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Vostro 1700 LCD Issues
I purchased a Vostro 1700 a few weeks ago, only to receive one with a faulty screen. The left hand side, about an inch in down the whole height of the screen, is grainy and dull. By dull, I mean the colors are visibly less vibrant than the rest of the screen, and by grainy, I mean that you can easily see the pixels, and it almost looks like you can watch them refresh. I requested that a system exchange be performed, and today I got my replacement laptop. I opened it up, turned it on, and... got very upset when I noticed this new screen might actually look worse than the first one. Is there some sort of problem with the LCD that is being used on the 1700 model, or did I just get very unlucky and receive two bad units? Has anyone else experienced a similar problem, and what should I do about it. This is definitely something that is unacceptable and annoying, but I do not want to keep getting replacements only to find that they ALL have this problem.
Message Edited by DSwarP on 08-17-2007 02:08 AM
Message Edited by DSwarP on 08-17-2007 02:08 AM
imbubbling
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Posted August 23rd, 2007 20:00
Same issue here with my Vostro 1700 WUXGA. It almost looks like a flicker or as if the refresh rate is not being applied to the left-most side of the screen (all the way down). I have tried several different "tests" to make sure my eyes are not playing any tricks on me:>> Stared closely at the the taskbar in the general area surrounding the Vista Start Button/Orb -- then used the same approach to stare closely at the taskbar in teh general area surrounding the Systray/Clock. The blurriness only occurs near the start button.>> Set my desktop background color to a solid dark grey, then back up and look at the display from a distance of about 10 feet at different angles. The left side of the LCD is clearly a lighter shade and almost looks like a transparency of about 10% has been applied to it -- blended towards 0% as you approach to the right side of the LCD.>> Opened Microsoft Word 2007 and maximized the window. Clicked on the Office Button to display the drop-down menu (New, Save, Save As, etc...) which has a white background -- what I see throughout that menu is a series of very light pink and white horizontal lines -- somethign to do with rendering maybe? Interesting thing is that if I re-size the Word window so that it only occupies half of my screen, then move that window to the right side of the display, then click on the Office Button, the pink lines are gone! This technique has been the most revealing so far.For the record, if I look up my Service Tag it shows that my LCD panel is manufactured by Panasonic. Out of curiousity, are other people experiencing this issue using WUXGA screens?- Wow, that is an EXACT description of my problem. I posted it on a forum, and I even said the SAME thing about it looking like you can see it refresh. Looks like its a problem with the Panasonic screens... guess I'll hope and pray and wish that the THIRD one being sent to me doesn't have the problem...
How did you find out what screen it was by the way?
EDIT: Hmm, I just looked it up, and....
1 GR433 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 17, Wide Ultra Extended Graphics Array, VIDEO ELEC. STDS. ASSOC., TLF, SAMSUNG
Looks like mine ISN'T a Panasonic... now I have no idea what the problem might be...
Message Edited by DSwarP on 08-23-2007 09:02 PM imbubbling
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Posted August 24th, 2007 21:00
I wonder if this is a motherboard issue....and exactly how many other customers have complained about it so far. Think Dell knows something is out of whack?imbubbling
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Posted August 27th, 2007 13:00
I stand corrected. I was actually looking at the wrong parts list (the one from my Latitude system) when I saw the Panasonic display. GR433 is the same part number as mine and it's made by Samsung. Spent 1/2 hour on the phone with Dell Tech Support today and they will be sending someone to replace the LCD. I specifically mentioned this thread and requested that they not replace it with another Samsung -- she noted the request but I won't know until I speak with a technician.For the record, I think the fuzziness was getting worse daily. The width of the hazy area seems to be expanding by about 1/8 of an inch every couple of days.I'll post after the replacement.FrontierLiving
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Posted August 27th, 2007 18:00
I am having the same issue on my 1700 as well. It persisted when I disabled the Aero interface and when I lowered the display resolution.I just got off a chat with tech support and he's asking me to go through the PSA diagnostics. Unfortunately I'm at work so I can't do it right now but was anyone else requested to do this? For those of you that have had yours replaced, what path did you take to get there?This really is a shame and the *only* issue I have with this otherwise fantastic machine.imbubbling
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Posted August 27th, 2007 19:00
Agreed, it's an all-around champ of a machine. The only real "issue" I'm having with this one is the LCD. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what laptop you buy, you're bound to find some annoyances (in this case small fingerpad, 9-cell battery sticking out of the back, keyboard hard to see in the dark, etc.). But the only real complaint I've had is the LCD -- that's a faulty hardware issue and should have been caught by Samsung in its QC process. Shame on Samsung - can't really blame Dell too much for this one.The process I went through this morning with tech support invovled looking for the haziness "outside of the operating system". We first did this by looknig at the BIOS screen (F2 upon boot)...it showed up. We then did it by running diagnostics upon boot (Fn + power on)...again it showed up. According to the tech support girl I spoke to this clearly pointed to the LCD being the problem and not the motherboard or the graphics card (ruling out the graphics card makes sense to me since it's dependent on the drivers from the operating system; can't really speak to ruling out the motherboard). The girl was actually very patient, curteous, and legitimately helpful. I was happy to run through the process with her and she actually jotted down my request of not shipping a Samsung replacement part.Right now my fingers are crossed - I'm hoping there is another manufacturer for the 17" WUXGA True Life - we'll see.Check your system's specs and see if the part number you got was GR433 - which points to the Samsung WUXGA.FrontierLiving
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Posted August 27th, 2007 19:00
Thanks for the great info. I just confirmed that in fact I do have the model LCD you have. So you're saying that there are different manufacturers that Dell uses?Just curious, how are they handling your repair? Are you shipping back your current system or are they sending you a new one first?imbubbling
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Posted August 27th, 2007 20:00
I don't know about this particular laptop, but in most cases manufacturers/assemblers source parts from different suppliers and give them specifications to which they have to conform. For example, on my 4-year-old Dell Latitude D800 with a 15.4WUXGA, there was originally a lot of problems with screen burn issues. Later in turned out that only the Samsung (surprise surprise!) monitors had this issue. Customers who ended up with the Sharp equivalents weren't experiencing any screen burn whatsoever.That's why the part number is so important. It lets Dell tie it back to the manufacturer (and probably to lot # etc.)Again, I don't know if Dell has more than one designated manufacturer for the 17" WUXGA True Life LCD panels (let's hope so), but it would be a silly business decision to rely on only one manufacturer for parts. That wouldn't let them hedge any of the risk (defective parts, pricing, geographical shortages, etc.). My fingers are crossed. I can tell you I'm not impressed with Samsung -- they always seem to ship defective parts to the market with very little attention to QC issues. It might be just a bad batch/lot of products -- the root cause may potentially even be one of the suppliers to Samsung. They have to track it down and figure out how to fix it.The fact that Inspirons have been using 17" WUXGA for a while is encouraging and tells me the likelihood of Dell using multiple suppliers is high. All I can tell you for now is that when you deal with Tech Support make sure you specify that you want a non-Samsung replacmenet if possible. Might take a while even if other LCDs are in use -- there is a global shortage of LCD displays right now (which, in and of itself, might explain to some extent why certain displays that would ordinarily fail QC test are actually making it to the market).
cbras9
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Posted August 17th, 2007 12:00