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Hi-Res D630 screen worth the upgrade / Improvement to text on screen?


muranb

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Having messed about with Lion on my standard intel D630 based D630 with a resolution of 1280 x 800 I am now at a point of deciding whether I can use this as a regular machine ... however, there is something stopping me.

 

Images / text and graphics look pretty crisp on my Win 8 install on this laptop but the same cannot be said of the Lion install. Text is particularly hard to read and the off-white (creamy) colour of the screen is quite off-putting. I can get round the colour to a certain extent with calibration but the resolution is a sticking point. Reading this forum for instance looks almost blurred in Safari compared to viewing on my Win 8 install.

 

As far as I am aware there is no way to adjust the system font in mac - shame as I am sure that taking a little weight off would help immensely. I have tried Tinker Tool and also the font smoothing option within OSX but the results are not good.

 

Now, seems my only option might be to up the resolution of the screen to the 1440 x 900 model. Wondering how feasible this is and if it's worth doing?

 

Having gained a feel for OSX through this hackintosh (something I have never tinkered with before) I am sorely tempted to splash out on a macbook but I really don't want to resort to that if I can avoid it just yet.

 

Any experiences / tips for improving existing graphics and particularly text readability would be most welcome.

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Replacing the WXGA LCD by a WXGA+ is totally feasible on the D620 and D630. You just need to make sure to get the cable with the LCD because they go together (cable for WXGA is different from cable for WXGA+). Your main problem would probably be to find one, and a cheap one too. You know, it's wouldn't be worth to spend $100 on a replacement screen of you could get a HiRes nVidia model for $200-250...

 

But for what it's worth, I too have a D630 GMA LoRes and I must admit the screen is not great under Lion (I think it even looks nicer under SL!). It's much much better on my other D630 GMA HiRes. ML looks even better (improved graphics) on my other D630 HiRes, but that needs nVidia GPU...

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Thank you so much for confirming that my eyesight isn't necessarily on its way out! I had the other half have a look at the screen and she said it was perfect, nothing wrong with it... Maybe it's Her eyes that are dodgy eh?

 

So you have the same screen and also have the WXGA+ for a direct comparison - Replacement would cost me around £50 here so can I ask is there a marked improvement under Lion or should I perhaps revert to SL and stick with the WXGA if indeed SL is better for text readability etc?

 

Nvidia replacement isn't really an option because if I I was going to replace hardware to that extent I would probably want to upgrade substantially beyond the Dxxx range.

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Oh well, if it's only 50quid, don't hesitate; it'll be an improvement. I can't really do with the WXGA to be honest, had the larger screen from the beginning and only got the LoRes version off work disposal, for testing purposes.

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I have just connected up a 1440 x 900 external monitor to the D630 to see if upgrading the screen would be worthwhile and I have to say I am still not finding the output at all clear. Not even an improvement on the D630's 1280 x 800 native resolution.

 

This MIGHT be down to the fact it's a 19" monitor and therefore the display is stretched somewhat in comparison to the D630 but I would have expected some improvement at least.

 

Are there specific .kext files required to drive the higher resolution under either Lion or SL? I see the 1440 x 900 resolution option for the second monitor under display settings so I am guessing not?

 

Really not sure what to do now!

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No, there's no specific kexts for resolution, it's all covered by the kext that controls the display GPU and therefore knows its capabilities. Did you adjust the brightness at all in the display pref pane?

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Sure, tried adjusting the brightness and calibrating (both expert and standard) but although there is a slight improvement it's not a marked one.

 

I visited an Apple store today just to check out the screen of a none retina MBP 13" and it didn't look too clear either. I'm beginning to think maybe Apple's choice of fonts are partly to blame!

 

Trying to get Lion installed on my HP Compaq Pro 6200 desktop now for comparison at 1440 x 900 resolution but not having much success with that so can't comment yet :-(

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I've got a few d620/630's. Set one up and I was also wondering why the screen was looking fuzzy to me.

 

Checked against the rest, and the one with the fuzzy screen indeed has the lower resolution panel as opposed to the others.

 

However I have to admit I'm only talking about experiences in windows and not osx.

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That's interesting. I always thought it was ok for windows at native resolution. I would obvious like higher res but it is certainly usable under windows. I'm not sure i can say the same for OSX though.

 

I'm also undecided whether SL is better than Lion for 1280 x 800 - the jury is still out on the one!

 

Having had a good play with OSX I'm actually seriously considering replacing my ageing D630 now. Can't decide whether to go all out on a MBP or pay a LOT less for a decent windows laptop that I can Hackintosh though as it is kinda fun :-)

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