IS my Dell 700m Screen Dying?

Hello everyone.

I have my dell 700m for 2 months and I've been loving its super bright lcd screen.

Then something happened to it yesterday [V]

When I was reading some news story online, I felt the screen's brightness suddenly lowered a bit. But that didn't bother me much for what i was reading was a very interest story [B)]

Then this moring when i tried to edit some digital photos that I took, it started to bother me: Is the screen dimmer as it used to be??? So i compared it with my wife's Toshiba laptop's screen, which should be apparently dimmer than the 700m's. This time i found that the two computer screens have about the same level of brightness.

Just to make sure, i went to see a friend who has a Dell 700m as well. When we put the two 700ms side-by-side and both laptops LCD's were turned to the maximum brightness, it's obvious that mine has an appearently darker screen!

I tried to Google the problem but didn't get anything even close to it. Seems i'm the only one having this problem[?] So i called the Dell tech support. After 40 minuates of trouble shooting (check settings, unplug-plug power cord, poweron-poweroff, reinstall the Intel graphic driver....), nothing happenned. So the tech guy told me the only option left is to reload the whole system. Because i need sometime to backup stuff in my computer, he said he'll call me back in 24 hours. Before i hang up, I asked what if the reformatting won't help either? He said it MUST work and this SHOULDN'T be a hardware problem otherwise i should see nothing on my screen. Very skeptical about his confidence though, for I've heard that the LCD screen can get dimmer over time because the backlight gets older.

I know i have to go thru the reformatting procedure anyway for Dell to get rid of any possibility of software problem... But has anyone met or heard of the same screen problem before[?] Any suggestions[?] Thanks a lot!!!!

 

you may have reduced the screen brightness by accident... try pressing the Fn + Up arrow key a couple of times...

 

You might try removing the dispaly driver from device manager, then rebooting. It should re-install it for you. If that fails, call support and see what they have to say. The backlight might be failing, which will require a new display to be installed.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Yes I thought this could be the cause as the very beginning, but unfortunately it's not[V]

When I compared my 700m with my friend's, both our computer screens are turned up to their Maximum brightness already (using the Fn+Up arrow), and all the settings for the colors and graphics properties are the same (default graphics property settings and 32 bit true color).


<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by i5kd2

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Brian

 

I would just call Dell before you buy a new screen. After all, you did pay for the warranty in the purchase so why not use it? Call them first, you might even be able to get a replacment. This ususally happens if a Customer Representive is in a good mood and that it is still under warranty. They did it for my buddies Inspiron 1100.

Windows - The operating system that runs the world.

Toshiba - Quality, price, and features!

 

watch out tho

They send you refurbs as replacements

i had to replace my 2001FP LCd 5 times because they kept sending me junk refurb that DIDNT work. one didnt even turn on! they claim to test it 10 tens but i think they just look to see if it is clean.

~RaNDoM

 

Thanks for all the replies. I surely will try to get a full replacement from Dell. It's bad enough to have a failed display after a mere 2-month of use, and the DELL tech support agent whom I was speaking to yesterday just pissed me off more: He didn't call me back at all as he promised to! He said he'll call me at 9:30 pm (mountain time) today but it never happened! After more than one hour of waiting, I had to call them again and after another 20 plus minuates of waiting, I was told that NO case records was created for yesterday's talk!!![ !] Now we all know that it takes long waiting time to speak to a DELL representative, and we have to try hard to communicate with their INGLISH speaking tech support agents, but being treated this way is still ... a surprise [:0]

 

After some calls this finally been settled. Dell tech support promised a new 700m as a replacement and said I'll receive it in 15 days. Then surprisingly i received the replacement in just 4 days! Haven't used it yet but some screws show apparent signs of being re-worked on, including those for the hard drive cover and the memory module cover. Does this mean this replacement is actually a refurbished one? Any ideas? THanks.

 

they probably sent you a refurb, but if it works and looks ok, then dont worry about it. You are still covered for whatever happens to it.

~RaNDoM

 

Thanks RaNDoM, I think your suggestion makes sense. But I just found out my 40GB hard drive shows a mere 34.4 GB total size,is it normal? My old 700m has 37.3 GB on it. Has anyone ever seen a hard drive with such a big difference between it's labeled and actual capacities?

By the way, the replacement 700m has a Fujitsu hard drive (Fujitsu MHT2040AH), whereas my old 700m has a Hitachi hard drive (HTS5480M9AT00). They have different DVD/CD-RW combo drives as well: THe replacement has a Samsung but the old one has a SONY.