How to determine original ICC profile?

[Paz]

My wide gamut, backlit RGB LED, Lenovo monitor has seven ICC profiles, any one of which might be the original setting. 

How can I figure out which should be the basis for new calibration?  Does it matter?

thanks,

Paz

[Tim Lookingbill]

If these profiles are located on your hard drive and not selectable within the display's OSD menu system, then it doesn't matter. During calibration and profiling of the display all profiles will be removed from the video card and subsequently replaced by the new custom profile.

[Coloreason]

There is no such thing as original settings in a profile. You can't have more than one monitor profile at a time assigned in the system for the color management programs to use. You can create as many profiles as you like for different purposes like different viewing environments for example but you can assign only one at a time in your system. Using a calibrating/profiling software usually automatically replaces currently active profile with the one created from the calibration/profiling.

If with "original settings" you mean a color profile that was created using the default or certain settings of the monitor controls, you can't use a profile to find what the monitor settings were when the profile was created. Once you create a profile it is valid only while the monitor settings stay the same.

[Paz]

Thanks for your replies.

Perhaps I should have said 'default' profile.  I'm trying to set my laptop to the original configuration before profiling.

Here is a segment from a Lenovo forum related to others who have also had problems trying to calibrate their Lenovo laptops with the built in Huey Pro Calibrator.  There have been lots of complaints about it.  Lots of references to it being 'a joke', in fact...  Anyway, here's the section I came across that made me wonder if it would make a difference which profile was loaded as 'default.'

When the W520 with the 1920 by 1080 screen (the high-res, FHD display) ships from the factory, it has a colour profile called "Wide Viewing Angle and High density FlexView Display" installed.  This file is identified as 'TPFLX.icm'.

When we run Microsoft Windows Update, Windows Update will download a file called 'Lenovo ThinkPad LCD Monitor' (identified as TPLCD95.icm) and install that file.  It seems that Windows Update has not yet figured out that Lenovo is shipping computers with the FHD display, so, when it finds a W520 without the basic  'Lenovo ThinkPad LCD Monitor' icm file, it installs it.  The problem is that this 'basic' .icm file (the TPLCD95.icm one) is not appropriate for the wide-gamut FlexView display panel.

These folks are talking about the W520.  I have the W701, which also has a "FHD" (full high definition) display, and the profile 'TPFLX.icm' is included among the long list of profiles in Windows 7 Display Properties. 

I have been selecting TPL100.icm, which I believe means "ThinkPad (something) 100% NTSC gamut.  My laptop, according to the Spyder Elite graph, has over 100% NTSC.  I've read others' statements that their particular laptop has 60%, 95%, etc., so that's what is right for them. 

I'm not sure what's right for me, or even if it makes any difference what profile happens to be in use when running a new, full calibration.  I do know that also in Display properties, I have the choice of Native, Adobe RGB, or sRGB, and the size profile Spyder Elite creates will vary depending on my choice on this page.

Paz

[Coloreason]

The question is, if the monitor profiles that you have, were created with a colorimeter measuring how your monitor displays colors. If no, you can through all of them away. If yes they are useful only with the monitor settings  when the profile was created.
On Windows the default monitor profile is a generic sRGB monitor color profile that is assigned automatically to the monitor when no custom profile is assigned. Your system may have been shipped with a canned monitor profile. The monitor manufacturers can also supply to Microsoft for Windows updates canned monitor profiles that will be installed with system updates replacing the default sRGB monitor profile or the manufacturer profile with older version but not if you have a custom profile created with a profiling software. The canned profiles are bad, I tried such profile for a wide gamut monitor and it was very bad. Unlike printer profiles canned monitor profiles are useless. You don't need any color profile to create a new monitor profile. The sRGB, AdobeRGB presets on most monitors are a joke, they do not correct (translate) the primary colors the way color managed software does. In fact using them is a bad idea. Exception are some more high end monitors like those from Nec that have internal lookup tables to switch the primaries which is like changing the physical characteristic of the monitor but even with such monitors you still have to use colorimeter and profiling software for precise color management. You should calibrate your monitor using its native settings and its full gamut. Wider the gamut, easier to simulate other narrower gamuts. Wide gamut monitor when properly color managed will give much more precise sRGB color space than standard gamut monitors because even though their space is with a size similar to the sRGB space they don't fit well into each other.