Gateway's FPD2185W: a 21in widescreen 2005fpw killer!

I'm not sure exactly what the problem was. I did check and see that the PiP source was set up properly. It still wouldn't work. I did a reset to factory default settings and now it works. I didn't want to reset as I had taken the time to set up the color, gamma, etc, but once it reset PiP works fine.

On a side note, I do notice some color banding when blending colors, but this is not uncommon on LCD's. I recently used Samsung's 960BF - a 19" LCD that retails for about $600CDN and it has the same issues. The Samsung had more frequent bands than the Gateway indicating that the Samsung blends less colors.

While the FDP2185W isn't perfect, it's better than a lot of LCD's we've taken a look at.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.
 
JesusFreak said:
I'm not sure exactly what the problem was. I did check and see that the PiP source was set up properly. It still wouldn't work. I did a reset to factory default settings and now it works. I didn't want to reset as I had taken the time to set up the color, gamma, etc, but once it reset PiP works fine.

On a side note, I do notice some color banding when blending colors, but this is not uncommon on LCD's. I recently used Samsung's 960BF - a 19" LCD that retails for about $600CDN and it has the same issues. The Samsung had more frequent bands than the Gateway indicating that the Samsung blends less colors.

While the FDP2185W isn't perfect, it's better than a lot of LCD's we've taken a look at.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Click to expand...

Have you tried setting the refresh rate to 75? It works for some people to help the banding. It worked well for me and i do notice a quicker response from my mouse.
 
i think this LCD is bad for gaming..If people state there is no ghosting "you are blind" tested this on World of Warcraft, FarCry.

the mountians in W0W were blurry the second you move..farcry was not that bad but noticable.

Not 1 dead pixle, fair about of back lighting on 4 corners..

was set to 75hz connected thru dvi cable.

system specs

amd 64 3200+
2) evga 6800gt

Still in search of a good gaming lcd. Might just go out and grab a 80lb crt..

Good friend of mine has this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179014 . I used this lcd on a comparable system...i did not see any blurr what so ever?
 
I have been looking at both the gateway 2185 and the dell 2005fpw for a few weeks

I just moved back in with the folks and let her keep the 32" tv because i dotn have room for it here, so the monitor i get needs to be able to properly display images for my consoles as well as a fair amount of pc gaming

At this point I plan to pick it up thursday as long as my best buy friend comes through..still waiting to hear of the actual discount but i know its atleast $80 and as much as $150...which puts it at about the price of the dell+xbox360 VGA cable.

Just need to know a few things if anyone here can help me

with the gateway, when I play my Xbox360 will i have the option to put black bars on the top and bottom or will it automatically stretch the image from 16x9 to 16x10?

from every review ive read the gateway has had excellent picture quality via component inputs, anyone agree/disagree?

where is the cheapest place to find a DVI-D cable?
note:i will be using a 7800GT

what would be the best way to get a standard coaxel cable input into the monitor....and would this effect the already piss poor quality of a 480i signal?

Thanks for any help
 
I did not read all 55 pages of this thread, but I went about halfway through, so forgive me if this issue was ever addressed. I have the Gateway monitor - hooked to my 7800GT through the DVI. Everything on the system is fine - played some COD2 as well. No issues. If I put in a DVD, once the DVD starts, the screen blanks. It doesn't lose the signal, it is like it cannot display it. Pretty much like the monitor going out of range. I have the resolution set to 1680x1050. Also, I am not even running the DVD in full screen - just in a window. I know it has to be with the new monitor, because DVD's play fine on the old 17" CRT I have, and I also just watched the same DVD (LOTR TT) on my Sony 24" Widescreen CRT and that worked fine too.

Anyone see this problem? Am I doing something wrong? I have many years as a PC tech and haven't ever seen anything like this. Once it happens, I have to down the PC (power hold) to get the picture to come back on the monitor.

I really like this a lot, but this is a real problem.

Also, as far as ghosting - I didn't notice even one issue in COD2. The reviews all say this monitor is great for gaming. I would agree at this point.
 
GodfatherX said:
I have been looking at both the gateway 2185 and the dell 2005fpw for a few weeks

I just moved back in with the folks and let her keep the 32" tv because i dotn have room for it here, so the monitor i get needs to be able to properly display images for my consoles as well as a fair amount of pc gaming

At this point I plan to pick it up thursday as long as my best buy friend comes through..still waiting to hear of the actual discount but i know its atleast $80 and as much as $150...which puts it at about the price of the dell+xbox360 VGA cable.

Just need to know a few things if anyone here can help me

with the gateway, when I play my Xbox360 will i have the option to put black bars on the top and bottom or will it automatically stretch the image from 16x9 to 16x10?

from every review ive read the gateway has had excellent picture quality via component inputs, anyone agree/disagree?

where is the cheapest place to find a DVI-D cable?
note:i will be using a 7800GT

what would be the best way to get a standard coaxel cable input into the monitor....and would this effect the already piss poor quality of a 480i signal?

Thanks for any help
Click to expand...

This monitor definitely has 1:1 scaling, so you have the option to put black bars on the top and bottom when using it with the 360 to get a 16:9 image if you desire.

The component picture quality is great, albeit slightly darker than I'd like it to be. The only 360 game I have an issue with darkness though is PGR3, which isn't true 720p; it's rendered at some weird resolution and then upconverted to preserve the framerate. Every other 360 game I've tried looks superb on this thing, and I'm sure the same would hold true for any other devices you hook up through component.

As for a cheap DVI-D cable, scour eBay. I scored a Dell OEM DVI-D single-link (dual-link not necessary) cable for like $8 shipped.

I'm not sure of the best way to get coaxial input into the monitor, as I've only tried it one way. I ran the coaxial cable to my VCR, and then ran composite cables from the VCR to the monitor. The image was surprisingly decent - albeit not as good as on a plain TV - probably thanks to the fancy-schmancy DCDi chip that helps with these kinds of things. I hope I've helped.
 
I have my PC hooked to the DVI connection, my HD cable box hooked to the component inputs. TV is very nice IQ and HD channels, well....AWESOME....


....although I think I might exchange this one, everything has been perfect except the USB hub has now refused to operate. I get a "usb device has failed/error" crap when I plug something into it....it used to work fine....I am trouble shooting though, it might be a system conflict.....
 
Well after having this monitor - it is NO killer. Unless you mean it kills all the details when you are looking at really dark things, that is if you like looking at your monitor head on. I returned mine. I loved the picture size, but hated the loss of image.

I decided on the Samsung 940MW and I am WAY impressed. I got it for $410 - no rebates, no shipping waits, nothing. Wireless remote, PIP, very good included speakers, awesome menu options, VERY bright, and I can see everything - even when the environment is dark. The ONLY downside to this monitor is the resolution - 1440x900. If they made a 20" that did 1680x1050, THAT would be a killer.
 
inthewolfden said:
I did not read all 55 pages of this thread, but I went about halfway through, so forgive me if this issue was ever addressed. I have the Gateway monitor - hooked to my 7800GT through the DVI. Everything on the system is fine - played some COD2 as well. No issues. If I put in a DVD, once the DVD starts, the screen blanks. It doesn't lose the signal, it is like it cannot display it. Pretty much like the monitor going out of range. I have the resolution set to 1680x1050. Also, I am not even running the DVD in full screen - just in a window. I know it has to be with the new monitor, because DVD's play fine on the old 17" CRT I have, and I also just watched the same DVD (LOTR TT) on my Sony 24" Widescreen CRT and that worked fine too.

Anyone see this problem? Am I doing something wrong? I have many years as a PC tech and haven't ever seen anything like this. Once it happens, I have to down the PC (power hold) to get the picture to come back on the monitor.

I really like this a lot, but this is a real problem.

Also, as far as ghosting - I didn't notice even one issue in COD2. The reviews all say this monitor is great for gaming. I would agree at this point.
Click to expand...


What software are you using play DVD's? Before inserting a DVD, launch your DVD player application and see if there are any resolution / refresh settings in it. Also, your DVD player app may not be compatible with 1680 x 1050. Try first setting your desktop to 1280 x 1024 and retry the DVD. Let the group know what your solution was.

Tim-in-CA
 
I tried EVERYTHING - 3 different apps, all kinds of settings - it was the monitor. Got my new one (the Samsung 940MW) and it works great, no problems. In my perspectives (although a lower rez) it is easily 2x the monitor for 2/3 rds the price. I love it. I am glad I switched. Saved over $200 and am more happy with it.
 
where did you get teh samsung at?

newegg has it listed at $530

and 2 pro reviews have said it has bad HDTV support which is a important part for me (360)

thanks for the guy who answered my questions

few more if you dont mind...have you tried any 480p signals....such as any gamecube games that support it?...if so quality

also as far as setting it to 1:1 scaling....is that a option in the monitor itself?

the one i played with at best buy and couldnt find the option to do so, I wont acutally be building my new gaming rig for a few weeks, but want this monitor ASAP for 360 gaming

as far as PGR3 it has some really weird res and upscales to 720p res

is there a guide in this thread anywhere that gives a good instructions on how to adjust color, brightness, gamma settings....i already know about the refresh rate

thanks again

oh and my 360 GT is: GodfatherX360
 
GodfatherX said:
where did you get teh samsung at?

newegg has it listed at $530

and 2 pro reviews have said it has bad HDTV support which is a important part for me (360)

thanks for the guy who answered my questions

few more if you dont mind...have you tried any 480p signals....such as any gamecube games that support it?...if so quality

also as far as setting it to 1:1 scaling....is that a option in the monitor itself?

the one i played with at best buy and couldnt find the option to do so, I wont acutally be building my new gaming rig for a few weeks, but want this monitor ASAP for 360 gaming

as far as PGR3 it has some really weird res and upscales to 720p res

is there a guide in this thread anywhere that gives a good instructions on how to adjust color, brightness, gamma settings....i already know about the refresh rate

thanks again

oh and my 360 GT is: GodfatherX360
Click to expand...

I don't know much about actual HDTV viewing (I don't get the service), but it performs wonderfully with the 720p signals I feed it from my 360. I tried 1080i too, which this thing also supports, and it looks pretty much the same.

I haven't tried any 480p signals on it yet - I don't have a component cable for the XBOX anymore, the GC cable is too expensive, and PS2 480p is too much of a hassle. :p

The 1:1 scaling is an option on the monitor itself, yes. It's under "Video Adjust" -> "Video Scaling."

As for a guide, I can't help you there. The only thing I fiddled around with is brightness. Then again, I'm no connoisseur of color; it looked fine to me out of the box.
:p

I'll add you to my XBL buddy list when I get a chance to. I don't really play much online (especially now that my gold subscription ran out), but I'll be down for whatever if you see me on. My tag's EternalVendetta.
 
I got my Samsung from Staples - $449.99 - and they accepted the online $40 off $200 coupon from Office Depot that I printed out and brought it - VERY COOL!

I have not tried a 360 on it, but on another thread a guy did and posted pics - looks awesome. I don't think the HDTV picture sucks (based on everything I have read on it). I have not tried it myself though. I think this monitor ROCKS so far.

If the Dell 2407 did PIP I would consider that, but without it I am not interested. I love being able to watch TV on my monitor in PIP without my PC knowing anything about it. Very awesome feature. Also, the 4:3 mode on the monitor, with scaling as well, should handle everything we need.
 
Hi all -

Did anyone ever solve the problem of getting Windows to recognize this monitor? (beyond just a Plug and Play model). Until I do that, I can't seem to get it to go to 75hz refresh.

Secondly, anyone else have problems running at 1280x720? My whole screen goes green when I do that. Odd, considering it's a common resolution.
 
nekrosoft13 said:
all the people switching to samsungs, you do realize that this gateway has a samsung display?
Click to expand...



Yeah, some people think Gateway actually makes the panel or something :rolleyes: :D


You can add/force a custom 75hz refresh via the vid card driver control panel.....
 
No problems gaming here. Not in Half-Life 2 nor my racing simulators.

Looks wonderful.

-Larry

shagvirus said:
i think this LCD is bad for gaming..If people state there is no ghosting "you are blind" tested this on World of Warcraft, FarCry.

the mountians in W0W were blurry the second you move..farcry was not that bad but noticable.

Not 1 dead pixle, fair about of back lighting on 4 corners..

was set to 75hz connected thru dvi cable.

system specs

amd 64 3200+
2) evga 6800gt

Still in search of a good gaming lcd. Might just go out and grab a 80lb crt..

Good friend of mine has this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824179014 . I used this lcd on a comparable system...i did not see any blurr what so ever?
Click to expand...
 
Its proly all ready been talked about here but how is this monitor @ ghosting I tried this out on a gateway with an ati x1300 card @ my local circuit city with nfsu 2 demo doom 3 demo and 3dmark05 and didnt se any ghosting im going back next week to puck it up so any reason why i shouldnt. I mostly play fps and racers i didnt notice any ghosting has any one notice any thing bad about it. thanxs
 
TheRapture said:
Yeah, some people think Gateway actually makes the panel or something :rolleyes: :D


You can add/force a custom 75hz refresh via the vid card driver control panel.....
Click to expand...

i find out funny, lets switch from one samsung to another samsung :D
 
t3chyo888 said:
Its proly all ready been talked about here but how is this monitor @ ghosting I tried this out on a gateway with an ati x1300 card @ my local circuit city with nfsu 2 demo doom 3 demo and 3dmark05 and didnt se any ghosting im going back next week to puck it up so any reason why i shouldnt. I mostly play fps and racers i didnt notice any ghosting has any one notice any thing bad about it. thanxs
Click to expand...


I had the Gateway, didn't see any ghosting. I took it back though because if you look at darker images head on, they lose detail and contrast. If you look at them from an angle off to the side, the details return. This started to drive me nuts since you're obviously going to be sitting right in front of this thing, which paradoxically is not the ideal viewing position. Go figure.

I'm much happier with my Dell 2007WFP that I just got yesterday. Cheaper too.

EDIT: forget the Dell, it's got lots of banding problems. Seems the Viewsonic is the only alternative in my price range.
 
I had the gateway so far for about 3 months now. I like it alot, however like the previous poster said; the dark spot can be annoying at times. If you play alot of dark games, then this monitor isn't for u. For everything else, its perfect
 
I just wanted to come back here and talk about the nightmarish Gateway support experience I had.

I was one of the many people who had the DVI issue, my PC would not recognize the monitor as PnP through the DVI, and the DVI did not work at all in my ATI card, it worked on a new nVidia card I got.

Back in January Gateway agreed to replace my monitor. At first they sent me some packing slips to sent them my monitor ahead of time and wait for a replacement. I said no way, I want advance replacement so they again agreed. So I waited and waited and each time I inquired they told me it was on backorder. I asked them again and again several times each time sounding more upset and the email support people just kept telling me "the issue has been escalated to the highest levels, just keep waiting". Finally I snapped and filled out all the feedback forms I could find and game them the lowest marks and wrote nasty comments explaining the situation. Within two days I received a new monitor and got a few voice mails asking whether it's ok now. When the new monitor came the box was actually damaged and the cable managment plastic piece had come off. I stuck it back on and it seems to hold for now.

I called back after testing the monitor and said "what are you going to do to make up for the 4 months of warranty I lost?" They said they can't do anything, this is a consummer product and it only has a 1 year warranty. I said that's not good enough, so they agreed to extend my warranty until next april.

I hope to God I never have to deal with Gateway support again, and I'm not even going to bother with the email support, every reply I got from those people was misleading and useless, their entire purpose is to throw you off, stall, and waste your time. The phone people seemed more helpful.

The new monitor doesn't have the DVI issue anymore, it's verison 1.1.1 and the serial number is in the 19000's as opposed to the 009XX I had before. I really hope they identified and fixed the DVI issue.

I got to say though, I still love this monitor. I really wish it wouldn't have been so problematic. Maybe I'm willing to go through more pain than others.




On a side note, I was finally hoping that EZ tune would work for me this time but it's still no go. I have two DVI inputs on my EGVA 7900 GT, I use one for my HDTV and one for the monitor. If I use the lower DVI input for the monitor the TV works at 720p but EZtune doesn't see the Gateway monitor. If I swap them, EZ tune sees the Gateway but my TV can't do 720p. I went through all this crap because I really wanted auto-pivot to work, and now I'm back to using manual pivot. Not only that, but if you install EZtune, you can't pivot the monitor using the nVidia drivers anymore.

Does anyone know any other auto-pivot utility that works with this monitor? Or a way to get EZTune to look at one DVI port or the other? I suspect that EZtune always looks at the top DVI port on my video card, but I can't plug in this monitor into the top port because my TV needs to be plugged in there in order to work at 720p.

PS. Whenever I install EZtune, I get an application crash at the end of the setup, but then EZTune still appears to have installed correctly. Anyone else get that?
 
By the way, here's a fact about EZtune that's good to know: my dad recently purchased a Gateway system that came bundled with this monitor. It was all setup for auto-pivot out of the box.

Did it come with EZtune pre-installed? Nope. They had nView shortcuts preset to manually pivot the screen resolution, <Ctrl>-<Left> and <Ctrl-Up>.

If Gateway doesn't even pre-install it on their own systems you know how much confidence they have in it...
 
Update: after a quick email to EZTune support (actually, Portrait Displays - http://www.portrait.com/dtune/gwy/enu/contents.html) they suggested that I enable spanning monitor support, since EZTune is only supposed to work in that mode. I use my TV as the second monitor and I normally have that display disabled.

This time, I started with EZTune uninstalled:
1. upgraded my nVidia drivers to 84.21 from 81.89
2. extended my desktop to my TV
3. installed EZTune
4. saw that it worked while the desktop was spanned across both monitors
5. disabled my TV
6. EZTune still works, even if I switch between single monitor mode and clone mode when I want to watch the TV! When I come to my monitor display I can still auto-pivot using EZTune, which is what I wanted all along.

So now, finally, everything works 100%. :)
 
I am considering purchasing this monitor for my birthday (May 30th). Is it worth it the 600 dollar asking price? Also, what about using the HDMI out on the newer video cards (7900) with the HD input on this monitor?
 
DarkStar02 said:
I am considering purchasing this monitor for my birthday (May 30th). Is it worth it the 600 dollar asking price? Also, what about using the HDMI out on the newer video cards (7900) with the HD input on this monitor?
Click to expand...

Might want to consider the Samsung 215TW. It uses the same panel, but costs only $550 and has a 3-year manufactorer warrenty as opposed to Gateways 1-year warrenty.
 
zero002021 said:
Might want to consider the Samsung 215TW. It uses the same panel, but costs only $550 and has a 3-year manufactorer warrenty as opposed to Gateways 1-year warrenty.
Click to expand...


Is it not HD though?
 
zero002021 said:
It's "HD" as well. It's HDCP compliant and has a native resolution of 1680x1050, just like the Gateway.
Click to expand...
What exactly is HDCP? Does that mean I can use the HD output on a 7900gt with that input for superior picture quality?
 
Well the driver does install, and it got rid of all the annoying default and plug and play monitors in the device manager, however the nvidia driver still sees it as a FPD2581W. Gonna leave it alone and see how it does. Pooldoc
 
zero002021 said:
It's "HD" as well. It's HDCP compliant and has a native resolution of 1680x1050, just like the Gateway.
Click to expand...


The component input on it can only go up to 480p. If not for that, I would be getting this monitor. I think however, that I am going to get the Gateway instead. Anybody play the xbox 360 on it with VGA cables? How does it look? The official Microsoft VGA cables seem to wash out the color. Do they do so with the gateway monitor?
 
Anybody have some 360 pics with the Gateway? I've seen Oblivion and PGR3 on it. PGR3 looked amazing. Oblivion was wicked dark until i turned the monitor brightness up all the way as well as the in game brightness, lol.
 
Lord Rahl said:
The component input on it can only go up to 480p. If not for that, I would be getting this monitor. I think however, that I am going to get the Gateway instead. Anybody play the xbox 360 on it with VGA cables? How does it look? The official Microsoft VGA cables seem to wash out the color. Do they do so with the gateway monitor?
Click to expand...

Yup, colors are washed out a little bit with the VGA cable but better than component on this guy. I had it for about 1 week trying to tweak it as much as possible but with component on this guy everything is just too d-mn dark.

If you are buying this for the Xbox 360 I'd reconsider. The only way around the dark problem is VGA or if the game itself has a contrast adjustment setting while you can adjust it in the game.

Plus the color gradient problem, PQ and black levels drove me crazy. Returned it even though I got it for about $400.

Got myself a NEC 20wmgx2 and couldn't be happier.
 
Belzebutt said:
The new monitor doesn't have the DVI issue anymore, it's verison 1.1.1 and the serial number is in the 19000's as opposed to the 009XX I had before. I really hope they identified and fixed the DVI issue.
Click to expand...

when was your monitor manufactured?
this is my 5th monitor because of the DVI problem and im wondering if i might be in the clear now if they fixed the problem in yours.

mine is dec 2005
 
SpecR1 said:
when was your monitor manufactured?
this is my 5th monitor because of the DVI problem and im wondering if i might be in the clear now if they fixed the problem in yours.

mine is dec 2005
Click to expand...
Mine says Feb 2006, week 9 according to EZTune.

By the way, I just downloaded a new version of EZTune and it doesn't mess up either of the games I tried... crossing my fingers.
 
Where do you guys download the EZTune software from? I can't find it on the gateway site.

Belzebutt said:
Mine says Feb 2006, week 9 according to EZTune.

By the way, I just downloaded a new version of EZTune and it doesn't mess up either of the games I tried... crossing my fingers.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top