# Help: Is my Alpine IDA-X305 Screen defective? (Pics inside)



## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

I tried searching google and the forums for some info on this with little success. Hello there my name is Jon and this is my first thread here on DIY Mobile Audio. I hope I am welcome here for this looks like a very nice forum  I recently just purchased an Alpine IDA-X305 last week from Pacific Stereo with 3 Day shipping. Installed it without a hitch finished at night, looked normal at night. 

Come next afternoon the screen looks like this:









At night it looks normal, possibly dimmer than most lcd screens, when dimmer is turned on various settings it gets very dim. I snipped the Dimmer wire to see if the factory dimmer settings are lower by default, but it didn't affect it.

Next afternoon on a fairly cloudy day, I used my 6 year old poorly backlit 5th gen IPOD 30GB Video as a reference. 









I placed a small flap of paper above the lcd for this shot to shadow it and coax a little more darkness around it.










Is this normal for the IDA-X305? I've read a number of good reviews on this before buying and this is also the third version of this line so you would think there would be more complaints? Should I RMA this and buy another one, and risk the same problem, or settle for the CDA-9886? I have to stick to alpine due to my KTP Power Pack. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am getting very paranoid about my situation and hope the dealer will be understanding of my situation if I do request a RMA.


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

cant tell, you got some pretty bad glare in your picture


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Well I guess another question was, is this amount of glare normal? I tried to take the picture as it looks from where I sit in my car, and the pictures are very indicative of what i see, glare and all. I understand g;are is very car situational but you would think screens would be glare resistant after 3 versions of this?


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## Ximagineer (Jul 26, 2009)

I have the same problem! In the sunlight, it looks as though the plastic window is fogged up, yet at night, it look beautiful!


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## fastlane (Apr 6, 2009)

Fogging in the screen is not normal. I had two 305's before going to the 404 and both screens were crystal clear and plenty bright, even in noon day. I do have pretty dark tinted windows but still.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

Well I RMA'ed this one and have another on the way, Alpine Tech Support said I should send it back without a doubt.


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## fastlane (Apr 6, 2009)

jooonnn said:


> Alpine Tech Support said I should send it back without a doubt.


I think that's the first halfway intelligent thing I've ever heard from Alpine's tech department. If I were buying products based soley on a companies tech dept I'd never own an Alpine product.


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## VP Electricity (Apr 11, 2009)

I would check your orange lead. Try cutting it and rechecking the display.


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## fastlane (Apr 6, 2009)

VP Electricity said:


> I would check your orange lead. Try cutting it and rechecking the display.





jooonnn said:


> I snipped the Dimmer wire to see if the factory dimmer settings are lower by default, but it didn't affect it.


Looks like he tried that already.


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## Ximagineer (Jul 26, 2009)

Keep us posted if the new one is any better!


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

K well new head arrived and the screen is less prone to glare, as i did put them side by side and compared, but still can't say that I'm too happy with the glare in regular sunny day performance. The screen clouds and glares due to its fairly crappy design of having giant edges for the plastic screen of the TFT which make the screen very thick and great for holding in light and glare. The same concept on how thick glasses glare a lot when they stick out. This in combination with the crappy headunit placement of my corolla just make it a very bad combo. I'm looking to upgrade now, but can't seem to find a good ipod ready, nice SQ deck.


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## jooonnn (Jul 26, 2009)

I have since went with the CDA-9887 without looking back.


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