HP Spectre 13" OLED Screen issue (Screendoor effect, warm/yellowish whites)

[jsan1]

I just received this laptop today and I noticed that the display has a very noticeable screendoor effect. I read somewhere that this is due to the digitizer for the stylus/pen. Is this true? Is there a way to fix this?

These micro dots or crosshatching effect or screendoor effect is really noticeable on white color.

Along with that, the color is pretty warm. The white is yellowish and I went through all the color profiles.

Below is a picture of what it looks like. It might look exaggerated in the picture, but I can see those dots with my eyes, being about a foot away from the screen.

[jsan1]

I'm guessing not many people have the OLED version

[Riddle_Decipher]

@jsan1 Here's what you need to do, to identify the issue and resolve it accordingly:

• If not done already, check if it works fine on the BIOS screen to identify if it's either a hardware or a software issue:
  • If it works fine on the BIOS (Accessed while tapping F10 during a restart) it's a software issue & I suggest creating a new user account to check if that works better, for starters)
  • However, if it doesn't work within the BIOS either, I'm afraid it's a hardware malfunction.

While you respond to that, I have a few more steps that should help: 

Perform a power reset (no data loss) using these steps: Click here, proceed to next step if this works

Attempt to run a test from the HP hardware diagnostic tool, using this link: Click here for details.

If the issue appears on the diagnostics, it could again, determine a hardware failure,

If they don't appear on bios & the hardware tests passed: please update the BIOS & Chip-set drivers from the HP website using this link: Click here

if the issue persists, reinstall windows using the recovery partition or the recovery media to fix the issue,
use this link for details on performing the recovery: Click here

P.S: Welcome to HP Community 😉

Keep us posted,

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, 

Give us a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on this post, 

Have a great day!

[jbf153]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-spectre-x360-2-in-1-13-3-4k-oled-ultra-hd-touch-screen-laptop-intel-...

Head over here and read the first review, the reviewer goes into great detail about a number of things including the display. The biggest thing he noted that I haven't seen yet on other forums/posts about the screendoor issue is that HDR color is turned off on battery power by default when you get your computer. I went through the below instructions and saw a noticeable improvement in the diamond pattern on white color. You can still see it if you shove your face 5 inches from the screen, but with the laptop on your lap it's noticeably better.

Update: Turning on "Play HDR games and apps" in the Windows HD Color Settings appears to disable the HP Display Control which now only offers "Native" as an option, which is strange.

"Out of the box the screen looks absolutely awful. Like 'how did anyone approve this' awful. For some reason mine shipped without HDR (high dynamic range) being enabled. To make sure yours has it enabled type 'HDR' into the search bar and choose 'Windows HD Color Settings' and enable HDR across all of the apps and desktop. Then after a second your screen will go from a red-heavy mess to looking like a very, very nice display (it might also explain the negative comments about the display itself because the 'diamond' pattern disappeared when I did this). (It also allows for HDR Netflix, and YouTube when using Chrome and HDR videos which look spectacular in 4K). (When you're in the HDR menu you can also change the SDR display. I bumped mine down by about 12 (50 ->38) to make everything a little whiter (cooler) as it's quite warm (yellowish) out of the box with HDR enabled."

[Riddle_Decipher]

@jbf153 I understand your concern and I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP.

They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number.

Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact.

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Community's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Community.

[Alpiner159]

I am also observing the crosshatch/screendoor effect on my Spectre x360 13 OLED. Is this to be expected due to the display type or digitizer or this not normal?

[jbf153]

Wanted to follow up on my original post, as I know I spent a lot of (alright, too much) time surfing message boards about this topic. That's what you do when you spend over a thousand dollars on something and there's QC issues. I ended up returning my original order and getting a replacement, as the screen door effect from the digitizer layer was simply too evident when viewing any content with a white background. I'm happy to say that the OLED screen is much improved on the replacement version I got. Now, if I shove my face 6 inches from the screen, I can still faintly see it, but it's absolutely 100% better than the screen on the computer I returned. I know this because I still have my 2017 hp spectre x360 1080p that this is replacing, and save the lower resolution the digitizer layer looks roughly the same as on my new OLED and I had no problems with it as my daily driver for 2+ years. I also have a 15" Microsoft Surface Book 2 for my work computer, and with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 3240x2160 panel with a digitizer layer, that's 8+ hours a day staring at that gigantic, beautiful screen. So I know what a premium screen with pen capabilities should look like. Now with this Spectre being OLED vs. the Book 2's LCD panel I will also say that this screen is the best screen I've ever seen on a laptop, hands down. I will also say that HP customer service was extremely helpful and professional, they didn't attempt to challenge my opinion on the original laptop being defective and promptly processed my exchange no questions asked. Kudos to them for great service and making things right.

[Andpec]

Hi,

I have just received my new Spectre x360 with the same display and I also got the exact same issue. It is quite noticeable, have the HP support team or anyone else found a software solution for this or is this a hardware problem?

Thank you.

[Hipee]

Have you read the thread and tried what was suggested?

[Andpec]

Yes, I have followed all the steps here and from other posts in this forum. Nothing worked. I can still see the pattern even when I am in the BIOS. The granularity of the pattern can be specially seen with white backgrounds.

I was hoping to fix this through some software settings but it looks like a hardware issue.