Direct2Dell

Just to respond to Lionel from Dell. Your company's customer service stinks. You sold me a defective computer. You knew about it, but won't do anything because you arbitrarily decided that I had it too long!  4 years! and my problem showed up a 3 years and 9 months. For one thing, I will check all my recourses including the Quebec Office de protection du consommateur, a couple of good TV shows that would love to take a bad guy like your company and small claims court. When a car company sells a defective product, it assumes its responsability no matter how long you owned the vehicule. I sure hope that your sales will go right down the drain and that Dell ends up the way a lot of US companies have gone lately. Hopefully, this will teach your greedy owners to be a little more generous to their loyal customer, which I don't think I will be again.

To all those with out-of-warrantee computers...don't bother getting the LCD or anything else repaired.  Save your money and buy a new laptop for under $800.

(After my experiences with Dell, you can bet my next notebook will not be another Inspiron!)

Sorry for all the typos in my last post. Well that yellow vertical line came back permanently. I just got off the phone with the Dell Rep. They are again sending me a screen for the 3rd time. I told then that I want a new screen and not a reconditioned one because obviously there is a problem with the screens. The tech's Mgr came on the phone & told me that they are well aware of this problem & they are sending me a different model this time. Supposedly I will have no problems. We'll see if they can get it right this time. If not I will be forced to escalate my issue with the powers to be at Dell and then Consumer Affairs. I am so done with this!!!!

I am having the same issue with my Inspiron 9300. I started with one line anout 2 months ago & then a secon line appeared. I have the extended warranty so I contacted customer service who ran tests to try to determine the problem. He thought it might be the LCS screen, so they shpped a new screen and arranged for a tech to install it. Lo & behold less than 2 weeks later, the same porble - a line appeared on the NEW screen. I contated customer service again who ran the same tests & wanted me to ship my laptop to Dell for 2 weeks. Told him no can do since I work from home as a consulatnt & need my laptop. He decided to ship a new LCD and a motherborad (in case the problem was with the video card) and arranged to a tech to install. the tech only installed the LCD. it is now one week later & a yellow line appeared in the middle of my second new screen. However, this time after about 5 mins the line disappeared. I am at my wits end. Has this proble been resolved & why are't the techs at Dell customer service aware of the defect with these laptops? What is my next step???

Thenk you for all the information.  My 9300 began experiencing this problem shortly after the expiration of my extended warranty.  I apparently had not received a letter because they went out when I still had warranty coverage.  After calling tech support 3 times and being transferred and disconnected 3 times by reps who said there was nothing they could do, I somehow reached a person in the desktop division who had his supervisor make a direct "live" or "warm" transfer to the laptop group.  The tech rep there actually listened to me and sensibly said they would send a box for shipping back the machine to get a replacement screen.  Assuming all goes well, you'll still have a satisfied repeat customer whose first machines were bought when the company was called PCs Limited.  Having actually purchased premium support, I was glad to finally have that recognized by someone prepared to treat a customer as an individual.  Thank you for your department's efforts to ensure that a problem repeatedly brought to the company's attention would be investigated and then treated as a recall.  That's the support that the company was built on.

I guess I get to join this unfortunate club.  The replacement screen on my Inspiron 9300 is now developing vertical lines.

Oh, and the SD card reader doesn't work.

And the wireless card won't stay connected.

And the DVD/CD-R drive no longer writes.

And the headphone jack only has one channel.

Absolute junk.  I'll never buy a Dell for home or work again.

Ok, I have an Inspiron 9300 and after having my original screen dying after 1 year, the second one is now showing countless vertical lines (it started with 1 line many months ago).

I guess Dell is replacing the defective screens with exactly the same model (I am not sure. If not, it means that the new ones are also defective). My ideal solution would then be to find a different model which would not be largely defective.

I did some research on the internet and narrowed down my problem to this:

- My screen model is LP171WX2 (LG-Philips 17.0" WXGA+).

- It looks like this model is now referenced as "Dell Inspiron 9200/9300 LCD screen" on many websites selling LCD screens. It is a matte screen I believe.

- It looks like there are also now different other models of "LP171WX2" called LP171WX2(A4), LP171WX2(B4) and LP171WX2(TL). I think they are not the same as the one I have on my laptop. First because they are more expensive, second because they are indicated as "glossy" instead of matte, which makes me think that they are more recent (newer technology). I don't know the difference between the 3 new models though, they are always the same price. Another confusing thing is that there is also another code following "LP171WX2(..)": from "(K1)" to I don't know where it stops, possibly "(K8)".

Fact: I would rather purchase a new glossy screen than gamble with an old defective one and wait for the lines to appear.

*** My questions are: Am I right and are these models compatible with the Inspiron 9300? Are they also compatible with the coaxial cable in the Inspiron 9300 or do I need to get a new one?

What is the difference between all these additional codes?

Hope this helps to bring forward a constructive solution to "unlucky" customers and thanks for any help from anyone

I have two Inspiron 9300's purchased on the same day during the time period in question (2005).  I never received a letter stating their was a problem.  Call to Dell withiin the 3 year time period have stated that they have not heard of the issue.  Calls later state that I have to pay upfront from them to proceed with the call.   The tech person today said that this blog was only for dell users and carried no weight with dell.  I read the post at the top and he only said he had never heard of the issue.  Since I have two computers and they are both failing at the same time, I'm really pleading for help.

DUDE, DON'T EVER BUY A DELL.

MY 9300 GETS A NEW VERTICAL LINE EVERY WEEK AND DELL WANT'S $300 JUST FOR THE SCREEN PLUS LABOR AND SHIPPING. THEY SAID IT WAS A DEFECT LAST YEAR BUT SINCE IT TOOK A LITTLE LONGER FOR MINE TO GO BAD IT IS NO LONGER A DEFECT. HUH???????????

Just had another one-inch-wide vertical white band on my laptop screen. Now they're two, and this second one is right smack in the middle of the screen. My Inspiron 9200 is practicaly unusable. Need I say more??? Well, I won't be able to very soon, this screen while be entirely white sooner or later.

Does anyone here who has a Dell laptop with a 17" LCD screen NOT have had a vertical line issue or who has had relative "success" in having his/her LCD replaced with a part that has lasted? If so, what is the part number? I am now considering purchasing a replacement LCD myself for my Inspiron 9200. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone posted here. Thanks in advance.

Just received an email survey about my experience with Dell Support......needless to say, I didn't give them very good marks at all!

Oh yes, I must repeat this, my "replacement" LCD lasted less than a year.

ksgarza, I'm still hoping beyond hope that Dell wakes up to all of this. I was in Houston for eight years in academe. The university uses Dells. I had 3 Dell laptops. I was even thinking of asking a sibling of mine in the States to bring in an XPS laptop for me. But after the experiences not just my own but yours and others as well, it is very disappointing indeed that we who have been Dell customers all these years end up with, well, a laptop with weird lines.

Perfect0,

I'm doing the same -- using my 9300 with multiple lines through the middle of the screen -- which was supposedly "fixed" just 6 months ago. 

I have purchased 10 Dell's in the past, going way back to 1996-- I even brought the WebPc when it came out in 1999!  I considered myself a "Dell Person".  Even right now, between myself and my kids, there are 6 Dell's in my house. 

This is how they reward their loyal customers? 

I'm not ready to give up on this issue and I'm not ready to pay to have a 6 month old LCD repaired. 

ksgarza, yes, I check this forum almost daily to see any development. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much. I'm back here in the Philippines and, yes, I'm still using my Inspiron 9200 as I write this, of course, using only about 2/3 of the screen as that's the only usable space left. I am so annoyed that, worse than refusing to admit that there's an issue, Dell rationalizes. Three cheers for Dell's quality...

That's it, I will no longer buy anything from dell. I have spent a lot of money over the years at dell. Due to their lack of respect they have for customers like myself and not standing by their own products (Inspiron 9300) I WILL NO-LONGER PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM DELL AND I SUGGEST THAT OTHERS DO THE SAME UNTILL THEY FIX OUR LCD SCREENS. THE POWER OF CUSTOMERS LIKE MYSELF AND OTHERS WILL SEND THEM THE WAY OF CIRCUIT CITY!!!

I have just joined the group who are "lucky" enough to have the vertical line issue on my Inspiron 9300 for the second time.  Mine was actually replaced just six months ago and now it's having the exact same problem. 

I have spent several days in a Customer Service nightmare -- all I am trying to get is an explanation as to why, if it was covered outside of standard warranty the first time, it would not be covered this time.  It's the exact same issue.  Even if it was replaced with a part not included in the recall, shouldn't a new LCD last longer than 6 months?? 

Each email I send and phone call I make has just made me more frustrated than ever.  The only response I get is that "it's out of warranty and you will need to call technical support".  I called them and they won't give me any explanation either --just the same "it's out of warranty" response.  Unreal......

David_and_Mark, yes, I do agree that Dell has an issue. The issue as well here is that Dell does not obviously see this as an issue. I think that the objective now is to make Dell admit of such an issue. Or simply, be responsible.

David_and_Mark, again, thanks for sharing your experience, albeit a negative one. Dell indeed has a big issue regardless of the outsourcing of customer service. I must agree though that the decision to outsource manifests the quality of Dell, a quality similar to that of its LCD screens. Need I say more what level of quality? I am a Filipino. And it is very disappointing that a proudly American company such as Dell has such quality.

Hi perfect0,

Thanks for responding. Note the post published today.

Dell does have an issue. It is an 800 lb. gorilla. But like

Carnegie and JP Morgan a century ago, they are merely a

big computer trust that really needs to be BUSTED.

David_and_Mark, thanks for the post. I am perplexed that Dell still denies that it has an issue. This is hoping beyond hope but just maybe that time will come when Dell will...

Thanks for the post, toneman. I think we consumers should understand that when a company like Dell says their products or parts have a warranty, they actually mean a very short range of time for responsibility and accountability. In my case, putting a warranty of 90 days on a replacement part clearly means that Dell is a company that has nothing to do with its consumers after 90 days. That's what I call quality. I should note that the next time I even consider buying a Dell product.

Warranty apparently protects the manufacturer rather than the consumer. Oh well...

Just to let you guys know part #J9676 is also affected. That is the 17" wuxga 1920x1200 screen. Mine was purchased in April 2005 and just yesterday, Feb 18th 2009, I got the first blue line about 2" in from the left hand side. Called tech support, warranty expired, gave me the "older than 3 years" routine and won't fix it without charging $500. Took the display apart, checked cables, etc. and nothing can be done. Guess it will just get worse now. Am sorry for those also with this screen who may have thought, like I, that they got a good one after all this time.

Now I'm just gonna buy a screen from Ebay for $100 with a 120 warranty, fit it myself, hope it lasts past the warranty. Once that goes it's bye bye Dell, hello HP. No option but to vote with my feet. What's the difference between a screen that they will cover up to 3 years and a screen that goes after 3 years and 10 months? A faulty part is still a faulty part, just dumb luck as to how long it will last. If it was a part that would blow up and injure someone, it would be recalled no matter how old. Nonsense from Dell.

Todd, thanks for the reaction to my post. I was referring to the LCD that Dell replaced on my 9200. It lasted a year. And if you mention that Dell has a 90-day warranty for that LCD replacement then I guess my efforts here are futile. I still believe that that part was a lemon. And, as you say, that there are so many possible factors/causes of a vertical line on a Dell laptop LCD screen, I guess I was just "lucky" enough to experience a vertical line issue twice. And for the others here who posted in the past that experienced this "luck" twice as well were just as "lucky" as me.

@perfect0   I did not state that Dell's LCDs have an average life of one year.  There are so many factors that affect lifespan of electronics that to make any sort of blanket statement about average life or expected life is misleading.

We were covering those LCDs for 3 years from the date of the purchase of the system, and all our replacement hardware has a parts warranty, normally 90-days, to cover them as well. 

Todd,

I understand Dell's point of view that the vertical line issue may have various causes. It's difficult to understand though that--given that you mention that parts have an average life--the "average" lifespan of an LCD screen that Dell uses...is ONE year? That certainly does not sound "average" to me. Again, I, and also maybe those among us that Dell indeed replaced our LCD screen, believe that Dell replaced a lemon with another lemon. And, in any angle that one looks at it, Dell did NOT really (and responsibly) resolve this issue.

Their reply:

My Recent conversation with dell awaiting reply:

WC222 was not on the recall list but, this has the same problem and there are other part #'s with the same problem (http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2007/04/09/10675.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage) follow link and read on. The solution to this is replacing the LCD screen. Reseating does not resolve this problem, these parts are defective. What makes me more upset is the run around I got trying to resolve this issue. First, I was told there was a recall on this issue but no where on the dell site can you find such a recall. Then I was told there was a 3 year period from purchase invoice date to have this problem covered and mine fell after that date. Then I was told that my part # wasn't one that was recalled even though it had the exact same problem. I was finally offered a discount to replace this LCD screen but it would still cost me over $300 to have it repaired. I could buy a competitors of similar features for around that price. There are plenty of people with this same issue and Dell has given us all the business.

I am happy to see that someone from dell has responded but if dell is going to continue to receive our business they need to replace our LCD screens. They should last a lot longer than 2.5 years especially since we paid almost $3000 for this product. The average life for a laptop back light is on the order of 30,000 hours that's the equivalent of running this laptop for 33 hours a day for 2.5 years. This is unacceptable and should be recalled and replaced.

Todd, 

I'm thankful that Dell DID replace my LCD about a year ago. But...

I am experiencing exactly the same issue all over again. The three-year warranty that you mention appears to refer to the warranty of my laptop. For us--those you mention that were affected by this issue--it is obvious that by this time all of us, our units, that is, are beyond three years. I am disappointed that the warranty you mention does NOT refer to the warranty of the part that Dell replaced. I hope you understand how disappointed those among us who had their LCD replaced that the "new" LCD barely lasted over a year. I think that by any one's standards, an LCD screen for a laptop that lasts beyond barely over a year is, to put it straight, ANOTHER lemon of a part. Shouldn't we who were affected by this issue deserve a part that is of a better quality? I understand that there are many reasons for a vertical line but I think that I am NOT the only one who has experienced this issue ALL OVER AGAIN. Frankly, a dud was replaced with a dud, a lemon was replaced with a lemon.

I'd be happy to hear from you again. I'm sure others who have posted here, and many others who have yet to post here, are eager to hear what Dell has to say.

Again, I appreciate that someone from Dell finally has posted here. For that alone, thanks. For TRULY resolving this vertical line issue is still my hope. And I will be very thankful. And maybe happy enough to purchase another Dell...

Hi everyone,

The Dell LCD replacement policy was limited to a series of LCDs built by one manufacturer using one specific subcomponent.   Those were only used in a certain percentage of the systems manufactured during that time frame.  I can understand the frustration but if your system wasn't built using one of those specific parts it won't be covered.

There are a lot of reasons why LCDs can show vertical lines and one of our Community Liasons, Mike B, posted a good explanation of them here.  

If your system was built using one of the affected parts, and you are experiencing the failure within the 3 year enhanced coverage time frame, our technical support groups are all aware of the policy at this point.  With the initial rush of customers affected by this policy it made sense to have a special way for customers to contact a specialized group for help, but at this time our front line support should be able to help our customers.   If your system was manufactured using one of the affected parts and you've contacted tech support for help within the 3 year time frame and were denied service feel free to contact me and I'll put you in contact with our contacts in the support organizations to get your issue resolved.

Wow. More and more among us are posting here. I wonder now if Dell will ever open their vertical line email address again.

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Oh goody, I get to join a club. That is, this ridiculously large club of people who have vertical lines on their 17" 9300 displays. Mine showed up about a month ago and I have been trying to figure out the problem ever sense. I stumbled upon you all by pure luck. I checked my part # (MC887) on dell’s site and it appears I am also NOT one of the people who will be getting a replacement. I guess I will also be one of the people NOT buying another laptop from dell unless they fix this problem. But wait, I can’t be having the exact same problem as everyone else because my part number is different. Way to stick it to your customers’ dell. Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of my 5 other dell systems will have a “not a lemon” issue.

Well I guess I’ll pony up and buy another lease agreement for my lcd. Maybe this one will have a longer term before it expires. In any case I know one problem I wont have from now on, dell customer “support”. I’m going to get a local guy to build my rigs from now on. At least that way he can take me out to dinner before he gives me the shaft.  

let me know if you decide to do the right thing dell

Jason

Thanks for the post. I wonder if we could generate enough pressure on Dell to have it do another "recall" just as it did with the LCD vertical line issue last year. But this time around, Dell should replace the LCD with a TESTED part number that will not have the same issue all over again

I'm having this same issue with my Inspiron 9300. When I called tech support they first tried to sell me a $49 "tech evaluation" until I explained this was a known problem. The tech transferred me to hardware support, who looked up my info and lo and behold ... my system wasn't covered.

So even though it's the same type of system shipped during the time frame specified, it has a different part number and won't be covered. What a shock.

Anyway, he explained that it would cost over $400 to fix but he could offer me a discount of $140. When I explained that for just a little more money I could get a new laptop he said "I can talk to my manager and get you a discount of $190." How convenient ...

What a scam. Dell knows these displays are garbage but only covers select systems. I spent a lot of money over the years with Dell but I won't spend another dime with them.

Dell should be ashamed.

I hope that this thread isn't dead. I'm still hoping others post here, those like me who have been affected by this vertical line issue...

I just want to ask if Dell has recalled any of the 17" LCDs that were not in the original three part number recall ? Mine is part #MC887 Made by LG it has had vertical line problems about 6 months now. Don't want to miss the chance to have it replaced on recall.. Build date 12-05 Insporin 9300

Eduard,

would you please let me know if tech support evert talked or mentioned about the issue of your LCD's part number? Thanks

Edward, could you please tell me if they ever asked or mentioned about your LCD screen part number?

Finally got transferred to tech support by not entering my express service code, but still got transferred to operator first. the gentleman from tech support is getting me set up with sending me the box

well called a second time this time i didn't give the service code and the operator is transferring me to tech support.  Will give update after speaking with them

Well the guy got back and said i had to call technical support directly.  except he gave me the number that i had originally called when i got him.  Am going to try to call the number again and hope it works.

purchased 9300 end of nov.  1st lineappeared aug/2008.  I now have 7 lines.  currently on the phone with the guy who was supposed to help me get connected with premium Tech Support, because comp is out of warranty.  This guys is currently giving me run around, saying that this website and its claims are not supported by dell, and has put me on hold.  I will post again regarding the status of the call after he gets back.

My laptop is an Inspiron 510M with a 15" SXGA+ TFT Display

I bought it in December 2004 and a red vertical line appeared after about 2 years. Now there must be about a hundred of all colours. There are also wide white bands appearing.

People say it must have been dropped but it hasn't. Of course its well out of warranty and I'm not very happy but its good to see that Dell are doing something

Dell responds well once you get through the game of convincing them they need to stand behind their products. Called on the 8th, got my box on 9th, shipped on 10th, got a call on 13th that the service was complete. Showed at my door at 7:45.

Have not reinserted the disk drive yet, but I suspect it will be fine, and I do admire their speed.

Not sure what part numbers qualify for this replacement program but I was told mine did not. P/N WC222 If Dell knows about this problem why are they not covering all displays that malfuction in the same way.

My ship date was 01/19/2006 so I am under the 3 years but with the same result as older laptops.

Todd:

Isn´t it a shame for Dell to see how this stream of irrefutable proofs on Dell´s responsability on this issue of vertical lines keeps on coming?

You first asked me to email to that address directly related to vertical lines issue. They answered after more than three weeks. Meanwhile i had a chat at Latin america Dell support, and firstly the agent didnt even know that Inspiron 9300 was involved in the replacement program (?!?!?). This sr. later claimed that my part number screen was not included but didnt handle aany proof of that. (When i bought this laptop I previously DID handle a proof that i payed for it. Thus the unbalance in this comercial relation between Dell and client is been promoted by Dell).

Then i decided to write to an address ccaled unsolved cases, provaided by that same former agent. They responded prety quickly saying that my part number was nor covered as it was part number X4766 (?).

And then a few days ago the agent of the original email address directly related to vertical lines issue responded, two weeks later, This sr. came with the same irresponsible and aloof answer we all know. "Sorry but you are not included in defective part number lot....and added that they could

not reveal my part number (?). Ha ha, what a game these guys are playing, first they dont know I9300 is inlcuded, then they reveal my part number, and then they say that they cant reveal it?

If you ad all this to all those strange games played by Dell to all the unsatisfied clients then we start to see how much a ridiculous game this is, one played on plain view of all of us.

So, Tood, what does all this mean? Shame on Dell?

ps Lasse, you are not unlucky, I have the impression that Dell IS the unlucky one.

Seems I have joined the unlucky group of Inspiron owners with vertical line, mine showd up 3 months after the 3-year frame ended. Dell acknowledged the problem (ater 50 minute phone call to CS) and said "Sorry nothing we can do to help you...." except sending an offer for an exchange LCD for a measly $600 USD, if I do the job my self. It will be more than $800 if they gonna do it. When I mentioned "Good Will" I just heard a muted laughter.

No way I'll spend 600 bucks, Dell just lost all my future business and Yes I will tell all my friends to stay away!

I have these vertical lines too.  My Inspiron 9300 was shipped to me on 6/12/2005.  This puts me just outside the 3 years.  Am I completely out of luck, or what?

I'm yet another victim with a bad 17 inch Dell Inspiron LCD, which appeared after the three years were over. Sent an email to the infamous vertical_line@dell.com. It took Dell about 2 weeks to reply the following standard message:

--- quote ---

Hello Sweetie,

        I have looked into your request for assistance to repair your vertical line problem with your computer, regretfully Dell will repair the LCD  for up to 3 years from the invoice date.  This computer invoiced on 02-02-05, you may want to check with our out of warranty repair department 1-800-288-4410 to see if they can offer some assistance.

Thank you,

Mister X

--- end quote ---

Obviously, this message is useless, because based on the suffering of former Dell customers in this blog a call will only cost me 3 hours of my life, set me back by 49$, experience Indian small talk, and learn that I have to spend 400$ for a repair.

It may be a good idea to call this number, though, just to keep their lines busy, and make the feel the opinion of the street - the opinion of underclass customers, which in the eyes of Dell are all of us who are not managing a corporate account.

Obviously, the LCD issue is a manufacturing defect, and Dell acknowledges that. Obviously, Dell is not legally required to replace it.

But, also obviously, nobody would buy a Dell laptop if the expectation was that the screen will die after 3.5 years. Therefore, if the management of Dell pays any attention to its brand name, it would take responsibility for its manufacturing defects. It is sad that this does not seem to be the case.

I will give Dell one last chance to help me with my Dell Inspiron laptop. I will keep you posted.

Called Dell today they told me that my Inspiron 9300 was out of warranty on 12-07 I am having vertical line issues with mine who should I talk to at dell? The build date of mine is 12-05.

Let me see if I got this right...

Dell announces on January 16th, 2008 that they are acknowledging a problem with LCD displays manufactured between November 20004 and October 2006 and they will replace the displays in question if less than three years old.  So for those folks unlucky enough to have purchased a laptop between November 2004 and January 2005, they're better informed but nonetheless out of luck?

Closer to home, we have two XPS Gen 2 laptops currently in use at my company (purchased August 2005 with three year warranties) and one of them just now developed this problem.  It would have been nice to have been forewarned of this potential problem sometime during the 7 months following its discovery in January 2008 before our warranties expired.  Great...

~ Todd Smart

Thanks for the advice Todd. It took 3 separate calls to two different customer service lines. They kept saying, "but the blank screen is a different problem that the green lines issue, so it is not covered inder the 90 day warranty". I escalated to "managers" 2 levels up. Gave my express service code so many times I have it memorized,  had to play the "I am a long time Dell customer" card (true). On the phone about 2 hours total. I might have gotten angry, but I was just watching the stock market circus anyway. Supposedly, the shipping container is on the way.

~Jong Park

...are they saying the expected lifetime of a laptop LCD is about 2 and 1/2 year?...

The sales/tech staff at Circuit City is pushing hard that any 17" laptop should be purchased with a long term service contract because "they have a lot of problems". They are probably just after the comission on the contract, but it is possible that other manufacturers have some of the Dell-vertical-line problems, and have just ducked the publicity.

I bought my Inspiron 9300 in January 2006, and got my first line late in 2007.  I sent an email after finding this blog back in March this year, or sometime like that.  Since then I've sent a further 3 emails, whilst in the meantime I now have over 100 lines and 2 wide bands where the colours are faded, but no replies to my messages.  Are Dell ignoring emails from concerned customers even after having acknowledged this fault?

Hi Darlene, Jorg, and Jong.

Sounds like we are all in a similar boat.  Two of my friends have similar Dells, and they are now worried, and some of my buisness partners here in California have Dells also.  They use their's lightly so they might not see the problem until later, and they don't have the 1920x1200 screen.

My laptop repair place said the replacement LCD screen is about $285 to buy, will take about a week or two to get, and he would charge me $350 to do the whole thing.  he also says (which i already knew) that Dell is always changing internal parts, so he would want to relpace the screen with the same part number to avoid problems.  He also said he didn't know about dell replacing screens, and he was of course familiar with bad screens of all kinds.

Todd: I see you are monitering this blog, thank you for doing that.  But do you have any suggestions for us?  For me?  At this instant i am assuming that Dell is going to keep doing nothing about my screen since it is not the "right" part number.  Is it worth it to purchase an extended warrenty?  If i do purchase a couple of years more coverage will that cover replacing the screen?  will that cover the future screen?

Jong: I like your idea to get the screen number and start keeping a list.  I'm hoping Todd can provide data from Dell about the failure rate on these things, otherwise we can start building our own data base.

Hi to all  from Germany,

same Problem here. Inspiron 9400, pruchased 06.2006, equipped with an WUXGA (1920*1200) LCD. Service here pretends to know nothing. All in all I think a simple Laptop at e.g. WAL-MART or ALDI is less wear and tear to my nerves.

More Usable would be range of S/N of defective LCD`s, but this way is of course cheaper.

By, Jörg

P.S. Posting my contain traces of sarcasm.

I got the first line in my I-9300 in early 2008, it was mildly irritating, it was not my primary computer, and likely I would have just put up with it. But then the lines increased,2,3,4..., and with the other reports, it seemed likely that I could loose the use of the computer. 

I found out about the Dell warranty on this issue, and happily took advantge of if in July. Service was fast and satisfactory. Then in September, a few times, after long on-times, the screen just went black. I thought I had messed up the Power settings, and the screen was just timing out and sticking that way.

Now, the computer has (from cold start) about 5 minutes of life before it boes black. So, now rather than an irritating computer, I have essentially a dead computer. Thanks Dell! Anyone know if there is any warranty on the vertical line repair job?

I have an Inspiron 9300 purchased in July 2005, and it is only used 6 months of the year. My first vertical lines started appearing Feb/08. I started my quest for help regarding the vertical line issue in July\08. I was told I had to transfer ownership of my computer to Canada from the U.S., which I did on-line. This would take 20 to 24 business days. It took from July 29 to Oct. 4/08. Now they tell me my LCD screen is not one they have listed for replacement! Give me a break! I have 54 lines on my screen, of course it's your faulty LCD. I have dealt with Indian, Malaysian, and English speaking technical support who have all given me no help, and in some cases, cannot even communicate in English. In fact, today I was told by the Dell support agent that my issue was unique because I had many vertical lines on my screen, and the problematic LCD's only had one line. And these are the guys that are our technical support help? If anyone can direct me somewhere that I can get help I would be forever grateful.

Sigh, like many of the others above, and like many of those yet to come, my 9300 has just suddenly had it's first vertical line.

Like Jim Shaffer above, mine is form Nov 2005 and has the 17in wuxga screen.  It worked perfectly until 5 days ago.  I've just called the dell phone numbers, and i have a "Case Number".  But the final person i just spoke with says my screen "... is not one of the 3 part numbers they are replacing....". He says these parts are J9662, B9476 and W4554 (maybe i got the W wrong).  The one I have is WC222 and they are not replacing them.

Now clearly there is a defect in their process as i too have seen thousands of laptops in the past 4 years and NONE have had this issue.  Yet how many of us have reported on this?

Todd; where is Dell's statitistical data on these screens?  How are you justifying replacing only a few of these screens?  I went to this url to see more on the screen/model numbers and it has been dead all morning:

http://direct2dell.com/error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/themes/blogs/direct2dell/post.aspx

Any suggestions for what those of us with the "wrong display" can do?

Thanks

unsatisfied clients keep on comin....

For anyone wondering if I got any satisfaction by emailing the Dell rep who called me with a picture of the sticker on my screen assembly, showing a part number which does appear to be part of the recall list and which does not at all match the one on my invoice and in Dell's records...  today (12 days later) I got a phone call from the same rep, who just wanted to reiterate that they had determined that my unit wasn't covered by the replacement policy.  He really avoided the issue of the sticker on the screen.

So, that's it for me and Dell.  If modern LCDs were known for failing in a short amount of time, and if Dell hadn't admitted that they had a lot of LCDs fail in the same manner mine did, I could've considered it a fluke.  But it seems too coincidental.  Also, I have no confidence that Dell's inventory control is adequate.  When I bought this laptop, it was shipped with a power supply that was too small to let the CPU run at full speed.  When I called to complain, I was told that it was the model of power supply that was supposed to ship with this model of laptop and it would be adequate to charge the battery!  It took me two calls to get them to realize that when I wanted to use the laptop plugged in, I wanted it to run at the full speed I paid for so they needed to give me the proper power supply!

You know Todd, clients have come and still are coming as you can see with this particular complain, and that, that is the irrefutable proof that Dell is not taking good, responsible, sacred care of their products and of their clients, and that, not taking care, as many other companies around the world do, represents a major part in the reason why America and the World are on their knees right now.

 This world realy needs another form of making bussines from now on. I still think America may be a good leader into this new adventure. There are around the world as well many other bussinesmen and clients that are now envisaging a new form of doing business.

If you try to see what is the bottom line expressed by many of those coming into this board youll find that it is related to what i'm saying here...we all mean that we need a new form of relationship between the goods provider and the clients.  New business means going beyond that paradigm of not investing in clients and in a good excellent production standars. That itself is the secret, if you ask, for the survival or better, for the thriving of a company in the future world of bussines that already is here to stay. All trials to return to the old pardigm in business will only bring a backfiring as we all need each other for building a new world of prosperity.

please have a good day

ps. and please send a copy of this letter to Mr. Dell if you can or let me know his email and I'll send it to he.

I wasn't aware that my vertical line problem was shared by many others... So last year I bought a new laptop.  Had I known there was a 'warranty' on it... I would have just sent it in.  (I bought my Inspiron in April of '05)  Now I am stuck with two laptops and one with half of the screen covered in vertical lines but otherwise, it works fine.  The three year 'warranty' is ridiculous.  If its Dell's fault, its Dell's fault, it shouldn't matter how long a consumer has had it.

Thank you Todd, all of these models are indeed included, thats clear, i wont argue with that, but, i still believe that Dell is not adressing the issue that other screen part numbers are also affected by the vertical line problem.

You see, I only use my inspiron 9300 an average of a couple hours daily  and that is 365 days/year  x 2 hours/ day x 3 years = 2190 hours for this three year period.

Now 2190 hours / 24 hour a day = 91.25 days of continuos fuctioning. In round numbers lets make it 120 days. Is this cipher even close to the expected duration of an lcd screen ? I dont think so, i dont have the figures but i suspect that this 120 cipher is very far from the ideal number.Does Dell is taking into account this situation?

With all due respect Todd but something is not right here. There is a list on the letter on the top of this page that mentions the models with the problem we are discusing and they are "Inspiron 9200, 9300 and XPS Gen 2 models only"....and the problem is that these models, not even one of them, are not included in the list unfolded by Dell Latinamerica technical support (as you can see in the quote i make here of the online chat i quoted in a former comment by myself...)

@Katherine

Only certain LCDs used in the Inspiron 9300 model were manufactured using the specific sub-component that we are replacing.   I'm sorry, but if your contract has expired there isn't anything we can do to help you.

You can purchase a replacement LCD panel from us or look online at computer resellers or auction sites where people are selling computer parts to see if you can find one cheaper.

You can find manuals on our support site, http://support.Dell.com, to show you how to install a replacement LCD. 

in my last coment i made a mistake of not coping the quoting from Mike's post that you recomende me to read Todd. and i intended it to be included between the signs <>.. I will bring it here again bacause only in this way the final lines of that former comment will make sense. So the quote is this....

<If you are experiencing any problem with lines on your LCD and your system is not one of the potentially affected units, or in the date range outlined in Lionel's earlier posts, please contact technical support to troubleshoot and identify possible fixes. See below for details on how to do that.>

If i understood correctly, Mike is inplying directly in his phrase that:

a) only certain units are potentialy affected. He is saying that only certain models were affected.

b) in this phrase the way the word OR (that i highlighted) is used implies that all units of all models outside the date range are automaticaly free of problems WHILE all units of all models included within the date range, as is mine, are affected.

If this was not the case then Mike's phrase would read somthing like....

....and your system is not one of the potentially affected units, nor in the date range outlined in Lionel's earlier posts, please contact technical support to troubleshoot and identify possible fixes. See below for details on how to do that.>

Todd Smart:

How come only certain models of the LCD for the 9300 are being replaced?  I have a 9300 and when I called Dell the say the part number for my LCD did not qualify to be replaced.  I first started with one single line and now I have 14 and still counting.  My three year warranty just expired few days ago, is there anything Dell can do for me?

Thanks

Katherine

Todd thank you again for your comments, i'll chek on MIke.

The reason i said that what the support guy told me was at least suspicious is because he initialy didnt include in his list the inspiron 9300, check this out please (quoting the copy of the chat we had)....

<<

....then as i quoted the list of models included on top of this page he then admited, discretly, almost subtly but without never directly saying that inspiron 9300 was included in the policy, that....

i perfectly understand all that he is saying, but there are several detalis here that seem suspicious:

first ...my inspiron 9300 was not even included in his list.

and secondly...in a second he recognizes that it is included but without directly mentioning it or explaining the reason why he didnt indclue it in his list before...and sorry, your list part is not included....that was too fast. and too easy for dumping a client...

It makes me suspect that he truly didnt have inspiron 9300 in his list for latinamerica and that after seeing in this very blog that it indeed was included he probably invented that my screen's part list was not included....an easy way to escape without never proving for sure that indeed inspiron 9300 is included and that my screen number part isn´t.

(sorry i pushed the submision button)

I quoted from the top of this page...

To summarize the key criteria:

• This potential issue applies to Inspiron 9200, 9300 and XPS Gen 2 models only
• Only these three systems shipped from Nov. 2004 to October 2006 are potentially affected

and...

Here's what they found: on some 17” LCD displays shipped with Dell Inspiron 9200, 9300 and Dell XPS Gen 2 notebooks, a one pixel wide vertical line may develop across the LCD screen over time. Systems that may be affected by this issue shipped from Nov. 2004 through Oct 2006.

then this guy came saying that inspiron 9300 was covered (?) but that my particular lcd screen was not.(?¡?¡)....this is at least suspicious.....mmmm

and for more details on the on line chat with this guy from Dell Latinoamerica, i told him that i had an inspiron 9300 with this screen problem, he answered that inspiron 9300 was not covered by the replacement policy and he presented a list of the models that were covered by this policy and indeed inspiron was not included. Then i quoted

Thank you Todd, i just had a chat with a support guy from the website you recomended. They denied that the lcd screen on my inspiron 9300 is covered by that replacement policy, taht it only covers other models, and that my secific screen isnt covered by that program, now what? i tolld him it is the same problem reported on the ones covered by that program, but they say not....

Hi there Lionel, i am lucky to have found this board on the dell vertical l ine issue.

I live in Mexico and have an inspiron 9300 that i aquired on 10/10/2005. These famous vertical blue (in my case)

lines began appearing about 4 months ago, one of them, then about two months ago another one came, andjjust yesterday the 3rd one. Is there anything i can do to make my lcd be replaced under the dell offering toreplace for free these defective lcds?

thank you

Totally agree with thirdyearjumper and GTD!!!!! I have same situation. I bought Inspiron 9300 in Jun 2005 and the vertical line started 1 month after the 3 years warranty expired. I got run around from Dell for months for this defective screen!

This is the third time I leave message on this site. Dell AUS/NZ support team finally gave call me and apologized for the warranty quotation. There were 3 different people from Dell gave me different prices for same warranty extension! And I told her I want to talk about this vertical line issue because it's Dell's defect. She transfer the phone to another person who she said was customer service. I waited about 15 mins on the phone. Finally another lady answer the phone and told me they checked my service tag that my laptop wasn't a affected!!! Well,  that's my final answer for the vertical line affected screen!

I don't know where is the conclusion from? Service tag is for the whole laptop but not just for screen. I am not a techie person but I really need a "GOOD EXCUSE" ! Is that becasue they can tell that I am not a native English speaker and I am a female so they just gave a random answer? Any expert can give a good explaination to me

The web page is so long that I don't have time to read everyone's message. But it seems most people who live in North America and most people who have the problem earlier (2007) all got serviced/replaced. We "third year jumpers" (plus people live in small countries) are just totally ignored by Dell !

Here again I want to say DELL'S CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THE WORST ! I told & am telling & will keep telling everyone I know that NOT TO BUY DELL!!!

I had the exact same problem as GTD. I was less than 2 weeks past the 3 year cut-off. My phone journey with Dell ended at the warranty department where they refused to transfer me to anyone else and told me they would not do anything for me.

I was told the reason for the 3-year cutoff was because their research showed that the problem happened within 12-18 months of use (they were doing us a favor by extending it to 3 years). I'm guessing this is the same research that insisted the problem was only with 9200, 9300 and Dell XPS Gen 2, then later added several more models.

DELL, THE PROBLEM DEFINITELY STARTS PAST 3 YEARS FOR MANY USERS. THIS IS A MANUFACTURING DEFECT AND NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED.

Needless to say i'm very dissapointed. I was always recommending Dell to everyone who asks my advice on a regular basis - I'm definitely going to change my tune after this horrible experience.

I removed the screen from the case and on the LG Philips label is the bar code KR-0T4976-056252-58P-2374.  Under that is LP171WX2 17.0" WXGA+ (B4) Rev A00.

I don't know where Dell is getting the TG709 that's on my invoice.

I wonder what would happen if I'd email them with a picture of it?

Well, I finally got a call from Dell (or rather, someone in India) today.  It did NOT go well.  

First, the rep said that he couldn't find the part number of the screen on my order, so he wanted me to find it for him.  He said it should be listed underneath the screen.  There is of course no such number on the laptop.  (Reading further up this page, I see that there's a sticker on the back of the screen inside the case.  I have no problem with disassembling my system and I'll check later, but I can't believe they expect the general public to disassemble their systems to find a part number.)   I couldn't find my invoice right away, so he put me on hold.  I eventually found it.  When the rep came back on the line, he said that he found the information and my screen wasn't one of the affected models.  I told him that I found the part number too (it was TG709) and it matched what he had found.  I told him again that my laptop was purchased during the period listed on the blog (it was late October of 2005) and he said that it still wasn't the affected model.

So, did I just happen to get a bad screen (I've NEVER had a bad LCD, other than ones that came with isolated dead pixels and did not worsen), or does Dell have a line of bad screens that they haven't acknowledged yet?

Once again, my question: HOW do I get in touch with someone at Dell who can get my screen replaced for free as promised?

Last night, I called the number at the top of this page for technical support.  Without even asking for my service tag, the automated system told me that my system was out of warranty and offered to transfer me to paid technical support.  They didn't give me any other options.  There's no way I'm going to pay to deal with these losers.

So I sent an email to customer_advocate@dell.com and told them about my experience.

Today, I got an email reply that just reiterates that my system is out of warranty and I can either pay for technical support or go through the free troubleshooting section on their website.  I don't know what good that would do me, as first of all I've already told them that it's an Inspiron 9300 and it has vertical lines and second I've already told them that they need to replace it for free.

Since I don't know what else to do, I'm going to email vertical_line@dell.com even though it's supposedly only for people outside the US.  

I'm in the same situation of having the Vertical Line issue.  I have the Dell 9300 purchased in Mar 2005.  My lines just started appearing about a month ago and of course like everyone initially only had one line, then it grew to 2, then 3 now I have 5 lines and I'm sure there will be more to come.  I contacted their customer service and after being bounced around from line to line for 25 minutes, I finally was able to discuss the "vertical line issue" to the customer service rep that acknowledge they were aware of the problem (even though he initially said they were not aware of any vertical line issues until I told him that I searched the web and found many sites with people complaining about this issue.  Then I pointed out this web site specificcally and he then changed his response to "ah yeah, that's right... we can do something about this problem".  OMG, even my roommate's jaw dropped (who was next to me listening since I was on the speaker phone) because she couldn't believe how bad Dell's customer service acted.  Well, after discussing this issue with him for another 15 minutes, he came back and said "oh, your computer is passed the 3 year warranty" and this was after assuring me that they can "do something about this to fix it". I responded by saying that just just because my computer didn't get the lines until a few months after their "3 year" warranty extension for the "vertical line issue" shouldn't mean that they should not fix my monitor when they clearly knew about this defect.  After much arguing he said that he would have to pass this on to their escalation dept. and I would get a call back.  About an hour later, I received a call back from his supervisor and he also said that this has passed the 3 year warranty. I then requested to speak to his manager because this is unacceptable on Dell's part to not correct this because I happened to not have this happen until a few months after the three year mark. I told him to expect a lot more people calling them because of this "vertical line" issue because after doing more googling - I've found over 200 complaints about this issue.  I am now on the waiting to hear back from Dell group.  I will let you know what happens since Dell said they would call me back in 24-48 business hours.  I think if we (the after 3 year warranty group) keep calling them to report that it is happening all over again, maybe they won't make us jump through hoops to have them fix what they clearly knew was an issue like they did with the intial group that had this occur to them in 2007. 

How come only certain screens are being replaced?  I own a 9300 that I bought back in Nov 2005 and when I called the Dell Customer Service they said the part number that I had was not the one that was being replaced.  My screen now has 9 vertical lines (2 pink, 2 blue, 5 yellow) and it is sad that Dell does not recognize the problem that is happening to ALL of our computers. 

I have an Inspiron 9300 purchased in late 2005 (I think between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'll have to look up the exact time.)  It's out of warranty.  I never got the alleged letter discussed at the top of this page about an LCD issue.  A few weeks ago, my screen developed a yellow line near the left edge of the screen.  Tonight, it developed another one.  Is Dell still replacing the screens for free?  If so, what's the most direct method of contacting them about the issue?  I've had very bad luck calling customer service on other issues, sometimes it takes a long time to get to the proper person to address the problem. 

I have an XPS M1210 that I purchased in Jan. 2007. The warranty is expired.

The thin blue line syndrome just appeared while I was shopping online. Ironicly, I was shopping for laptop computers for my wife and daughter.

This is obviously a chronic problem that Dell is having and unless Dell addresses this issue, our family won't be buying any more of their products.

I was burnt before with a Dell desktop, so I'm out of patience and good things to say about their products.

Thanks for any help in this regard.

Alvaro is very lucky! Of course every one is in different situation. Todd Smart emailed me as well and he said NZ service will contact me. It's been almost 2 weeks so far ( of course NZ time is ahead of most countries). I haven't heard from anyone from NZ service so far. I contacted NZ service before I found this website but I wasn't satisfied with their answers neither. I can understand if they can't help because my 3 years warranty is expired even though I am really upset because the vertical line appeared 4 weeks after the warranty expired!!! Some friends said "they know that's the time ...." All I want to know is a "yes" or "no" answer and don't waste my time!

An update on my latest repair and dealings with Dell's support:

The lines showed up again for the 3rd time on Friday the 29th of August. Called Dell, and the box showed up at my apartment on the following Wednesday, September the 3rd. It arrived and was fixed Thursday the Fourth, and then was shipped that day, to the wrong address.

On Friday the 5th, I recieved the dispatch e-mail saying that my comptuer had shipped, and noticed it was the wrong address, city, etc. So I called Dell, and after over an hour of being transferred back and fourth between technical support and customer service 5 times (at each end) before winding up at the out of warranty division and finally someone listened to me and took the address that it should've come to. Which we know that Dell had, since the original box came here.

So, on Monday, I called DHL because it still said it was going to the wrong address, and they were taking it there to deliver. They said that they had not recieved anything from Dell, and that if Dell sent a request Friday, it should've come through. They said wait one more day and call Dell again.
Tuesday I didn't have time to call Dell again, and by Wednesday (today, the 10th of September), DHL had still not recieved anything from Dell.

Considering that a call to Dell takes at least an hour if not more for the simplest thing of a new address request, and the last call obviously did not get anything done, I instead drove to Oklahoma City and picked up my package from DHL, a one and a half hour trip.

If anyone from Dell reads this, I just want to let you know how horrible dealing with your company has been. Made all the worse by the fact that this is my 4th screen in 2-3 months, and I no longer have faith that it will last either, so most likely this was a huge inconvenience and an excercise in futility. However I do hope that it is not that case and will now be fixed for good.

I also hope that if it does happen again, Dell will realise they've sold me a faulty product and will somehow replace it instead of causing me to go through this repair fiasco process again.

Lucky for me, the wrong address is just my house that is empty at the moment, and not say, a totally wrong address or old address where someone else would've actually gotten my computer.

wow. an hour ago my coworker brought her Inspiron 1501 to me saying it had a line down the middle. I checked her service tag # and the warranty expired 11 days ago.

sheesh.

I'm gonna tell her transfer her stuff to a new non-dell rig and be done with it, because this long thread of despair has utterly dismayed and discouraged me.

I bougth a Dell Inspiron 9300 back in 2005 (do not remember the exact date). It started with 3 lines last year (2007), and kept growing. Now I have to connect an external monitor to be able to use my laptop. I will be working for some months in Mexico. Do you know if there's a way to get a replacement down here ? (assuming that Dell could give it to me with no charge)

My Dell 9300 was purchased in April 2005.  I hardly ever used it. Instead, I opted for multiple high powered desktops.  Then just this year my youngest son wanted to use it for school work.  Within a month it developed a vertical line on the screen.  Now there are 3 lines.  I contacted Dell and was told there was a recall on the problem but it already expired on my machine.  Of course I compained but to no avail, so far. 

This computer is like brand new.  Never moved out of the home.  Hardly ever used.  Yet, it's defective and Dell refuses to stand behind it and repair a problem they admit exists.  Why should I be penalized because I didn't use it enough.

My expectation is to be contacted by Dell and for them to arrange for the recall repair to my computer.  I'll be waiting!

Ps:  If Dell does fix my machine for free I will certainly sing their praise!

I have the vertical lines appearing my inspiron 9300. It seems many people are unhappy with this issue along with Dell's customer support. I have been waiting for 40 min. for tech. support to answer while I type this. I had problems with tech support doing more damage then good with problems when I purchased my computer. I thought things would have changed by now. After my past and present experiences I think I will be buying an Apple computer. Maybe they can help me. I just want a good computer that works well. I would think you would want me to have that too. I also think that if soo many people have this issue you would have a recall on it. Do you not have enough computers having this same problem to offer a recall?

Chad Smith.

I have a 9400 Inspiron and it has 3 vertical lines. Last one appeared last week (sept 2008). A guy of tech support told me that it is impossible that my laptop has this issue because they purged all LCDs on stock after they noticed the problem on 9300 models. So...am I dreaming? this lines dont exist? Mr. Menchaca, can you help me? I'm so far away (Chile) and no one to assist me. Closest Dell guy is in Panama!

I trusted Dell and now I'm so dissapointed....

Help?

Yes or No.

Are affected systems, OUT of 3 year warranty window, fixed by dell for free?

"Anand Sharma said:

OK, Dell apparantly reads these boards and Todd Smart of Dell e-mailed me to say that they would repair my Insipron 9300 again as the vertical line issue was reported within the 90-day window for repairs. My information was passed along to India and they just called to notify me that Todd is wrong and they will not repair my laptop as it's past the 90 days. If you look above you will see I posted this note on Aug. 20 and I obviously called before I posted. Aug. 20 is within the 90 days, which by the way is a very short time to guarantee a repair. So I'm back to square one. Dell's support system is just awful.

To Whom May I Concern:

I found this website and I was relieved when I found out that Dell was replacing LCD displays for the 9200 and 9300 that had a problem with vertical lines.  I bought my Inspiron 9300 on 9/25/2005 so I am only a few day from my three year "warranty" to expire.  I have been suffering from the vertical lines (seven of them) for about eight months.  I called the number given only to find out that my LCD part number was not one of the ones that were been recalled.  Even though I have vertical lines all over my LCD screen from a wide range of colors (yellow, pink, blue, black) I guess my screen is not bad enough to be recall.  Is there anything that can be done?  Definitely this is the last transaction that I will do with Dell.

Thanks

Katherine

Well, I got my vertical yesterday (August 30, 2008), similar to the one described by Ryan Picket. Bought my Inspiron 9300 on December 2005 in the United States, although I live in Colombia. Fortunately I am still on the 3 year window. Called today at noon to Dell Colombia, and got "your out of warranty" response and that if there is any warranty I should get it in the US. Similar with Shelby's experience. Not happy with that response because in no place it says that Dell only services the computer where it was bought. Well I hope my problem is resolved.

 I think that if we all knew 3 years ago that we were going to have today a computer with a vertical line on the monitor, we would consider if the Dell purchase was an accurate one. I also think everyone of us, with a computer more than three year olds, are starting to consider our next upgrade. I would like to think that nobody is going to consider Dell after this traumatic experience. I for sure i'm going to start looking and considering different brands for my next computer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Dell fan, hopefully this is just a hiccup and I can keep my business with Dell.

Until now I have 5 vertical lines on an Inspiron 9300 shipped in December, 2005. Everything looked fine first after I found this website last week. But like the others I did not get any response to my emails, and after 1 hour of phone talk today they told me that my LCD should not be defected. I do not understand that I have this vertical line problem, I have inspiron 9300 shipped within this range and they are ignoring the problem and telling me that they are not going to replace it despite it isn't been 3 years. this is the last time I ever buy and Dell products..

I bought my Inspiron 9300 in 2005 in China but I actually live in New Zealand. I am so happy with the laptop in the past 3 years until 4 weeks ago the first vertical line showing on my screen. The 3 years' international warranty was just expire in June and the second vertical line started on the screen 2 weeks ago!! I have contact Dell customer service NZ but they only suggested me to extend warranty and there were 3 people quoted different prices to me for same warranty!!! I am so happy a friend found this web page for me and I've sent email to vertical_line@dell.com to ask if they still can replace the screen for me. It's been 5 days but I haven't got any reply yet !!

What's going on? Do they just ignore cusomers live in small countries? I won't buy anything from Dell again! 

Still no word from DELL. I have bought my last DELL, I will from now on buy Lenovo, and Advice all my friends and customers to do the same!

I had this problem on my Inspiron 9300 two days before the three-year warranty expired and Dell was very good about everything. My display was repaired within a week and actually upgraded. Problem is that three months later the vertical line is back and Dell is adamant about not fixing it since it is out of warranty. They offered to repair it for a fee, as if I would pay them to do such a crappy repair job again. I have three Dells and they are the last Dells I will ever purchase. Their customer service is horrendous; I was on hold for almost an hour to get to a supervisor. Dell knows that they can't fix the problem and eventually everybody will be outside the three-year window and stuck with a broken machine.

I too wish I had found this web site sooner.  When I bought our initial Inspirion 6000  (12/05) we had all sorts of problems and finally received a replacement laptop which now we have vertical stripes on the 15.4 inch monitor.  Naturally my warranty expired a few months ago so it is not under warranty.  I'm extremely disappointed.  I'm a Microsoft Certified Professional and Small Business Specialist, so not only do I give advice to family and friends, but the business community too.  Manying of my fellow SBS's recommend HP, but I have always used Dell for companies I worked for and with.  I hope that I can continue to count on Dell in the future.

I would like to have this laptop monitor replaced.  If you send me the hardware and direction I will be happy to do the labor.

On another note. I recently purchased a XPS M1530 and have noticed that the bottom third of the monitor starts up with all sorts of multi color wiggly lines when it starts.  I have updated the drivers and am watching it closely.  Hopefully that isn't a problem too.

Karen

I wish I had found this forum a month ago.  I too have an Inspiron 9300 and noticed a 1-pixel vertical line 2" in from the left about a month ago.  A couple of weeks ago a  yellow line appeared about 6" in from the left.  Today a third yellow line showed up about 2.5" in from the left.  I'm affraid if nothing is done my LCD will be worthless here in a month or two.  I just sent an email to vertical_line@dell.com but from what others are saying I'm not sure I'll get any response.  I've had this laptop since '05 as well, so I'm also worried about the whole "three year" deal I'm reading about above.

Any help from anyone in with this would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hi

I also have the vertical Lines on my inspiron 9300, in 15 days it will be 3 years since I bought it. I tried to write to vertical_line@dell.com but no answer after 7 days. So I called technical  support here in Denmark. He said that my lcd was not the type that was affected by the problem!!. He would not tell me which types was affected, but mine is LPL0000. I then tried to write an email to customer support, but they say they can't help me, I need to contact technical support :-(

Any suggestions?

Best regards.

Hello,

I also have a 9300 that I bought in 09/05 and have had vertical lines for weeks but it's getting worst everyday.

I've sent email to vertical_line@dell.com but never received any response.

Please help!

Lionel,

Guess you must be getting tired of this story.  Tried to phone, held for 4 hours, no response!!!!  Same story.  9300 Inspiron, ship date 9/05, vertical lines.  How to go about getting a replacement? 

Thanks for any help you can get.

The replacement LCD screen for my notebook arrived this morning via DHL. After unpackaging it, I noticed that its a different brand of screen (thankfully), and Dell seems to be using Sharp for the replacements. The install took about 20 minutes to do, and the toughest part was keeping the screws from falling on the floor :-P The only thing about a black tiny screw and a weird multi colored dark carpet in the office is that if it falls, its pretty much lost!

After getting the screen installed, and putting everything back together, I booted up the notebook and held my breath. Thankfully, everything worked, and the picture was clean and clear! I did notice just a tad bit of fuzziness so decided to double check the screen settings. Low and behold, 1400 x 900 was no longer the highest resolution! I'm now sitting at an incredibly beautiful 1920 x 1200 resolution! Not only that, its cleaner, crisper, brighter, and overall a heck of a lot better than the previous screen. Good job Dell, you've made me a happy customer again!

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

After much debating and complaining on the way I have been generally treated as a Dell customer, I managed to finally get a replacement LCD shipped out to me.  I should have it by Wednesday, which I can then replace myself.  The repair is pretty straightforward so I should be able to do it in roughly half an hour. 

Hugely disappointed!

I had my Inspiron 9300 screen replaced two months ago from Dell support (in India) without a fuss!

However, within 2 months, the new screen now has started developing dead pixel vertical lines! Can you believe that? I now have 3 lines on my screen.

Does anybody have any experience with the replacement of the 'replaced' LCD screens, considering that it is 'still' (luckily!) under the 3 year window??

When I say no response from Dell I should clarify.

Todd has been graciously helping me out with this and is doing what he can to see if he can expidte things!

When I say Dell hasn't returned anything, I meant the usual help desk people and the vertical line peeps via email (no email, not even a phone call back from them).

I'm in the same boat as you! It's been 3 days now, and still no response from Dell.  This is getting rediculous.  This is also the last time I'll be buying from Dell given past and present experience in their tech support department and quality of products (every second generation Vostro we've had here has gotten replacement parts galore from the mobo to other items due to numerous errors, and one inspiron keeps catastrophically failing so we replaced it with a Latitude which seems to work for the time being.  Other desktops and such have been replaced numerous times due to hardware failure however in the past 6 months).

I purchased a Inspiron 9300 in December 2005 -- also having the vertical line issue. 

I called 1-800-624-9896 and spoke to a rep from India.  He said he was aware of the problem, but because it was out of warranty, I would have to pay a one time charge of $39 to talk to a senior tech (??).  I explained that I couldn't understand why I would have to pay to talk to someone about a problem that Dell has acknowledged.  His response was to just repeat the whole $39 to talk to a senior tech thing.  So, I sent an email to the vertical_line@dell.com three days ago, and have yet to hear a thing. 

In the past two years, I have purchased 3 laptops and 2 desktops from Dell because I have always received decent customer service from them -- this is really beginning to frustrate me! 

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Kathy

I ended up on hold for over an hour yesterday and today when calling 1-800-822-4730 so I don't think its a valid  # anymore?

Like many others here, I’ve had other issues with my inspiron 9300 right outside the warranty period, but Dell wouldn't bother with me.  Today I powered on my laptop, bought May 25th, 2005, and I get a nice pink vertical line down the left side. Crud I said to myself...I know its three years old but this is rediculous! Other and older LCD displays still work fine in other notebooks and desktop monitors..so I did some sluething, after reseating the monitor cable.  No go there, but then I came across this website.  So I called dell via the # displayed above, and was given the run around.  Ufortunately the individual I spoke with wouldn't acknowledge this site or Dell's statement. Then I tried talking to someone in the warranty and then the parts dept...no go. 

By now I'm already frustrated, so then I attempted to do a Dell chat.  That lasted up until I said the warranty is expired...then I argued a bit with the guy who supposedly talked to his supervisor...they said call the listed #..I said I did and got the run around..so again I got the run around..just like I do when talking to tech support for work purposes (when our notebooks go kaflooey and I know darn well a part needs replacing).

 So anways, I found the other # listed, 1-800-822-4730, and now I'm on hold, so we'll see. 

So far, I'm one unhappy  Dell customer, between this and other work related Dell issues.  I'm so sick to death of their bad tech support and having to argue my way to supervisors.  I certainly will not be buying Dell products ever again!

Hi,

I started facing this problem with my Inspiron 9300 laptop, since past 4 days, which was purchased on 10/13/2005.

I had mailed verticle_line@dell.com but have not received any reply.

I am in Chennai, India right now and would appreciate if I can get some number where I can talk and get my laptop repaired immediately.

Hi...I bought my 9200 in December 2004 and I had the vertical line problem. Around 30 or so lines of 1 pixel width were very annoying.

I emailed Tech support after no luck getting through on the phone and they responded very quick.

I don't understand the problems people are having with Dell as I had my computer shipped off to be fixed and have just received it back - all within 7 days and the screen is fine!

They also fixed my touch pad which they had not really needed to sort, but did out of courtesy.

I give Dell 5 stars and have had Dell computers for 10 years now and would never get another make.

Thanks Dell.

I bought my Inspiron 9300 in April 2005. My LCD first developed the "vertical line problem" in August 2007. I had purchased their three year extended warranty, so they replaced it, no problem. Just recently (July 2008) they had to replace it a second time, because of the same vertical line problem. I had just renewed my warranty for an additional two years (in April 2008) so thankfully there was no charge to me.. . THIS time. Dell has obviously NOT solved the "vertical line problem" - what happens the NEXT time my LCD develops the annoying problem and my warranty is no longer valid? (Dell won't allow me to extend my warranty for more than two additional years - five years in all). What exactly is causing this problem? I have an old Dell Inspiron that is 8 years old and its LCD screen is just fine! Seems to me that Dell is only patching the problem . . . if they had fixed it, I would not have had to replace my LCD twice in less than a year. As far as customers being mailed letters about this problem-- I haven't received anything about it.

Hey All,

Well, no good news from me...

I have a 9300 shipped on 6/27/05

I have a vertical line that just appeared

I did speak with customer service

I do NOT have the correct part number combination

I am NOT happy

I normally don't post, but I feel let down by a company I like. So I thought i'd share.

Give me a brake DELL ...3 years??

Bob

Hi,

I bought Dell - Inspiron 1525 two weeks before. and I am operating a programe called (SAP) in my laptop. for that (SAP) I need to have 'Windows 2000 server', After installing 2000 server there is no CD drive supports that oparating system (Windows 2000 server), even Driver CD is not supporting.

Can you please arrange the drives which are supporting Windows 2000 server / some other help.

Thanks

About 2 weeks ago, I sent in my Dell Inspiron 9300 with about 50 lines on the screen.  They fixed it very easily and I received my computer back after only a few days...vertical line free.  I was extremely satisfied. 

Now, I have another line right in the middle of my screen.  I will be calling Dell tomorrow once again.

Hi,

I bought an inspiron 9300 on october 2005 on Switzerland.

Yesterdat it appeared the first blue vertical line.

I'm currently on Brazil. Hope that DELL Brazil can provide me the same level of assistance as worldwide.

I bought my inspiron 9300 from US. Recently a vertical line developed which quickly became a 2 inchi thick line right in the middle of the screen.

Am currently in India. The tech support says that I will have to go to US to get the screen replaced. I might not go to US in the near future and the line has become a major obstruction for proper viewing...

I would like to get the screen replaced in India itself. Can someone please look into this?

Hello, the first vertical line on my inspiron 9300 appeared sometime around March and I called Dell. The person on the phone said a box would be sent out, but I never received the box from DHL. Because I use my computer every hour of every day I simply allowed time to pass by and never called Dell again. However because it is the summer and I now have about ten lines on my screen I was hoping Dell could resolve the problem they said they would resolve. I've had good experiences with Dell in the past and have nothing negative to say but I really do hope my LCD can be replaced since I purchased my computer in May of 2005.

Thanks!

Hi, all.

Thanks to excellent postings here & other sites on the net, I resolved my vertical line issue fairly painlessly.  Bought a Latitude D420 in April 2007; vertical line appeared in June 2008. However, I'd purchased 3-yr onsite svc (fortunately).

Email to vertical_line@dell got no response.  Pre-tested according to readings here & on support website. Went to Dell e-chat for tech support, less wait time, easier communication. In 30 minutes, I had a case number with replacement part on the way. LCD installed next day by competent techie, red lines gone. However, box containing the screen was labelled "Refurbished." I asked if I could count on new screen flatlining in another 14 months, but received no assurances either way.

Person I e-chatted with wanted me to send the notebook back; since I had the on-site service & it was 4th of July week, I had to insist on a visit a couple of times.

After you e-chat, you can either copy your conversation, or Dell support automatically emails it to you at the address you provide. Handy for documenting.

Pleased that it went so well, but could easily have gone the other way, leading to the kind of frustration I read here. Good luck on your attempts. And do count the Latitude D420 among the vulnerable.

Renee in S. Florida

I have an Inspiron 9300 purchased April 2005. Feb 2008 developed vertical line issue. Dell replaced LCD no charge (excellent service, prompt handling by DHL, no complaints about the replacement process.)

Two months later in late April 2008, replacement LCD went out completely. Dell initially refused to replace. During our negotiation, tech mentioned the replacement that failed was "refurbished". When I questioned why I hadn't been give a new LCD, he said "refurbished" just means they took it out of its packaging and bench tested it before it was installed. I was suspicious, but let it go when they eventually agreed to replace the second LCD after I asked to deal with a supervisor. Once they approved replacement the process was again very smooth and completed in about a week. However, they said they would not warranty this second replacement LCD.

Yesterday, less than five weeks after receiving the second replacement LCD I now have another single pixel vertical line developed in the display. Haven't called Dell yet but not looking forward to that after reading some of the other posts here. Anyone have suggestions other than keeping good documentation?

I having a problem with my E6400, that I bought a year ago.  My warranty expired May 28, 2008.  I have 3 lines going down my screen.  I called in May about one line, they did nothing now I have 3.  I have bought 3 dells lately, but I may have made my last purchase with them!  They want to charge my $39 to talk to someone and then more to fix the problem.  It seems to me that they are making faulty equipment!!!

Hi again,

I posted a very positive comment in this blog on Feb 11 this year, because DELL replaced the LCD of my 9300 Inspiron that was suffering from the vertical line issue.

However, three weeks ago, the vertical lines appeared again! I tried hard, but tech support now refuses to replace the notably "new" LCD again, the quote for a repair is CHF 700.- (USD 700.-)!!!

I am very dissappointed! DELL replaces bad LCDs with bad LCDs!

This is my experience with the vertical line issue.  A blue line appeared one night in May, 2008, out of the blue (so to speak ) 

I didn't think to research this, simply thought it was my computer going bad.  Purchased 19300 October, 2005, still in 3 year warranty.

I did an online support chat.  They put me through many tests.  Determined it was a defective LCD screen.  A tech came 3 days later and replaced the screen.  Blue line gone, but 2 horizontal lines on screen.   Tech said, bad video card.

Three days later, tech came back with a replacement video card.  Horizontal lines still there.  Tech said, let's try another LCD screen, will order one.

One week later, tech came back with the second LCD screen.  All lines gone, works fine now.

My husband also has an I9300, purchased in September, 2005. His screen has not developed the problem.  You can be sure I have bookmarked this blog in case this happens to him.

I bought my Inspiron 9300 in middle of 2005 in south Florida.  The vertical lines began to appear about 5 months ago.  After reading many of these posts, I almost gave up on Dell before giving them a chance. This would have been a big mistake on my part. I called the 800 number given at the top of this page on Monday and spoke with someone there named Chris. After explaining my problem to him and giving him the link to this page, he put me on hold for about 2 minutes and came back on to tell me that they would fix my problem and would be sending out a box for my computer. To my surprise the DHL driver arrived early on the following morning with my prepaid box.  I shipped my computer out Tuesday morning and it arrived back home this morning, Thursday, with a new screen and no lines.  I was without my laptop for only 2 days and I would like to thank Dell for the great support. They also called 2 times in between to keep me informed. I figured with all the negetive posts on this page they deserve some praise from those of us who have had a positive experience.

30 mins on the phone i have an empty box otw to send my laptop to them and ordered some extra parts for my laptop.  excellent service and no backtalk at all. best service i've ever had with dell.

Dell inspirion 9300 user

well, just to keep you guys updated: it has been a week now, and i have not heard back from dell. dell china, dell japan, dell us, dell whatever. not happy at all.

OK, so where is Lionel???

I purchased my inspiron 9300 in china, mid-april 2005, with a 3-yer NBD warranty. On May 2nd 2008 my first vertical line appeared. I searched around, discovered that my warranty has expired (doesn't Dell usually contact customers before the expiration date, so that they can extend? I thought so...), discovered that obviously this is a HUGE issue, and immediately wrote to the verical_line@dell.com address. Did not hear back. One week later - the second line appeared. I wrote another email. No reaction. On May 28 the third line. I contacted technical service in China directly. It took them a week, but I was super happy when I received their mail, stating that yes, I am one of those unlucky customers, and my screen will be replaced. Yet - I am now based in Japan. So they told me to contact Japan's technical support and forward the confirmation mail to their customer service, so that I can get my screen replaced. I called technical service Japan. I spent about 90 minutes on the phone, talking to Mr. Daisuke Shiroma, who explained to me that 1) my issue will not be resolved, and 2) no, there is nobody else I can speak to, and 3) no, I cannot forward the email to him, because he has no email address, and 4) no, I cannot speak to his supervisor, because he does not speak English, 5) I can only send an email via the internet supoort site, but it's in Japanese, and 6) no, he cannot explain to me over the phone what to do next. I must say - not happy at all. I would have been more than willing to extend my warranty. I was definately sure to buy a new Dell early next year, and I have recommended Dell to many of my friends. Yet - I am an architect, and having vertical lines on my screen is not exactly helpful when using CAD programs. Not receiving ANY help from Dell for more than 4 weeks (after it's been 2 weeks since the expiration of my warranty, AND this is obviously a well-known issue) is not fun, either. Sitting at the end of the world being left without English-speaking support  - oh well. I really hope to hear back from you guys, because otherwise, buying Dell is just not an option any more.

Hi all,

All I can say is persever. I've just had my screen replaced. Thats even though I bought it in UK and now live in Oz. Sent my emails to the vertical lines, and talked to tech support. Even thu tech support hadnt heard of issue and we had a bit of a disagreement on phone, it was all sorted in end. Whilst I'm happy I think it could have been handled better, but fair play to Dell fixed it !

Gary

Inspiron 9300 purchased in December 2005 in Australia.

Started developing dead vertical lines recently.

Dell support made up some sort of lie about having done a recall already for this problem in Australia.  He hasn't even heard of Direct2Dell.

Why do we need to complain here on Dell's blog instead of just getting it fixed over the phone?  This process is quite stupid.

Is there an internal FAQ number we can quote to the phone support to tell them "Hey, my computer has this problem: #1234" and they confirm my model and criteria and perhaps ask for a picture of the defect to be send to their email and then send out the repair technician?

It would be easier and cheaper for everybody involved.

jliu 

I have had the "vertical lines" on my Inspiron 9300 for over 6 months now. It started out with two or three, but it is now up to 15 lines. I called Dell about a month ago and was told that since I was out of my warranty, I would have to pay $49 to speak with someone in the 'out of warranty' tech support. Thankfully, I declined, and I just came upon this 'vertical line issue' while searching for solutions this morning.

I just spend 50 minutes on the phone with Dell. At first they kept telling me my warranty was expired. I told them about the info I read here and the rep then said he was aware of the 'special situation". He told me that tech support had to authorize the repair, and since I was out of warranty, I would have to pay the $49 fee to speak with someone at tech support so that they could arrange for the repair!

Obviously I refused to pay just to speak with someone. I was put on hold numerous times for 5-15 minutes. He finally came back and said he talked to his supervisor and everything would be taken care of. I was given a "dispatch number" and was told I would either be contacted about sending the laptop back or I would receive a package to return the laptop. I'm actually not quite sure which because the rep was a little difficult to understand.

So now I wait....hopefully a return box will arrive or someone will call!

I purchased an inspiron 9300 and I have two VERTICAL LINES on my lcd. I have called customer service twice and they advised me that they would not fix the issue, they told me their was no recall.....Not too happy. I have purchased 3 systems......... 

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 with the vertical line syndrome and I called the 1-800-624-9896 at the top of the screen twice.  The first time I was transferred once, the second time I was transferred twice but both times the same conclusion.  They would send out a box to mail in my computer at with a $498 price to fix it.  I purchased my computer in Jan. 2006, within the 3 year period but still they claim my computer part is not covered.

Any suggestions besides "chalk it up as a loss"?

 i have dell inspiron 9400 with vertical lines problem what the next step i need to do ?

Ok, so here is my update...

To my surprise and delight, I didn't have any hassles at all!  No long waits on hold, no endless explaining of the problem to multiple techs, no voice mail, no language barrier, nothing but answering a few simple questions and a few pauses while the tech looked things up and conferred with his supervisor.  He even noted that I was 3 weeks over the limit but shrugged it off as not a problem!  I called this past Friday.  DHL delivered a return delivery box first thing Monday morning at work.  I met the delivery guy and put my laptop, minus battery and hard drive, into the box and handed it right back to him.   Checking the tracking number, I saw that it was delivered to Dell's facility in Memphis, Tennessee at 6 AM Tuesday morning.  I got an automated call in the afternoon from Dell informing me that they had received my laptop for repair.  To my shock, I got another automated call first thing this morning telling me that the laptop had been repaired.  I checked on the new tracking number they gave and it was actually already back in Buffalo and out on the truck being delivered!! They had shipped it back out last night around 5:30 PM with a Next Day 10:30
delivery plan.  It was just past 10:30 so I figured it would be here soon.  I
checked my email and found that the receptionist downstairs had just sent me a message telling me that a package had arrived!!!  Sure enough, I now have my laptop back in hand.  According to the packing slip, they not only replaced the LCD panel, but the system board as well!  That means I have pretty much a brand new laptop! 

So, color me surprised.  After reading all of the comments here, I was expecting nothing but hassles and instead, I got stellar service.  I can not believe the quick turn around time.  Now, Dell definitely dropped the ball with identifying the scope of the problem to begin with and it seems pretty obvious that they made no attempt at all to contact affected customers as stated above that they would. They certainly did make good in the end though, so I commend them for that.  To sum up, I am a happy customer again!
 

Arggggg!!!!!!  I have had vertical lines on my 9300 screen for months now.  A couple of days ago the entire left side of my screen went missing in action.  Frustrated, I searched the net for any info I could find on my problem.  Went to the Dell website and followed the Dell trouble shooting tree and ran the built in diagnostics and it basically suggested that I purchace a replacement LCD kit...  Following some trouble shooting I found on another site, I took my laptop apart and checked all the connections.  No change. Looking for replacement lcd panels my choices are $250 or so used on up to $500 new!  Did some more digging and found a a obscure reference to this page.  Imagine my surprise to find out that the lines are a known problem and that Dell was supposed to have contacted me over a year ago to let me know about it.  :(  I am currently about 3 weeks over the 3 year limit!!!  To say that I am upset is an understatement.  I intend to start calling tomorrow but based on some of the comments listed above, I am not very hopeful.  :( 

I'll reply back with any updates.

*sigh*

I bough my Dell Inspirion 9300 during Feb 2005. Now it's April 2008 and I have not received any letter or screen. Now my screen is also showing 3 vertical lines. What should I do? Should not my laptop be within the recall?I hate to call Dell customer service.

I bought my laptop in France in November 2005 and live in Australia now. After transferring my service tag from France to Australia, I just got the screen of my Inspiron 9300 successfully replaced. Thanks Dell! My tips are to use the "Vertical Line Issue, <country name" email address and process as indicated at the beginning of this page. Than be a little patient (wait 2 to 3 weeks for a reply), and than follow the instructions in the mails and everything should go fine.

Now, if you want to call Technical Support, that might be little more complicated! First, you have to be very patient, because sometimes it took me more than 40mn to reach a person...Than, as other people have already noticed, Support will require that your laptop be still under warranty in order to process your claim - which is a condition not stated on this page; the condition being that your laptop having less than three years old. But this, Support does not know...So you might have to discuss and argue with the poor Support guy; but it's lost in adavnce and you might lose your temper - unless you are  really convincing...

So use the indicated email process and avoid Support.

Good luck!

2 years ago I purchased my XPS m140 and 1 year later I had vertical lines develop in my monitor.  Some are white, green, red...almost every color totaling to about 20-30 vertical pixels that are totally out.  When I called Dell about this they wanted to charge me $550 to fix this which is absolutely ridiculous.  I should not have to pay for DELL'S PROBLEM.  The lack of a working monitor is a pain in the butt and it is impacting my work performance because I am unable to see what is on my screen.  Apparently this is a huge problem for not only me, but other people.  I want my monitor fixed and I would like to know what I should do?

It is nice to hear so many nice things about Dell's policy to change the monitors. But it seems that mine (that developed two nice vertical lines in the past 2 weeks) does not fulfill some criteria to be replaced, even though it is clearly faulty.

 It is an inspiron 9300, purchased between Nov. 2004 and Oct. 2006. After wasting about 2 hours in the phone I was told that my part number does not correspond to the ones that are replaced for free. 

 Anybody heard anything about this? Or the guy in the phone just did not know what he was doing? 

Just want to follow up to my March 19th post. The next day after my call, I received a shipping carton with very clear instructions as to how to pack my laptop and what should be returned. I sealed the box and took it to a DHL pick up point for a Saturday pickup (Friday was Good Friday). I received an automated call the following Wednesday that they had received my laptop, with instructions that they would call when the repaired unit would ship. Much to my supprise, the next day the laptop was delivered and the call telling me the unit has shipped was on my voice mail. They also replaced my keyboard, there were two keys that kept falling off. I wasn't expecting that, I never told them about that problem, since it was caused by my daughter's cat jumping on it. 

From the time I called to the time I received my repaired laptop was just a week.

 I feel for all of you that are having just the opposite response from Dell, I don't know why a company would treat their customers so differently.

I'm typing this while looking at my just-replaced LCD screen on my Inspiron 9300 (purchased 4/05).  I called Dell, after reading this website, on 4/2/08, as I had 2 vertical lines that have appeared over the past few months.  After spending 45 minutes on the phone with a Dell customer service specialist (yes, in India) it was determined that the vertical lines on my screen were caused by this problem and were covered under this recall.  I didn't have any difficulty with the representative, and she knew exactly what I was talking about.

 The following day, I was contacted by a local Dell technician to replace the screen on my computer (in house, didn't have to send my computer off anywhere).  It was very easy.  Dell handled this smoothly, and I didn't even have to mail my computer off to anyone. 

 This is my first Dell laptop, but I expect to buy Dell in the future.  They handled this very professionally.

 My Inspiron 9300 which I purchased on May 2005 worked like a charm for 2.5 years. Then, all of a sudden, it developed vertical lines on the screen. I read in other forums about how expensive it's to get it fixed.

 Then I saw this posting. I called Dell. No waiting! No hassles! The acted immediately!

They send me a DHL prepaid shipping box in 2 days!

Here is the timeline :

1. I shipped the package to Dell on April 1 2008

2. Dell Confirmed the receipt of my laptop on April 2 thru' email and phone

3. Another confirmation came from Dell on April 3 (with DHL tracking #) mentioning that they repaired my laptop and shipped it to me on April 2 at 8.30 pm.

4. My laptop reached my home on April 3 at 11.00 am. Turned it ON-NO VERTICAL LINES!!!!!

No words to describe this kind of customer service from DELL!

Dell is simple just Great~!

 

Hi Everyone.

Seems that it's almost a question of luck (or location) - I live in the UK.

My 9300 got the line 2 weeks ago, then I found this site. I've sent 2 messages so far and yesterday got a reply - my screen is to be replaced... no fuss, no bother, no hassle.

I work on ships for ten weeks at a time and explained this - the reply said to contact them when I get home to arrange for a service visit.

Just after buying the 9300 and on a ship I found that the DVD wouldn't write +Rs - e-mailed support - amazingly helpful. I explained that we had no Internet access (this ship does, via satellite) - lots of e-mails back and forth. Finally they said to re-install some drivers, but I didn't have the disks - so they couriered a full set free of charge - but they had to go to my neighbour's address (wife at work) - so they telephoned my neighbours to arrange a time......

(Turned out that it was only some brands of disk, and there's now a patch)

Anyway, personally I have to give Dell 100% - But I seem to be one of the lucky minority - they really have to get on the ball a bit more; at least, to standardise internationally etc.

My sympathies to the rest of you with the dreaded 'line' - keep trying, and the best of luck.

Peter. 

Hi all,

I've purchased an Inspiron 9300 in october 2005. Two lines appeared on my laptopn in April 2007. I first contact Dell support who stated that I had to pay.

I found this blog few days ago and contact support again as I saw I was inside the bad built period for a concerned product, inside the three years window and that my problem was exactly the one described here.

Dell support (in France), says that my screen is not inside the affected product list !!!

So I want to inform Dell and other customer that the list must be amended as the SAME problem occurs on other screen series...

The problem might be biggest than it has been discovered one year ago.

 Dell, take care of your customers, they have a some memory !

Hi all,

 I purchased a Inspiron 9400 on August 2006, and guess what?. After 15 months, two vertical lines appeared. I contacted Customer Support, I was instructed to ran some tests, and then, they told me that I need to replace the LCD. I looked for information about this problem on the internet and found that there were other models affected. I was contacted by the Technical Support department and they told me that unfortunately, my model is not among the system affected and the cost of repairing it (it´s quite expensive, by the way).

 I must recognize that I felt a bit angry and totally dissapointed (bearing in mind that I was not the only one experiencing this problem). I cancelled the reparation request of course. I purchased Dell thinking that it was a quality product, I guess I was wrong. I just hope they include the model 9400 too in this list soon.  

 A totally dissapointed customer.

I read all of these comments which caused me to dread making the call to Dell. But I did. So you all know, I own 2 Dell laptops and 1 desktop, but have retired 4 desk tops in the last 6 years or so. I've always had great success with Dell service the few times I have needed it.

 As it turns out this experience was no different. After finally getting to speak with someone alive, and I explained my vertical line issue with my 9300 and refered to this blog, he put me on hold for just a short time to confirm what his actions needed to be. He came back online and side that they would replace it (purchased Sept 2005 so still inside the 3 year window). He set it up for a box to be sent to me so I could return the unit via DHL to their depot. All I needed to do was remove the battery and HD. 5 to 8 day turn around time. He gave me case numbers, dispatch numbers, direct phone extension, even the phone number to DHL

 I'm still a happy Dell customer.

"Dell is offering to replace any LCD that develops a vertical line within three years of purchase, at no charge for parts and labor."

This statement is misleading at best. I have an Inspiron 9300 purchased within the timeframe described. It is exhibiting exactly this problem with the monitor and yet when I contacted Dell I was told based on my service tag number that Dell will do nothing to fix my faulty laptop.

Warranty or no warranty, spending over $1000 for something just to have it break down in 18 months is not acceptable. 

It seems that Dell will fix only a small batches of these laptops. Then Dell posts sweeping statements like the one quoted above, making it seem like it is a responsible company that addresses faulty products that it sells to customers, when in fact what the company is doing is cutting its losses in a very calculating manner.

 

I have an inspiron 9300 that is having the vertical line issue and I called the tech support number given.  I had to pay the $49 out of warranty dell on call to even talk to someone.  the conversation lasted about 5 minutes and he put me in touch with the out of warranty parts department and they said that I had to ship back the dell and it would cost me approx $450 to fix the screen and I'll get a 90 day warranty.  she had no idea about dell fixing this for free and couldn't proceed unless I paid.  since this is a recurring problem, shouldn't the dell techs know about the fix?

Well I give up after fighting over the phone with Dell Latin America and Dell USA they say there's no way my laptop is covered and they can't even sell me a replacement monitor.

Can't believe I've been recommending Dell all this time and buying for my company. No more...

 The vertical line problem is not limited to the inspiron 9200,9300 but happens also on the inspiron 9400 as mentioned by a couple of other people.

 I bought an inspiron 9400 in april 2006 and a few days ago a vertical line appeared. It is really an LCD defect that can be verified very easy with LCD Monitor test programs.

Thanks for giving this information on this URL. I will send an e-mail to Dell as you specified above.
 

Up to know i was very happy with the quality of the device and the Dell support which i have used for some minor issues. I hope this problem can also be solved in a professional way.

 Great companies are known by the way they solve the problems! Lets see

Thanks again 

Why doesn't Dell update their list of monitor parts because there seems to be a lot of people who bought Inspiron 9300's in the period indicated (LIKE ME) and are being told that there computer isn't covered. COME ON... someone help PLEASE.

hi dell is good no problems since i have purchsed it just get in touch with the right deptt for the right solution dell will give u the best out of the services.

I've had the blue vertical line on the monitor of my two-year old INSPIRON 630m for one month. Is Dell dealing with these? Clearly it's the same problem as with the 9000 series.

I live in in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It takes eons for shipping. I use this laptop for work daily, and cannot ship it off.

I hope the news is good.

I too add to this list of  510M affected with vertical line issue, it has got 20 lines this too was bought from Malaysia.

Dell should support us, it is genuine technical problem at manufacturing level & DELL should appreciate  the issue & replace at free of cost for laptops 3 years from the manufacturing date?

[ I am back, the news here is unfortunately same answer, Inspiron 510m is not in our list, your lcd replacement are billable according to Dell Malaysia. Why there are so many people here (Ryan Wong, LeongTeck Ang, Ben Edwards, Fabiana, Arun, Killy, Li-Pei Wong, MANAV, Dipak, Chris Bowes, cheng, Murray Duncan, Santosh Singh, Robert, Mark) complaining about the same issue on this model having faulty lcd and Dell Malaysia still giving the same answer, and by the way Ben Edwards and Robert successfully get their 510m LCD replaced at no cost? Can anyone here think about it after reading this whole page, why Ben and Edward manage to get their replace for free while others are not? Is Dell never make a consistent list announcement to each Dell office all over the world? ]

Dell Latin America is saying that my XPS M170 is not a XPS Gen 2. I'm saying that it is virtually the same machine, just an updated version (processor, video card only as far as I know) which was release before Dell fixed this problem.

Am I out of luck?

Had this problem appear only about three weeks ago on my laptop, I found this posting and contacted Dell at the number listed above.  Mentioned problem I was having and he did not know about this issue (although I have worked as tech support and can understand them not being aware of every issue out of thousands), he wisely consulted with a supervisor and got the process rolling.

He had a DHL box shipped to me within 2 days of calling, sent laptop out and was shocked to find the DHL guy at my door minutes after getting a message stating my laptop was received at the center on my cell.  Replacement screen looks great and they even fixed a problem with my headphone jack!

I am thoroughly impressed with how Dell has handled this issue in my case, good luck finding another laptop manufacturer that will openly admit mistakes were made and even offer to fix those mistakes on out of warranty laptops. This is the proper way to earn customer loyalty and trust.  Thank you Dell.

Have irritating vertial lines on my Inspiron 9300 17inch. I am in Jamaica, how can I get some help?

Yesterday while using my Inspiron 9300 laptop, these white flickering lines appeared on the right side of my screen.

 Please help, it's really expensive here and I can't afford to relace the screen by myself.

Hi all,
My 9300 17'' started to show a vertical line in Dec 2007. I called the local (Swiss) support in Jan 2007, but they refused to repair the display. I sent an e-mail to vertical_line@dell.com. The support called me back one week later and agreed to exchange the display. It was done within three days! Thank you, Dell!

My Inspiron 2200 monitor has four vertical lines already, so this issue is not limited to 9200 and others. I bought my unit in Ontario. I'm now in the Philippines. Where can I have my laptop serviced?

I am back, the news here is unfortunately same answer, Inspiron 510m is not in our list, your lcd replacement are billable according to Dell Malaysia. Why there are so many people here (Ryan Wong, LeongTeck Ang, Ben Edwards, Fabiana, Arun, Killy, Li-Pei Wong, MANAV, Dipak, Chris Bowes, cheng, Murray Duncan, Santosh Singh, Robert, Mark) complaining about the same issue on this model having faulty lcd and Dell Malaysia still giving the same answer, and by the way Ben Edwards and Robert successfully get their 510m LCD replaced at no cost? Can anyone here think about it after reading this whole page, why Ben and Edward manage to get their replace for free while others are not? Is Dell never make a consistent list announcement to each Dell office all over the world?

I'm from Malaysia and I have the same vertical line issue on my Inspiron 510m laptop. The vertical lines constantly developed overtime and now I have about 30 - 40 rainbow color lines on my LCD screen,  I will call Dell tomorrow for FOC lcd replacement. Guys just wait my response here when I have called them. Cross my finger hoping they don't tell me the same answer

 I called the number at teh top in bold and they required that i send on my laptop via dhl and it would be gone from 7-9 business days. I then called the number that TD said (1-800-822-4730) and they said they could ship one out but that it wont be covered under warranty. If i sent it in they would cover it for 90 days. I went with no warranty but not having to go without my laptop.

Dear Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager ...

Im from Mexico and my i9300 cost almost 2,200 dlls on credit on Dell.com m a freelancer working hard form my family, m very desapointed of my I9300 the plastic case of the laptop have my hands painted on it because the poor  material of it, i have 3 vertical lines, man i call 3 times to that number long distance, i have mail 4 or 5 times the time they answer mi call, they insist my warranty is off, bla, bla, is all my fault, bla, bla,bla, no way Dell is goin to pay for a repair not for the poor plastic case nor the 17inch 3 vertical lines screen.

Man, i can buy rebuilt or used a better laptop for under 300 dollars, compaq, sony, name the brand, the dream to own a perfect new laptop, has become a nightmare, not even eazy pawn gives me more tan 20 dlls for this I9300 thats not fair!

xcuse me my poor english, if u prefer to listen to my angry spanish ill be please to :) :) 

I really need help u seem to be one of the good guys, please helpme! 

I have an Inspiron 9200 that I purchased in Feb. 2005.  It recently developed the vertical line problem.  I called Dell support 1/23 and was able to request a new LCD, which arrived today.  I will suggest to anyone who calls support for the problem to have the url to this article handy.  My customer support rep at first wanted to charge me to diagnose the problem since my warranty was expired, but after I mentioned this article he was able to confirm that I was eligible for a new LCD. 

Dell's support site has an excellent step-by-step guide to replacing the LCD here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins9200/sm/gilbertv.htm#wp1006390

I got the Tech Support at Dell Jamaica, and they told me that my computer isn't a part of the recall. So how is it possible that Dell shipped so many computers during the timeframe that has the SAME problem, but it is limited to 2 or 3 part numbers? Does Dell plan to see if there are other laptops with other part numbers with the problem? I mean I'll have to buy a new PC now, and I definitely won't be buying Dell because they are basically telling me that their faulty computer is my responsibility to repair.

Thanks a lot.

 Just wanted to know if Lionel is still around cause I would really like some help with this issue. Im from Jamaica, and the technical support line in Jamaica doesn't seem to work. Thanks.

I notice that Lionel has not answered any queries in a long time. Is there something wrong? Why doesn't Dell update their list of monitor parts because there seems to be a lot of people who bought Inspiron 9300's in the period indicated (LIKE ME) and are being told that there computer isn't covered. COME ON... someone help PLEASE.

I had a bad battery in my Inspiron 9300 laptop.Now I have the vertical line problem as well. I was trying to contact DELL via E-mail. It was impossible because as the message say, "the laptop was purchased in Canada."

I bought it in Florida back in 2005. I still have the invoice.Now I live in Europe.It seems to be completely impossible to solve my problems.

I'm afraid under no circumstances will I buy another Dell laptop :o)

I have a inspiron 9300 gifted to me by my uncle living in the US. The sytem dates back to nov 2005. Yesterday 10th Jan 2008 suddenly there has come a yellow vertical line which now i know is a hardware issue.

On calling Dell india the technical support tells me only 53 systems in world have this problem and i dont qualify for it. Either i buy a new screen or extend my warranty. But first i need to transfer ownership. I applied for transfer of ownership. But I dont think that only 53 systems have this problem. And even if it was how come other people having posts here are getting there screens replaced.

Can someone please help?

I just installed my replacement screen. Piece of cake! Lines are gone and I'm a very happy camper.

After struggling with the vertical line issue for several months, I ran across this site 2 weeks AFTER my warrantee had expired. I explained the situation to the Dell rep at the contact number, and after checking with his manager, authorized the replacement. They did want me to ship my computer to them for the swap, but I convinced them that I could do it myself with the instructions found here:

http://support2.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/ins9200/sm/gilbertv.htm

The display arrived Next business day - what could be better than that!

I have an Inspiron 6000 and I too have the vertical line problem that started about 2 weeks ago.

 I haven't seen any responses from Dell employees in this thread regarding 6000 owners.  Are they hoping we just go away?  At least just say "Too bad, next time buy an extended warranty because we don't stand by our products".

I have 17 line on my dell 9300's screen at the moment, they also told me that my part is not one of the defected ones and i have to pay $498 (+tax=$500+)  to fix. I discussed with him a little more and told him to go to this website,he talked to the manager and then gave me a $100 discount (he told me "take or leave") so I left because it still cost too much.

This is ridiculous, it sounds like they are making up excuses telling me that mine is not the one under recall. 

I really would like to know if this is what they are doing to avoid replacements.

I got a vertical line last month, and I called up dell, they said they cant replace the lcd screen because the warranty is more than three years old. I do not understand this, where did the three year come from, is this some idea of dell to avoid replacing and get away with it.

I had a problem in my Sony camera which i had bought four years ago and they replaced the component in a week without a question because they knew that it was their fault and not mine. They did not have any crap about whether it had been three years or more from when I had bought the camera. I think Dell should learn something from Sony about treating their customers with honesty and sincerity. Hope some day they have problems with the computers they are working with and realize what it feels like to invest hard earned money into something and see it not working just because someone installed a faulty component.
 

A follow up...my lines are all colors...not just blue.  I have a few blue lines of different shades but I also have many other colors.  I have tried to get rid of the lines and they don't go away.

The problem with the thin blue vertical line is just not a "Dell" problem. The same problem is occurring on Apple computers with 17" screens (see: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5924450)

AND just hours ago, the thin blue vertical line appeared on my 17" HP computer screen. I purchased my computer in August 2005 and have never had any problems until now.

This universal problem is explained in the apple discussion group as follows:

"The Diamondtron CRT used in the 17-inch Studio Display incorporates an aperture grid of very fine, vertical wires to enhance the sharpness of the image. Exposure to cold and or vibration can cause these fine wires to temporarily adhere to each other.

"The vertical line anomaly is inherent to this type of display when exposed to lower temperatures and is not indicative of the need for a service call.

"If your display is exhibiting visible thin vertical lines, you can most often break the adhesion between the grid wires by using the heel of your hand to moderately impact the side of your display under the Apple logo on the right, then left side. Using moderate force does not damage your display.

"To avoid scratching or marring the external plastics, remove any jewelry or watches before you tap the display.

"If the lines persist after a few attempts to break the adhesion of the wires, you should take the display to an Apple Authorized Service Provider for additional troubleshooting."

The above is provided for information only. I am not necessarily recommending smacking the computer screen as a solution. I would be interested if anyone could shed further light as to why the computer screens on 17" Apples, Dells and HPs seem to be prone to this problem.

Thanks and Happy New Year to Everyone!

I have an Inspiron 6000/E1505...I started with 1 vertical line and now I (after 2 new ones popping up today) am up to 16.  We purchased this laptop for personal use and first my hardrive crashed and we were sent a new one.  Then I began having issues with the software not recognizing all the usb ports (I actually still have this issue) and the lcd stopped staying in place.  The lcd was loose and we sent it in for repair.  About 6 1/2 months ago the first line showed up while we were in an airport on our way home.  I have called and my husband has called.  We get told the same thing...this model is not covered and of course "your warrenty is expired" a fact we already know. 

When on the phone with the customer service folks, the guys are always polite.  This is a reflection on the product not the people.  The product has bugs!  I just wish that when we report a problem we could get a fair solution.  I counted 3 other notes previously mentioning the same system as mine.  I guess I am not an isolated case like I was lead to belive.

 I want Dell to replace my lcd free of charge so that I can continue to enjoy investment.  I belive that I should get more than 1 year out of something that costs $1500 + dollars!

Heather Lorenzen

I just create the next email: dell.vertical.line@gmail.com. The idea about it is all of you send an email with the follow information:

Name:

Country.

Model.

Serial Tag.

Batch number (of your lcd)

Date of purchase:

Date of the first report to dell support.

The excuse given by support: (like out of warranty or your batch is not include, etc).

The idea is to create our data base and try to find a new batch whith the same problem.

 Regards,

Nico 

Hi, I'm form Chile and have the same problem... Vertical Lines. But support only said that I'm out of warranty, and said that my LCD was not part of the batch

to be replacing. How can we know if our LCD number is part of the same batch?.

It's incredible the coincident... I have an Inspiron 9300, I bought it on Jan '05, has the same problem, but, it's not part of the batch to be replaces, like many other,

Dell is hidden information.

I emailed vertical_line@dell.com. No response so far. I have TWO Dell 9300 Inspiron notebooks and BOTH have vertical lines appearing within one week of each other.

I have no  idea as to what to do now. Would someone please bother to help? I will call them tonight. Let's see.

I have the same problem with 2 year old Inspiron 1300 (15.4). Today I called Dell Canada and was politely told to f. off

No more Dell junk for me

one of our company's Inspiron 6000 developed very bad multiple vertical lines. I email dell's customer service dept. for this recall issue, received an email back asking me to contact dell's techincal support.  I did what they said and received another email from techincal support asking me to contact Dell's customer service for any recall issue. it seems that they are playing ping pong here. I really have no time to play with them.

I got so upset and just placed a new order for five laptops for our company to HP instead of Dell whom I usually purchased from for the last five years.

Shawn

I have an Inspiron with the same LCD problem developed (read 'observed') while touring india but while I contacted the customer care, I got to know Dell India doesnt even have a Depot where we can give for problem resolution. What surprised me most there are hundred thousand of them installed and used in india, i was told, and still none to take care of problem!

Finally when I talk to call center they say since this is not under India Care, they cant help it. Iam helpless