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External monitor color is different from internal display. I have a Lenovo W520, 4270CTO, built July 8th, 2011, Win7 Pro, i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHZ. 8GB DDR3-SDRAM (1333MHz) Samsung memory, laptop display 1600x900 res. Intel HD Graphics Family, 3.76 GB Intel Video Card in processor, driver igdkm64.sys version 8.15.10.2321, 3-6-2011 and Quadro 1000M 2 GB video memory, driver nvlddmkm.sys version 8.17.12.6871, 5-25-2011, hard wired onto mobo. I have an Acer AL2223 22" widescreen 1680x1050 res. monitor connected via VGA to VGA.

Due to a billing error this particular Lenovo W520 is the second one and the first on also had this problem. This issue is with extended or duplicated display.

I cannot get the external monitor color adjusted to match the laptop display. The external monitor has a blueish/greenish tint. I also have a Acer 2216W 22" widescreen and a 19" Princeton Graphics CRT monitor and the color problem exists with all 3 monitors. Also I have a Dell Latitude 610D and I run either of the Acer's on it and there is no color issue. This means the problem is with the Lenovo, the Quadro card or the software. Lenovo telephone support had me do a video stress test, the test failed. Lenovo sent a box and I sent the W520 to Atlanta depot. New mobo did not resolve issue with color. I did a re-image, update BIOS, update all other updates, no change.

I can only suspect there aren't many people using W520 and an external monitors so this problem only effects a few users, and at that only someone doing image editing might notice this issue.

I bought this computer so I could get the Quadro card. I could have bought a much cheaper machine if I only needed the internal display, which works just fine.

I also thought since the graphics card and the processor were just out maybe some kinks were not ironed out, but Lenovo, who has worked very hard to fix the problem, updated everything and cannot fix the problem. Anyone got some clue how to fix this problem? Thanks in advance, DannyR

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  • There are tons of people using these like this, myself included, and between dozens of W520s I've never seen this problem. Pretty surprised that a new board didn't help, though - out of curiosity, have you tried a clean image of Windows? Have you tried a different video cable? Do you have the same problem over DisplayPort?
    – Shinrai
    Dec 8, 2011 at 19:31

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I have experience with this hardware. There are a couple of things that could be wrong, potentially even at the same time.

  1. Software. You have literally 3 core pieces of software that will tend to fight over the color controls: NVIDIA graphics drivers, Intel graphics drivers, and built-in Windows color specs and drivers.

To remedy this, I first recommend uninstalling any monitor drivers and letting Windows just see a default display etc. The drivers that typically get installed have bad color profiles / specs, so definitely remove those first.

Second, choose your "master" color system - I recommend the Intel because the NVIDIA does not always initialize on boot, and Intel tends to "take over". So set all the NVIDIA colors to defaults, and do your color initialization in the Intel drivers only.

2.a Hardware. Some laptops that have multiple display ports, and unfortunately I've seen cases where one or two of those ports is badweird (weirdbad?). Almost as if they put a converter from VGA to DVI or something. Have you tried all the ports on your laptop / monitor, and different cables in between?

Hopefully this gives you some ideas at least :)

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