Unsolved
5 Posts
1
3344
XPS 15 9500 - Terrible Color Banding and unusable HDR
As widely reported the XPS 15 9500 seems to have a serious issue with color banding. Especially dark colors and blacks end up looking crushed and pixelated. I have the 4k model with the touch panel. I'm affect by this issue and to my knowledge this is problem on every single XPS 9500.
So far there seems to be two possible workarounds to this problem, but both are broken.
The first is to activate HDR, but windows becomes unusably laggy/choppy whenever this "feature" is turned on. It can't even manage to play at video smoothly at 24fps! Downscaling the resolution to 1920x1200 and activating the nvidia graphics card for the playback application does nothing to change this.
The second is to Restore To Original Colors in the Intel Graphics Command Center and disable Dell Premier Color. This makes the screen go black with the only option being to turn on Dell Premier Color again, either through a reboot or with an external monitor.
Both issues to these "workarounds" are widely reported as well, but as far as I can find no one has any solutions to fix these or to fix the main problem directly.
I'm running the latest bios software and updated drivers for intel specified by dell and attempted with drivers directly from intel as well. Both to no effect.
The main problem of the Color Banding is a software problem that needs to be fixed by Dell as quickly as possible. I don't understand how this can be acceptable.
If anyone has similar experiences with this problem and further solutions to try I would be very grateful!
DELL-Cares
Moderator
Moderator
•
25.4K Posts
0
January 5th, 2021 11:00
Thank you! We have received the required details.
Color Banding with Dell Premier Color Application with Intel integrated Graphics
Unfortunately, your issue appears to match up with the above Dell document. The answer is that it's working as designed for the generation.
Cyberbob87
1 Message
2
January 13th, 2021 00:00
Hey there @PhilipDam,
I was suffering from the same issue and was at the end of my patience.
However, I came across this fix: Fix Colour Banding on Dell XPS 2020 series - Guides and Tutorials - Linus Tech Tips
I followed the instructions and lo and behold, it seems to have worked. The crushed blacks in dark videos are gone and gradient banding is extremely reduced. I can still detect some banding in full screen gradient tests. However, for me, it is an acceptable level. I hope this solution also works for you.
@DELL-Cares - this issue is pervasive and is absolutely disgraceful in such expensive, premier devices. I have trawled through countless posts on this issue, on Dell forums and elsewhere. The fact that an official solution has still not manifested severely harms my trust in the Dell brand and my confidence in its technicians (though more likely its management). Your customers have sunk a lot of money into these devices - do better.
PhilipDam
5 Posts
2
January 13th, 2021 08:00
Hey @Cyberbob87 !
Thanks a lot for linking to a possible fix and the statement regarding Dell!
@DELL-Cares This really needs to be fixed with an official update as quickly as possible. Watching anything with dark scenes looks horrible to the point where it is almost unusable. Even compared to 7 year old 200$ device... I'll gladly provide photo evidence if needed.
The solution at the link might be a bit too technical for me and I'm affraid of having to reinstall everything in the event that the screen just goes black. Although, I might try it once i get desperate enough because it seems like the only fix at the moment. Even if it only works partially. I'll report back with the result if I do attempt it.
klaudi
1 Message
0
January 15th, 2022 13:00
I have the same problem, when I am watching netflix and something dark appears then it looks really awfull. how can I fix this?
DELL-Jesse L
Moderator
Moderator
•
16.9K Posts
0
January 24th, 2022 08:00
Following up to see if you sent the images to the mailbox that was sent to you in a private message?