Inspiron 9300 LCD screen problem

I had my 9300 in its case in the back seat of my car for a 4 day road trip. Since I returned and booted up, I have had a problem with the LCD screen. The lower third of the screen is completely filled with vertical lines and no characters are visible! However, if I press in on the Left Lower Corner of the screen, all these vertical lines disappear and everything is normal! I have rigged up a "clip" to exert constant pressure on the left lower corner of the screen, and all looks 100% normal. As soon as I release the clip, the altered lower third of the screen appears.
I would guess that a ground or contact is loose. Is this expensive to get fixed? I am on the cusp of my repair contract, so Dell may be fixing it for nothing. But I wanted to know exactly what to tell the Dell repair people when I talk to them.
In 4 years, this laptop has had zero problems until now.
Would appreciate advice/guidance.

 

Since you can fix it by pressing on the screen, I'd say it's a loose or shorted contact somewhere. You can try to re-seat the display and/or connectors as detailed in your service manual: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins9300/sm/index.htm. If that doesn't work, it may actually be a problem with your LCD.

If you're still under warranty, you should just go call Dell and tell them to fix it; they'll probably just replace your entire display for good measure.