Well, I'm finally back. That contest ended a while ago but I had my hands full with a number of other things since then (applying for a part-time job and trying to get a paper published). Anyway one of the things I got was a laptop (a Dell D600 variant) and the components are between mid-range and top-line, which is pretty good considering it was free. However, I seem to be having some problems with displayed graphics.
Although windows is set to use 32-bit color, a lot of graphics look like they are being displayed in 256 colors. It used to be much worse and messing with the contrast values helped a lot, but the problem is definitely still there. This causes lighting in some games (also set to 32-bit) to look very ugly, as you can see very distinct bands of colors rather than a smooth gradient. I tried connecting it to my main desktop's monitor and it *seemed* that the problem might be gone, although it was difficult to tell because everything was very dark for some reason even with the brightness cranked up to full. I upgraded the video driver (it uses a 32mb radeon mobility 9000) but the problems are still there, so I am out of ideas now. Maybe I should try Dell's tech support, although that would require listening to annoying music on the phone for 20 minutes first.
The colors are not always accurate either (game shadows sometimes look dark green rather than black), but that appears to be a view angle-dependent LCD artifact. In Deus Ex, I am also getting a strange graininess everywhere, but this only occurs in this game. FS2 seems to work fine, although I have not yet tried FS2 open.
The other problem, possibly related, is that graphics of any kind in internet explorer look quite pixellated for some reason, as if they are being shown at half their normal resolution. This only happens in IE, but with any website. The auto resize and dithering options tend to cause things like this but they is off, so I don't know what the problem might be.
On an unrelated note, some internal connection in my headphones has come loose and I cannot get any sound from that side, so I need to get a new one. The Zalman RS6F looks appealing with the full 5.1 setup and the price is good; does anyone here happen to have these and can give their thoughts?
Also, did Gamespy add in the ad banners on the forums here recently? I can't remember seeing them before.
