Dell u3011 yellow tint

[=ReBeL=]

Hello all,

I have a few years old Dell u3011 which is my main monitor. Secondary monitor is just a basic sRGB monitor mostly used to display Photoshop tools and additional info (Iiyama Prolite B2409HDS).

Recently I have noticed a problem with my Dell. A yellow / green tint. I am a little confused at this point, becuase my calibration software and sensor (Spyder 4 Elite) does not seem to detect it and thinks all is well, but I can clearly see it with my own eyes. If I switch the calibration off, the yellow tint is much worse, when I switch it on - it's better, but the tint is still there.

Here are both of my screens side by side after calibration:

In real life, the yellow (which on this photo looks brown for some reason) tint is not as bad, but it is definitely noticeable. Even the on-screen monitor menu has a yellow tint to it.

I have performed callibration in just about any conditions I could think of - dark / lighten room, natural light / bulbs, one monitor / both monitors, studio match vs normal calibration, quick / full / advanced calibration, with brightness / without brightness, etc. plus the combination of those.

Before you mention, I have no strong colours in my room. It has been recently decorated as editing / gaming den and it has grey feature wall behind the monitor. Ceiling and other walls are white. Grey curtains, grey light shade, etc.

My GPU is Gigabyte 7970 OC 3GB that can handle two LUT and two separately calibrated screens.

Dell is conected with DVI-D connection, Iiyama with HDMI.

Here is the info panel from today's calibration:

And results of full advanced test done by Spyder:

Any idea what is the problem and what is causing it? I have run out of ideas.

 

[=ReBeL=]

I couldn't add this to the original post, only 8 images are allowed. That's the overall score Spyder gave to the monitor:

 

[LongLensPhotography]

White point is pretty poor (delta 1.0 is far too high). I actually wonder if you can display blue or cyan colour properly at all. It might be that the backlight is giving up the ghost.

I'm not sure if the original replacements are available at any 3rd party repairers. It might be sadly a time for a new one if it comes to the worst.

P.S. You didn't set it to warm or any other preset mode by any chance? Just leave it on "Standard" as it is by far the best.

You could try it on another PC just in case the card or DVI cable has gone funny but I doubt it.

 

[=ReBeL=]

White point is pretty poor (delta 1.0 is far too high). I actually wonder if you can display blue or cyan colour properly at all. It might be that the backlight is giving up the ghost.

I'm not sure if the original replacements are available at any 3rd party repairers. It might be sadly a time for a new one if it comes to the worst.

P.S. You didn't set it to warm or any other preset mode by any chance? Just leave it on "Standard" as it is by far the best.

You could try it on another PC just in case the card or DVI cable has gone funny but I doubt it.

Thank you for your reply. Please excuse late response, I did not get any alerts.

Since I started the thread, I have updated monitor drivers in my Windows 7 system. I also done a factory reset. The strange thing is that I think it helped a little bit, but the yellow tint is still there. Mostly visible around the edges of the screen. If I display a solid white colour on the screen, around half an inch each side the yellow colour is quite visible. Less in the middle, but it is still there.

What's strange is that, other than the tint, the monitor works flawlessly. There are no problems whatsoever.

Unfortunately, even if it is dying, it is the worst possible moment for me and financially I can't afford to either replace it or try to fix it at the moment. It will have to just hold on a couple of months.
Is there anything I can do to make sure the problem is of hardware nature? Any test you can think of to check what is the real reason behind it?

 

[LongLensPhotography]

non-uniform display colour suggests hardware fault. Mine has a tiny bit of darkening in the extreme right edge - where I have my dock bar. It doesn't affect "business" area so I just live with it until it packs up (so far on year 3 like this).

You could try another laptop or cable just to rule anything else out. If it is "bad" you are effectively editing your work with incorrect white balance and so on.
There are some cheaper sRGB 24 - 27" IPS displays. I'd rather have a good one of these than a faulty 30".

 

[=ReBeL=]

non-uniform display colour suggests hardware fault. Mine has a tiny bit of darkening in the extreme right edge - where I have my dock bar. It doesn't affect "business" area so I just live with it until it packs up (so far on year 3 like this).

You could try another laptop or cable just to rule anything else out. If it is "bad" you are effectively editing your work with incorrect white balance and so on.
There are some cheaper sRGB 24 - 27" IPS displays. I'd rather have a good one of these than a faulty 30".

I check everything on both monitors to be sure.

I would not like to swap for a smaller monitor, if I'm honest. If anything, same or a bigger one so either u3014 or one of the IPS curved 34"

I am just an amateur, so it is not the end of the world and it does not affect anybody else other than myself.

I'll try to connect it via HDMI to see if it has any effect. Thanks

 

[LongLensPhotography]

Do not go curved if you need accuracy and do serious editing. This will mess up how rectangles look. NOTHING will appear straight any more. It's a total GIMMICK.

I appreciate you want big just as I do. I just wanted to make it clear that I would rather temporarily use a good smaller screen as opposed to big faulty one. You can always sell and upgrade.

 

[=ReBeL=]

Do not go curved if you need accuracy and do serious editing. This will mess up how rectangles look. NOTHING will appear straight any more. It's a total GIMMICK.

I appreciate you want big just as I do. I just wanted to make it clear that I would rather temporarily use a good smaller screen as opposed to big faulty one. You can always sell and upgrade.

Good point about the curved monitors. There is one more thing I don't like about them, and it is the fact that they are so wide. I would much prefer a 34" 16:10 more square design.

It has been a while since ai looked at new monitors, so I need to refeesh my knowledge but at this point I can only see 3014 as a replacement. Too bad it is nearly 1k. I've paid that much for the u3011 few years back and I don't fancy doing it again

 

[Jason Crest]

Did you check the DVI connection as that is the usual cause of yellow screens - give the connectors a wiggle and see if that has any effect (or make sure they are tighten up firmly at each end).

 

[=ReBeL=]

Did you check the DVI connection as that is the usual cause of yellow screens - give the connectors a wiggle and see if that has any effect (or make sure they are tighten up firmly at each end).

I have. I was just coming here to post about testing it through HDMI cable (only in 1900x1200 as this is max on HDMI it seems) and the tint is still there. I have also tried to wiggle the DVI cable (also disconnected it and connected back) to no avail.

 

[=ReBeL=]

Another thing is, I started digging around and came across something worrying:

Taken from here:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19396929

2" circle on a 30" monitor.

I think I'll just keep this until it's dead and start saving up for an Eizo




BTW I selected the "custom colour" preset and lowered reds and greens, so the white looks much more white (still not perfect, but better).