The official Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP Thread

[gazzeroo]

Well it's been a while since I reported on here. Looks like we are all still waiting for a brand new A01 to be seen in the UK.

Since I last reported, I had no response from the customer service guy that I was dealing with, so I decided to use Dell's online Tech Support. Put in all the details incl my call support query number. Nothing back. Tried again a week or 2 later... nothing.

Had a bit of spare time this arvo so thought I'd give them a bell. Got through to someone helpful within a minute (record time!), he was aware of the input lag issue and had heard rumour of a firmware fix (first time that's happened too!), and agreed to replace my monitor (although this is for the horrendous backlight problem not the input lag). Not bad considering they sent me this (my 3rd monitor) almost 6 weeks ago.

Bad side of things... again they cant confirm that I will be sent a monitor with the new firmware (I find this staggering - it must be costing them a fortune to keep sending new and retrieving old monitors).

Will just have to see what turns up and how bad it is. As long as it's not an 0CX268 I will probably be happy. Will let you know what I get, should be with me tomorrow.

The outcome (added 23/10/08 12:00) :

Well the monitor exchange took place just now (nice swift service). My 4th monitor is now a CX268 Refurb (so there goes my new monitor).
Plus points : it does have the A01 firmware, but I wont know about dead pixels, backlight problems and the actual input lag until i get home.
Minus points : It's a friggin refurb (I paid my £400 for a new one ... no ?) dated Feb 2008. It's got a dent on the corner of the case with stress marks on the plastic, and it came with no docs, no disk, no USB lead and more importantly NO POWER CABLE !?!

I'm not overly amused, but will see how it goes when I get home. Anyone got an address for Dell Complaints Dept. Cant fault the tech support guy i spoke to, just Dells product and returns policy.

Grrrr

The Test Results (added 23/10/08 21:20) :

I'd like to tell you that A01 firmware is the nuts and there is little or no input lag. But I cant.
The reason for this is that this monitor suffers from yet another problem. It wont stay on. It flicks in and out of Power Saving Mode while my PC boots, then just goes off when it has finished booting.
So.. currently composing another rant to the Tech Support guy. Things are going from bad to worse. Roll on monitor No.5 (assuming they will replace it again of course).

 

[bardos]

I Ordered mine saturday from OCuk, gutted if theres gonna be probs with it...Naughty Oc for claiming it has latest revision/firmware if it doesn't...

Naughty, you say? Naughty?

i would use much stronger language than that. using dictionary terminology how about liar. how about money-grubbing? how about screw the customer, get a sale, collect the money and run.

i couldn't have been clearer in my question to ocUK about the firmware. And the answer could not have been clearer.

I would never buy anything from this company.

 

[mykkk]

ordered mine before seeing this thread. It's gonna turn up on Wednesday from OCUK so will post my findings here aswell.

I really do hope I don't have the same problems - fingers crossed

 

[gazzeroo]

The Dell Tech Support guy has just phoned me back, and if I understood him correctly (he speaks very fast with a broad Irish twang) he has spoken to a Senior Technician that has said every new monitor now coming in should have the revised firmware. They have also been busy reflashing their existing stock.

He said I could either have one from their stock (no guarentee it would be new, it could be a refurb) or I could have a new one. I went for the new one as that is what I paid for. He stated that although it might say A00 on it it should be the new firmware, and even quoted the Sharpness 10% increments test to me as the only way to truly tell.

As for ordering from overclockers at the mo, I guess you will just have to pray that their stock was delivered after the firmware revisions were applied. All depends when they got them delivered I suppose. Best of luck.

Me, well I'm sitting here with fingers crossed that I will actually get a decent monitor (5th time lucky). I really cant fault the Tech Support and Customer Support I've had. They have always been willing to take back the dodgy monitor and issue a replacement swiftly. It's just Dell's products, stock and distribution that seems to be taking its time to sort itself out.

In some ways I'm fortunate that I've always had other problems on top of the input lag issue, as I am not so sure they would do a like for like replacement if it only had this problem.

Basically, if you have any probs with this monitor. Contact Overclockers first and try and get them to issue you a replacement (or money back), then if that doesnt work, deal with Dell Tech Support. Once you get through to someone who speaks the lingo, they are pretty good.

 

[mykkk]

Good luck - let us know how the 5th monitor is.

I've asked for delivery on Wednesday next week - so hopefully that delay means OCUK have new stock shipped to me.

 

[gnr26]

Doesn't matter how many new revisions they do it will still have such crap input lag . Their best one is still the A04 2407 as far as lag goes, wouldn't touch their newer ones with a barge pole.

 

[mykkk]

Monitor came from OCUK.

Sharpness increments go up in 25 increments...guess that means I still have the old firmware.

On the plus side... image quality is fantastic and to be honest, I don't notice the input lag?...yet...

Will update all as I use it.

 

[gazzeroo]

Well I got my 5th monitor yesterday. 0G286H part number, revision A00 on the box. Checked the back, made in August 08. From that moment I knew it was deffo the old firmware. Plugged it in anyway, and 25% increments. ...sigh...

So 5 monitors later, I'm back where I started. Same part number, same revision even the same manufacture date.

I mailed the Dell Tech support guy and told him he may want to take this up with the senior engineer that he spoke to, as he had quite obviously told him porkies. At the same time I was generally happy with the new monitor (no dead pixels, no power save issues, less back light and bright left sided problems), just the lag and sharpness issues left. I could send this one back to have the new firmware applied directly to it, then have it send back to me.

His response was that I couldn't do it myself (not what I asked), but that they have escalated this issue and will be contacting the manufacturing plant to query why this monitor was sent with the A00 firmware. ( What have I started ! ) Once they have received a reply from the manufacturing plant they will contact me to arrange for another swap !

I still cant fault the Dell guy. He's doing everything he can for me, and maybe... just maybe... escalating this issue will ensure that no more A00 monitors are issued (I can dream cant I).

Anyway, next time I hear from him, its possible I will get a guaranteed new A01.

Just let me know if I am boring you, and I will stop posting updates.

Got myself a HDMI cable today, so I'm going to plug my PS3 into it to see just how good it looks.

 

[brhume]

Just let me know if I am boring you, and I will stop posting updates.

Continue posting...

I'm in the exact same boat as you, except I'm "on-line" whith French-speaking Dell Tech Support.
Very very helpful... He also escalated the issue, but still no A01 on sight.

So now I've a 0G286H RevA00. I'm quite happy with it (finger crossed that I don't find an issue I didn't see yet , but till now seems quite good... well: it's my fourth one ...

Whenever the A01 is available the Dell Tech support should inform me and arrange an exchange...

 

[JeremyW]

Still no Rev A01

Hello folks,

I'm new here. Just thought I'd let you know overclockers still don't have the Rev: A01 in stock. I took advantage of the 6% discount at the end of Oct and bought a 2408WFP. But when it arrived it was a rev A00, with the 25% sharpness increments.

Overall though I'm pleased with it, I don't notice the input lag, but I do notice the Wide gamut Reds!!

What are Dell playing at? I've gone for custom RGB and turned all three down to 80 just to take the edge off the colours but they are still very vivid. What settings do other pðeople use?

Regards,

JW

 

[Memphis]

Just wanted to add myself to this thread.

Received the monitor yesterday and I love it. I have no problems with it what so ever. For the price, I couldn't have asked for better.

Wasn't aware of all this firmware stuff, so can't comment on that.

 

[gazzeroo]

Yet more interesting news....

I contacted the same Dell Tech Support guy again as monitor No.4 has been sat in my reception at work for over a week waiting to be collected. Was informed that they would arrange a special courier to pick it up on Monday. But that's not the interesting news....

I was told that monitor No.6 (!!) would be sorted out soon to replace monitor no.5 that I currently have at home (generally happy with it apart from the input lag). What they are going to do is get the next monitor sent to Glasgow first so that they can test that it has the new firmware before shipping it to me !! I think I must have hit the jackpot when I stumbled across this Tech Support guy. He actually seems to be trying everything to keep me happy

I replied to his message to try and get them to test the firmware, look for dead pixels, check the backlight bleed, check the power save issue with the DVI connection, and ensure that it is supplied with all the correct cables. Bit cheeky i know, but if all these problems are not present, then I think I may well end up with a really CRACKING monitor (i.e. the monitor I thought I bought all those months ago).

Watch this space.

 

[mykkk]

Good luck dude!

Here's hoping... must say I haven't noticed any input lag on mine and i've got the A00 version with 25% sharpness increments.

Again used the 6% deal to purchase.

 

[Heinz57]

Well, I'm on my 5th monitor now, and this time I demanded a brand new one. The monitor won't always come on though and the card reader doesn't always work.

Does anyone have an issue with a buzzing noise? If I scroll to the grid halfway down this page http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm my monitor starts screaming at me; soon as I navigate away it stops...

 

[nerdbloke]

Some news over at the Dell forums, confirmation from a member of the Dell team (Jimmy P) that the factory this side of the pond in the Czech Republic is finally starting to build with the A01 firmware

2408WFP Continued, thread. Page 66

The factories in Europe started producing A01 monitors about the 3rd week in October

 

[gazzeroo]

Well, I'm on my 5th monitor now, and this time I demanded a brand new one. The monitor won't always come on though and the card reader doesn't always work.

Does anyone have an issue with a buzzing noise? If I scroll to the grid halfway down this page http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm my monitor starts screaming at me; soon as I navigate away it stops...

No, none of the 5 monitors I have had have buzzed. Well 4 of them havent, I dont know about the one that wouldnt power on thanks to the Display Saving.

Card reader !? That's one thing I've never checked. Must admit, it's well down on the list of things that I'm bothered about. Probably wont even use it when I get the next one.

Some news over at the Dell forums, confirmation from a member of the Dell team (Jimmy P) that the factory this side of the pond in the Czech Republic is finally starting to build with the A01 firmware

2408WFP Continued, thread. Page 66

That's great news. YTF has it taken them so long ? USA, Canada and even the Aussies seem to have had them for ages.

All the hassle is finally paying off. I just hope that the A01 input lag is actually better. Obviously it's not going to be perfect, but better will do.
If Dell leave me with both monitors for a couple of days (as they tend to do) then maybe I will run both side by side and see if I can get some photos/vids of the difference.

Until the next time. Have fun.

 

[jesteroony]

Hi I haven't posted on here for a while but I purchased a 2408, I nearly didn't because of the varying reviews but I'm happy to say that I'm genuinely impressed..
No noticeable back light bleed, colours are vibrant, no ghosting and i love my games im currently playing:
Grid
Company Of Heroes
Farcry 2
Bioshock
Gears of war
COD 4
Left for dead demo
World in conflict
And EVERY GAME looks great, I wouldn't have even noticed the input lag unless it was always mentioned..
Tbh if you put ANY tft screen under microscope you could spend all day slagging it off..
I know cos I'm a hardware tart and iv'e had a fair few screens..
The real problem with it is the same for all tft's and thats the refresh rate, if you have good pc and you have vsync off and your getting well over 60fps then your going to get screen tear but that as I said is the same with them all unless you want an old fogey crt..

I say to anyone who's an everage gamer , who does a bit of this n that and wants there wallpaper to jump out at them and wants a 24'' look no further and heres the punchline mines an a00...

Btw be careful of oc uk, superb website, absolutely terrible customer support... Gtg now theres some zombies that need slaying in 1920 resolution!!!!

 

[makebelieve]

I made an order with Dell on the 5th of November but recieved two A00's. It also said built in September 2008 and in the Czech Republic. So I am thinking that they havent began to send them out or the chain of products has still A00's in them.

I'm going to ask them to send me two A01 as replacements as I have found that both screens have a red hue and one of them has a 3 dead pixels in a row.

I ordered in November thinking that maybe they have A01's in production, but now I may even return and buy in 2009 to make sure I get A01's.

 

[Usama]

I have got this monitor today, what settings should I use?

 

[makebelieve]

returning them

After over 2 hours of phone dealings with Dell I managed to arrange a pickup to return these. Sadly Dell UK (Europe) cannot guarantee me A01's, so I have to return them and wait several months before getting them. Although I am considering Apple 23" (S-IPS) panels now.

(Dell customer service in Glasgow was great, but the Indian call centre has been absolutely useless).

Hope all goes well.

Usama - I think you should try and calibrate your screen, either using a Huey or Spider or do it initialy manualy. It will probably be far too bright, so you may want to reduce brightness to 50% and contrast to a max of 75% - but see what suits you. Which Revision of the 2408 did you recieve Usama? (It should either say it on the back of the screen or the sharpness ratings should be in increments of 10, not 24, in the OSD menu).