minutes it makes a series of 2-3 pops, the image goes black for a second then comes back... The bling-bling, IMO, comes from arcing inside the CRT... and the loud pops I don't know... Well, that's all :) Thanks!

    PS: after a few minutes of blinging and popping, it's actually ok... but I wonder how long it'll take for one of the pops (or the blings?) to take the flyback or the HOT or something equally important down with it...
  • edited December 2006
    Hi guys

    I just aquired a plastic screwdriver.
    Was planning on improving my blurry image.
    Could someone point me into the right direction as to where I can find the
    right "knob" to turn on the flyback?
    ( Or even help me find the flyback ;) )


    I have a Dell P1110 monitor by the way :cheers:
  • edited December 2006
    Fixed my problem using Windas and a little kit with parts I bought from Frys Electronics. Frys Electronics is a national chain with several stores across the United States (mostly in California and Texas). This is my first post so I can't post links yet. But their website is www dot outpost dot com.

    I bought the following items which was all I needed as far as hardware (not including a small screw driver to open up the little panel on the back of the Dell P1110 to access the pins).

    4717389 SB 710-0001-01 (RS-232 module) $14.99
    4717419 SB 920-0005-01 (jumpers and header) $4.99
    1652866 M05-101 6ft DB9 (serial extension cable) $ 3.99

    The last item (the cable) actually rung up as a DB9M to DB9F monitor extension cable. But it works. Search for the part numbers on their website. They have pictures for all the parts if you're not sure what the first and second items look like.

    I used four pins from the header (second item in the list) to join two jumpers to give me some additional length. This was a very easy thing to put together and I strongly recommend this method over opening the monitor up to replace a resistor. I did not have to remove the cover off the monitor, just the little panel to access the pins.

    Picture looks the best with the brightness at around 35 now with contrast at 95. I wound up lowering my G2 from 194 to 159 using the DOS Edit that comes with Windows XP.

    While I do not get a completely black raster until I lower the brightness to about 10 (with blank screen displayed) the picture looks too dark when I bring the normal windows desktop back up. However, while in World of Warcraft the picture looks great. The colors actually look richer and what should be black is black and not a hazy gray.

    I'd like to get a completely black raster with the brightness at about 30 but I can't get a bright enough picture that way even with the contrast all the way up.

    I noticed some settings in the monitor that I presume could relocate the center for the contrast control so that I could theoretically move the min/max range so that it could make the screen brighter. But I'm not about to play around with it. The picture now looks good with the current settings. I still have the modified cable setup connected to the back of the monitor and it doesn't seem to affect it's normal use.
  • edited December 2006
    DanX wrote:
    Hi guys

    I just aquired a plastic screwdriver.
    Was planning on improving my blurry image.
    Could someone point me into the right direction as to where I can find the
    right "knob" to turn on the flyback?
    ( Or even help me find the flyback ;) )


    I have a Dell P1110 monitor by the way :cheers:
    The flyback transformer has nothing to do with focus, it generates the 30kv anode voltage. You will either kill yourself or wreck the monitor. Leave it alone.
  • edited December 2006
    Hello,

    I have a Dell P1110. I have the RS232/TTL cable all setup and connected to my monitor. I have installed WinDAS on my laptop. After selecting the right serial port (COM1) and SG Name to Manual, I try to File->Save Data to File. The program crashes with the info below. I tried installing WinDAS from scratch on my PC with the same results. I also installed the zip file in this thread that contains all the WinDAS files needed and I got the same crash again.
  • edited December 2006
    smanders wrote:
    Hello,

    I have a Dell P1110. I have the RS232/TTL cable all setup and connected to my monitor. I have installed WinDAS on my laptop. After selecting the right serial port (COM1) and SG Name to Manual, I try to File->Save Data to File. The program crashes with the info below. I tried installing WinDAS from scratch on my PC with the same results. I also installed the zip file in this thread that contains all the WinDAS files needed and I got the same crash again.

    Windows XP? It's a conflict with another ap you have running in the background, or a device driver, or some other TSR/BIOS operation. Serial port enabled in BIOS?

    Have you already selected the monitor type as instructed? Have you applied the hardware dongle patch?
  • edited December 2006
    walterkay wrote:
    Windows XP? It's a conflict with another ap you have running in the background, or a device driver, or some other TSR/BIOS operation. Serial port enabled in BIOS?

    Have you already selected the monitor type as instructed? Have you applied the hardware dongle patch?

    Thanks for the quick reply. It is XP. I have selected the monitor type. I tried both the P1110 and the P1110(PCD). I have also applied the patch because I was getting the expected error regarding the security dongle not present the a parallel port. That went away after applying the patch. I will start ending processes that may be conflicting. I can open and close the com port just fine with TeraTerm Console program. And I know there is no conflict because when the program is in the crashed state, I cannot connect to COM1 through TeraTerm. Once I acknowledge the crash and close WinDAS, I can open and close COM1 successfully through TeraTerm.

    smanders
  • edited December 2006
    smanders wrote:
    Thanks for the quick reply. It is XP. I have selected the monitor type. I tried both the P1110 and the P1110(PCD). I have also applied the patch because I was getting the expected error regarding the security dongle not present the a parallel port. That went away after applying the patch. I will start ending processes that may be conflicting. I can open and close the com port just fine with TeraTerm Console program. And I know there is no conflict because when the program is in the crashed state, I cannot connect to COM1 through TeraTerm. Once I acknowledge the crash and close WinDAS, I can open and close COM1 successfully through TeraTerm.

    smanders
    Looks like you're doing the right things, not much else to offer except to perhaps suggest using a different computer.
  • edited December 2006
    smanders wrote:
    Hello,

    I have a Dell P1110. I have the RS232/TTL cable all setup and connected to my monitor. I have installed WinDAS on my laptop. After selecting the right serial port (COM1) and SG Name to Manual, I try to File->Save Data to File. The program crashes with the info below. I tried installing WinDAS from scratch on my PC with the same results. I also installed the zip file in this thread that contains all the WinDAS files needed and I got the same crash again.

    Could the TD and RD lines be crossed?
  • edited December 2006
    Nightowl42 wrote:
    Could the TD and RD lines be crossed?
    No, you would just get a cannot communicate with monitor error from within windas.
  • edited December 2006
    Well, I kept trying to "Save Data to File". And finally it didn't crash. I cannot tell you why. It just started working...and kept working. I adjusted my G2 from 185 to 150. It looks great now.

    I'm impressed with the knowledge on this thread.

    Thank you so much,
    smanders
  • edited December 2006
    Nightowl42 wrote:
    Could the TD and RD lines be crossed?
    oops,correction, td and rd need to be shorted together and not connected to anything. rx and tx are the data lines.
  • edited December 2006
    I have just found this thread, great stuff. I have two 21" Sony Trinitrons that I had condemed to the scrap heap...

    One of them just went bright after I performed "color return". I suspect this is the true cause of the problem.

    Many thanks to all for this super thread.
    Ray
  • edited December 2006
    smanders wrote:
    Thanks for the quick reply. It is XP. I have selected the monitor type. I tried both the P1110 and the P1110(PCD). I have also applied the patch because I was getting the expected error regarding the security dongle not present the a parallel port. That went away after applying the patch. I will start ending processes that may be conflicting. I can open and close the com port just fine with TeraTerm Console program. And I know there is no conflict because when the program is in the crashed state, I cannot connect to COM1 through TeraTerm. Once I acknowledge the crash and close WinDAS, I can open and close COM1 successfully through TeraTerm.

    smanders
    No need to use TeraTerm, winDAS speaks thru COM1 in XP without need for emulation. Perhaps that's the conflict..
  • edited January 2007
    walterkay wrote:
    oops,correction, td and rd need to be shorted together and not connected to anything. rx and tx are the data lines.

    Oops, my bad. I did mean the Transmit and Receive lines but I may have used the wrong terms. I did short the RTS and CTS lines on the little RS232/TLL board.
  • P991-DELL-SONYP991-DELL-SONY California
    edited January 2007
    walterkay wrote:
    The flyback transformer has nothing to do with focus, it generates the 30kv anode voltage. You will either kill yourself or wreck the monitor. Leave it alone.

    The tranformer has 2 varistors that tap into it. (on trinitron, on shadomask there is usually one)They provide the high voltagedirectly to the focus grids. There are vertical and horizontal grids.


    The real question here is , how bad is your focous problem, is it constant, and how you think it got that way.

    Flakes of metal in the CRT have been known to cause horrible focous problems because they short grids to eachother.

    I'm just guessing something else has gone wrong if your focus became very bad all at once.

    Thank you walterkay and others for hanging around to help.

    If anyone knows other settings besides G2 on their monitor, it'd be helpfull to post what you know about them. Each monitor has different settings with different names and functions. Many seem to have have problems with color changing depending on brightness, and reproducing the darkest gray without a gray black.

    For example, my avatar is not a big black square! It has 3 easily readable messages on it. And has hidden detail with the darkest black. R/G/B 1/1/1

    G2 is not the whole story. If G1 biases are not correct, color will shift as colors get darker. The signal amplifier varies how negatively charged the G1 is relative to the cathode. A signal of R/G/B 0/0/0 should have the G1 grid (or grids, depends on monitor) block any electrons from escaping, a signal of R/G/B 1/1/1 should still be barely visible.

    Ofcourse, the brightness controll changes the G1 biases, to account for ambient lighting. The eye has a logorithmic response to luminance intensity which coincidentaly matches the power amplification (gamma) of CRTs.

    Somehow, the monitor should be adjusted to have a bigger difference between gray 0 and gray 1. This probably involves tweaking the amplifier that controlls maps input signal to G1 voltage relative to cathodes.

    Thanks for help and information! If anyone is interested, feel free to translate my howto! Most of the information, and the software itself, has come from nameless others.
    http://www.geocities.com/gregua/windas/

    I was not the one who discovered that communicating with the monitor was a simple matter of converting TTL signals to RS232 signals. This was discovered by the distributor of the original DOS DAS. My contribution was patching Windas , and then explaining to people how to get it, run it, apply my patch, use it to lower G2 and to perform other adjustments.

    I think it all started like this:

    A 1998-1999 version of DOS Sony DAS was uploaded here on 2004-03-09 16:09:21 by plamensl:

    http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/2486/Sony_DAS%20J4.2.1..html


    It contained the cable schematics, a patched .EXE file, instructions on how to do the patching of that particular executable, and further instructions on how to add more monitors to the softwares database.

    The archive seemed to be last touched as shown:

    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:51 DAS
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 275423 May 14 2002 DAS.ZIP
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:51 DB
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 519711 Feb 7 2000 DB.ZIP
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 5834 May 14 2002 DB25.GIF
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:52 EID
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 26412 Feb 7 2000 EID.ZIP
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 1183 Feb 7 2000 INSTALL.001
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 176 Feb 7 2000 INSTALL.002
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 86864 Feb 7 2000 INSTALL.EXE
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 967 Oct 25 2003 INSTALL.PIF
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:52 MSG
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 15850 Feb 7 2000 MSG.ZIP
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:52 PX
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 31174 Feb 7 2000 PX.ZIP
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 1273038 Oct 27 2003 SONY DAS User Manuals.pdf
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 8192 Jan 8 03:52 STP
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 546607 Feb 7 2000 STP.ZIP
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 48 Feb 7 2000 VERSION.TXT
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 1384 Sep 9 2002 dastips.txt
    drwxr-xr-x 2 greg users 4096 Jan 8 03:50 eeprom-sony
    -rw-r--r-- 1 greg users 323456 Aug 26 2002 eeprom-sony.zip

    There is also a part2 archive on the site, the size of the archives differ, but I'm unsure exactly why as they seem identical.

    Anyhow, people had tried using this, of those who got as far as building the cable, many had a newer monitor that wasn't in the programs database by default. Few had managed to find the newer monitor definition files and add them to the database as the file dastips.txt explained.

    I came along and decided to have a go at patching the Windas version of the software, which had been available at ableserv, along with all the signal generator software. Windas wasn't the only option, as adding the newer monitor definition files (as explained in dastips.txt) to the DOS DAS worked as well, and had been used by Xweebie.


    Since Windas contained all the latest monitor definition files, it became an instant success at fixing the monitor brightness issue in newer mointors. The howto had to be streamlined for some windows XP specifics, but other than that not much has changed.

    There remain these probems

    1. There are no liscensing terms in sight, and thus, Windas probably cannot be distributed openly
    2. Not all registers are well documented, and many of the Windas/DAS features have not been explained in detail.
    3. The current version of Windas lacks monitor definiton files for newer LCD monitors.
    4. Many adjustments are better made in realtime and on specific test patterns, this is hard to do without a dual head video card, or two computers.
    5. Though schematics are available, no one has exlpained in detail how the systems of the monitor work, and how to diagnose failures. Some one please speak up about this.
    6. Windas only covers SONY monitors, there are certainly other companies which have MCU controlled monitors, where is their 'DAS' program?

    Thanks to all who help address the above issues. I am working on them myself as I have time.

    ;)
  • edited January 2007
    is there a complete tut on this??? I have the brightness problem... and does the cable connect to the seriel port on the pc? and does the monitor allready have the port for the cable??? that is probally the hardest part ( making / buying ) the cable... thanks for the response..

    myk3
  • edited January 2007
    ginahoy wrote:
    Ok, I just ran WinDAS and re-loaded my backup Data file. The monitor, which is a P992, returned to nominal appearance. The OSD unlocked as soon as I clicked OK on the load screen. I then exited WinDAS and verified the OSD was still unlocked. I then powered down the monitor and removed the interface cable. When I powered back up again, the OSD was locked again!! I repeated these steps a couple of times, even loading a backup of my original dat file prior to making changes. Same result.

    Of course, my problem may be unrelated to WinDAS. At least WinDAS enables me to temporarily unlock the OSD to make adjustments, if needed. I can live with that.

    But if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

    David

    hi ginahoy, my OSD locks too. Did you find a solution?

    found it out: just have to wait a long time before the monitor comes back on line. Adjust - leave windas. OSD unlocked also after restart.

    just wait tll the monitor comes on again. OSD will be unlocked

    just wait tll the monitor comes on again. OSD will be unlocked
  • P991-DELL-SONYP991-DELL-SONY California
    edited January 2007
    Myk3 wrote:
    is there a complete tut on this??? I have the brightness problem... and does the cable connect to the seriel port on the pc? and does the monitor allready have the port for the cable??? that is probally the hardest part ( making / buying ) the cable... thanks for the response..

    myk3


    YES!


    This is a howto I wrote, geared to be as userfriendly and easy as possible:

    http://www.geocities.com/gregua/windas/


    Making the cable, or buying it, I've got the info and options for either.

    If you already knew, and it wasn't clear enough, tell me what you'd like to see there.

    Thanks.
  • Formula-1Formula-1 Hickory NC
    edited January 2007
    Hi everyone

    Many thanks to all that have added to this thread. Excellent information here.
    I have read over all 34 pages of it a few pages at a time.
    I didn't find what I was looking for, so I have regisitered and would like to ask my questions.
    I have a Micronpc.com 900Mx. It has a 19" Sony Trinitron CRT. It was manufactured around the end of 2000. I know this thread is mainly for the Dell monitors, but I hope someone will help me all the same.
    I have the same problem as most everyone with the overly bright picture, green tint and the retrace lines showing.
    I took the cover off, but mine isn't exactly like the Dell in the pictures in the resistor change guide. I don't know where the correct resistor is located. I have been unable to find a schematic for my monitor. I guess it is probably around the same place on the rear of the tube, but the board is different and so are the numbers. I can't see it very well either, since the metal plate is soldered on in several places rather than a screw holding it on. Mine is very similar to the pictures in Paul's Post 462
    Although, after removing the case I noticed a few adjusters on the side of the tube. There are both screw driver type and thumb knobs.

    Screw driver types are as follows:
    TLV
    YCH
    YBH
    and one that is written like this:
    H.
    TRP

    The thumb knobs were covered with tape, and when I pealed the pieces back I found:
    APH
    CBH
    XBV
    XCV

    Do any of these have anything to do with the brightness?
    Can anyone explain the function of these screws and knobs?
    I saw where Patrik had fixed his with an adjuster, but he didn't say which one. Post 467
    My monitor doesn't have the full metal shielding around the tube, so everything is exposed. There is a gray plastic cover over the thing mounted on the side of the tube where the adjusters are at, though it shouldn't need to be removed to make any adjustments to the screws and/or knobs.

    Any tips on this are very welcome and apperciated.
  • edited January 2007
    Hi everyone. Wow what a night of different emotions and lots of reading.

    I picked up my Dell P1110 (bought from Ebay - I'm from Australia) tonight and was very disheartened to bring it home, turn it on and immediately notice an unacceptable brightness level. After 2-3 hours I've read through this forum and gather it boils down to two main options:
    • Replace the R459 Resistor with a 6.2MOhm resistor (hardware option - not safe)
    or
    • Buy/build a cable, download specific software (more money, and often some hardware work involved to get the pinout correct - but safer).

    All this seems a little overwhelming given I've just purchased this monitor (obviously hoping to 'plug & play'). My question is since there literally seem to be hundreds of people on this thread and no doubt thousands more who will find it on google... is anyone willing to produce a CD with the appropriate software drivers/etc on it, a simple '10-step' instruction guide, and a pre-built cable, and share it around (expenses would be covered). I figure most of us only need to fix this once... what is everyone doing with their cable once they're done? Surely we can pass it on to another Sony tube victim/recoup some of their costs?

    If anyone out there (particularly from Australia) has fixed their monitor using the software & cable fix... I'd be happy to work out something mutally beneficial.

    PS: I didnt notice it in this thread but I assume there are no software utilities to artificially lower the gamma output from windows/dos that lead to an acceptable result?
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