12-10-2004, 04:30 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Dell X50 Series has Secret Screen Software
Rudolph has evidently been examining his new Dell X50 series more closely than most and has found something very interesting by altering a value in the registry. Before going any further, let me just remind you that editing the Registry directly can be dangerous to your PPC and you should always take a data backup before try to do so. Eric Hess spotted Rudolph's Aximsite post and sent it to us:
"I found that you can enable a hidden contrast applet by going into the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Contrast' and renaming the "Redirect" value to "Redirect_" (or rename to something else, or remove it completely). Then soft reset and go to start > settings > system > contrast and adjust the contrast. The only thing is, it doesn't remember the contrast after a soft reset. This should help with reading in the dark -- the screen brightness is too bright when you are in the dark."
I tested this on my X50v using PHM Registry Editor and sure enough, after renaming and soft resetting there is indeed a new icon in the system tab. It's a circle, half black & half white. When you tap it, you get a slider bar and what looks like random noisy lines on the screen, though they can help you determine the correct contrast. The screen changes colour as you drag the slider across, from yellow to while and on to grey. I wonder what this does for the power consumption, as the screen can get a lot dimmer than the lowest brightness setting. However, I found that after a soft reset, the contrast was always set to maximum, giving the screen a yellow tinge. After playing with it for a bit, I reset the registry key back to default, soft reset and all was well again. I will keep a note of the registry value, should I ever need to adjust the contrast. Rudolph verified that this registry hack does not work on the iPAQ hx4700. I wonder what else is hidden away for some enterprising soul to find. Remember, any registry editing you do is at your own risk. You have been warned! ;-)
edit: This value appears to be present in many other PPCs, though it does not seem to work for most. Rudolf also found how to control the hidden treble/bass/3d effects on the X50 series. Nice work!
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12-10-2004, 04:39 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
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Interesting! Contrast hasn't been on devices since they were black and white!(I think) This could be useful for the X50 users out there...not me... I'm "old school" with my X30! :? :wink:
EDIT:The X30 actually has this feature too... interesting... I wonder if the X5, X3, or the X3i have it too...
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12-10-2004, 04:40 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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While the concept sounds nice, it actually fails to work properly on a lot of Pocket PCs. It usually defaults back to its original value either following a soft reset, or even when you press OK on the contrast applet. So anyone who wants to give this a go, you should keep that in mind. 
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12-10-2004, 04:40 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 211
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In the same section of the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\) there are a couple of other keys that you can activate by making the same change. There is an "Updates" key that adds an Updates icon to the Connection tab in Settings and a "Bluetooth" key that adds a second Bluetooth icon on the Connection tab in Settings. In both cases, I renamed the "redirect" key and the icons showed up after a soft reset.
When I tap the Updates icon that gets added, it shows an updates windows where you can tap an update for more information. There is nothing currently listed, so I assume it is for ROM or driver updates of some sort.
The Bluetooth setting adds a second Bluetooth icon in the settings window but when I tap it, I get an error that there is no Bluetooth hardware installed. This happens whether the Bluetooth radio is on or off. The thing I find interesting is that the icon for this Bluetooth item seems to be a high DPI icon and looks sharper compared to the other one. Whether this is significant or not, who knows?
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12-10-2004, 04:54 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 81
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maybe these are "inherited" from WinCE
__________________
"May the potato be with you!"
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12-10-2004, 04:56 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 132
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I tried it on my Dell Axim X30 and it put the contrast button on, but it never changed anything after I clicked ok. So you were right Darius Wey.
Also, bigkingfun, I added the update icon and some other stuff. Thanks for the great tip!
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12-10-2004, 05:04 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by marko681
I tried it on my Dell Axim X30 and it put the contrast button on, but it never changed anything after I clicked ok. So you were right Darius Wey.
Also, bigkingfun, I added the update icon and some other stuff. Thanks for the great tip!
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Yeah! I just noticed that... and changed the registry key back... Oh well... :wink:
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12-10-2004, 05:14 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 37
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I tried this on my X50 . I went to the registry and removed the following key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlPanel\Dude. Then I went to control panel and that Annoying guy Steven from the Dell commercials popped on the screen, and he keeps saying
"Dude yer getting a dell".
Now I can't turn it off.
Hellpppppp
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12-10-2004, 05:36 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 59
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heh, those are my words...although I'm not Eric Hess and didn't submit the article.
I posted it at: http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=61282 
The applet is actually available in all Pocket PCs. It's disabled in most (all I think) newer models since they don't support contrast control. My guess is that Dell never even tried to see if the applet works or not since modern LCD screens don't have contrast controls (two Pocket PC's ago, on my E125, this worked, but was useless since the E125 had it's own custom contrast screen). It probably only works because of the intel 2700g video card.
Anyhow, for a control of the hidden treble/bass/3d effect on the X50 check out emulamer's post & X50mix util at: http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showt...ghlight=x50mix
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12-10-2004, 05:47 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 76
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by rudolph
heh, those are my words...although I'm not Eric Hess and didn't submit the article.
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Too close to be a mere coincidence
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Linear Mode
