Is the Dell Latitude D 520 Screen an IPS/Flexview screen?

[Sudevan]

I recently picked up a 2006 vintage Dell Latitude D 520 laptop in excellent condition. I had set up a variety of old Dell laptops with Linux Mint OSs a few years ago for a charitable organization, and this particular D520 was the office machine. Last week I helped this organization replace it with a brand new Dell Inspiron mini desktop which is now up and running. In return for all of the work I had done for this group, I was given the D520, mainly because I had expressed an interest in its gorgeous SXGA+ screen. It is a 15" screen that looks very much like the Flexview screens I have on my Thinkpad. I have not been able to find out whether this SXGA+ screen is really an IPS panel (I understand that Flexview was a name used by IBM for their IPS panels). The Dell Forums did not give me any leads, so I am wondering if anyone knows, or has a suggestion that might point me in the right direction.

The D520 specs are as follows, mostly obtained from the setup options displayed with F2 on the Dell:

Processor: Intel Core (2) Duo Processor 1.66GHz
Memory: 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Hard disk: 80 GB
Optical Drive: CD-RW/DVD Combo
Display: 15” Super XGA+ Native Resolution: 1400 x 1050
Wifi: Intel Wireless
OS: Linux Mint 17 (I tried to load Mint 18.3 to see if that would work, but I am having trouble with the optical drive. I have an external drive, so I might give that a try, although Mint 17 works fine, so I might just leave it at that).

[Thinkpad4by3]

If you can see the screen broad as daylight at an 85 degree tilt from normal, it is IPS Flexview. I believe in 2006, all IPS panels were all about the same, or pretty darn good.

[axur-delmeria]

Since you're using Linux, you can install the read-edid package, then run get-edid from a terminal with root privilege.

If it's successful you'll get a dump of the panel's EDID, the last part of which is the model # of the panel, like LP150E05-A2K1, HV150UX1-100 or something like that. Feed the model # to google and you'll get some good info.

[Sudevan]

If you can see the screen broad as daylight at an 85 degree tilt from normal, it is IPS Flexview. I believe in 2006, all IPS panels were all about the same, or pretty [censored] good.

Indeed I can! And with the screen in a normal viewing position, I can see it very clearly even after moving to one side quite a bit. So the screen must be IPS Flexview.

[Sudevan]

Since you're using Linux, you can install the read-edid package, then run get-edid from a terminal with root privilege.

If it's successful you'll get a dump of the panel's EDID, the last part of which is the model # of the panel, like LP150E05-A2K1, HV150UX1-100 or something like that. Feed the model # to google and you'll get some good info.

Thanks, I'll try and do that. I had no idea Linux would put out information like the model numbers of panels. Will the dump pf the panel's EDID tell me the maker too, like LG or Boe-Hydis? Or will that come with through Google?

[wujstefan]

I'd bet my money it's not IPS but SHARP TN screen with ASV as long as we are speaking of DELL laptop.

Run Hwinfo, make a report and check screen model. Swing it into google + panelook and you've got it.
Even if it's IPS, it's not a Flexview. These were IBM screens only.

[axur-delmeria]

Thanks, I'll try and do that. I had no idea Linux would put out information like the model numbers of panels. Will the dump pf the panel's EDID tell me the maker too, like LG or Boe-Hydis? Or will that come with through Google?

It's between Google and accumulated information.

Each manufacturer has its own scheme when assigning model numbers, but usually, it's like:

[1-3 letter prefix][panel size][model] - [variant]

Examples:

LP154WU1-TLB1
HV150UX1-100


B121EW03 V.6

The manufacturer can be identified through the prefix:
LTN --> Samsung
LP --> LG (used to be LG Philips)
B --> AU Optronics
HT or HV --> Boe Hydis
LTD --> Toshiba

[Sudevan]

Thanks, I'll try and do that. I had no idea Linux would put out information like the model numbers of panels. Will the dump pf the panel's EDID tell me the maker too, like LG or Boe-Hydis? Or will that come with through Google?

It's between Google and accumulated information.

Each manufacturer has its own scheme when assigning model numbers, but usually, it's like:

[1-3 letter prefix][panel size][model] - [variant]

Examples:

LP154WU1-TLB1
HV150UX1-100


B121EW03 V.6

The manufacturer can be identified through the prefix:
LTN --> Samsung
LP --> LG (used to be LG Philips)
B --> AU Optronics
HT or HV --> Boe Hydis
LTD --> Toshiba

OK, I tried loading read-edid and that worked fine from the package manager. I ran get-edid and it gave me no information except to say that "no buses have an EDID, mmap/dev/zero:operation not permitted, and error initialising real-mode interface" I played around with suffixes and tried some other commands suggested by the Linux mint sites, but no dice at all!

[Sudevan]

I'd bet my money it's not IPS but SHARP TN screen with ASV as long as we are speaking of DELL laptop.

Run Hwinfo, make a report and check screen model. Swing it into google + panelook and you've got it.
Even if it's IPS, it's not a Flexview. These were IBM screens only.

I tried running hwinfo and it did not work. The terminal suggested installing another package and running hinfo. The install went fine, but hinfo drew a blank. I tried hwinfo again, but to no effect. Maybe I am not doing something right, my terminal command skills are very basic.

It seems to me there must be a simpler way --perhaps a chart somewhere, like the TP Handbooks that will take an MTM number and generate all sorts of detailed information. Or perhaps that is hoping for too much?

[wujstefan]

Weirdo. Got any TP flexview home to compare? It's color that will differ between Sharp w/ASV and FV IPS.

[axur-delmeria]

OK, I tried loading read-edid and that worked fine from the package manager. I ran get-edid and it gave me no information except to say that "no buses have an EDID, mmap/dev/zero:operation not permitted, and error initialising real-mode interface" I played around with suffixes and tried some other commands suggested by the Linux mint sites, but no dice at all!

Did you run it as root, like "sudo get-edid"?

OTOH, it's possible that it's like the T4x series, where the LCD panels don't have EDID at all.

[Tasurinchi]

Normally I open the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and look for a string called "EDID", most of the times (at least in my ThinkPads) the panel model is listed there.

[axur-delmeria]

Normally I open the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and look for a string called "EDID", most of the times (at least in my ThinkPads) the panel model is listed there.

I tried that out just now, this is what I find:

Code: Select all

[    18.008] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "LGD", prod id 728

Not that helpful, but at least the manufacturer can be identified (LGD --> LG Display).

[Sudevan]

OK, I tried loading read-edid and that worked fine from the package manager. I ran get-edid and it gave me no information except to say that "no buses have an EDID, mmap/dev/zero:operation not permitted, and error initialising real-mode interface" I played around with suffixes and tried some other commands suggested by the Linux mint sites, but no dice at all!

Did you run it as root, like "sudo get-edid"?

OTOH, it's possible that it's like the T4x series, where the LCD panels don't have EDID at all.

I just ran it with the sudo command and it did rather more, but in the end it failed before giving me panel information. Here is the output from the sudo get-edid command:

This is read-edid version 3.0.1. Prepare for some fun.
Attempting to use i2c interface
Looks like no busses have an EDID. Sorry!
Attempting to use the classical VBE interface

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f00 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call successful

VBE version 300
VBE string at 0x11100 "Intel(r) 82945GM Chipset Family Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS"

VBE/DDC service about to be called
Report DDC capabilities

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call successful

Monitor and video card combination does not support DDC1 transfers
Monitor and video card combination supports DDC2 transfers
0 seconds per 128 byte EDID block transfer
Screen is not blanked during DDC transfer

Reading next EDID block

VBE/DDC service about to be called
Read EDID

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x1 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call failed

The EDID data should not be trusted as the VBE call failed
Error: output block unchanged
I'm sorry nothing was successful. Maybe try some other arguments

[Sudevan]

Weirdo. Got any TP flexview home to compare? It's color that will differ between Sharp w/ASV and FV IPS.

Indeed, I have several Flexview-equipped Thinkpads. I compared the color on one of those with the Dell D520, and as far as I can tell, there is no difference. They both look equally vibrant and lustrous to me.

[Sudevan]

Normally I open the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and look for a string called "EDID", most of the times (at least in my ThinkPads) the panel model is listed there.

@Tasurinchi, thanks, I'll try this. But do you do the " /var/log/ etc.," command in the terminal as you have written it, or is it preceded by sudo ?

[Tasurinchi]

You just need to open the file "Xorg.0.log" file, which is located in the directory "/var/log/", use the file manager that is available by default in your distro