My Dell grainy screen story

Hey all-

Even if no one were complaining, I would have still called Dell. It was by far the worst screen I had seen when I got my new 1520 last friday. It had everything everyone mentioned. In my opinion, it looked like someone smeared a little bit of vaseline on the screen, sprinkled in some dust and covered it with a coating so I couldn't clean it off. And when you've got those grey spots, the bright spots will naturally look sparkly.

The first tech guy I got wanted me to just send the notebook back and get a refund. I explained that I used a coupon, so maybe we should try to fix the issue. Than he wanted me to mail it to a dell depot so they could look for themselves, before fixing. I said I paid for in-home service, not mail in. He asked me to hold and promptly put me back in the que for another tech rep.

The next rep wanted to help me. No, Dell doesn't want you to buy a notebook and than send it back. I explained the problem as I knew it from forum posts here. He told me that he had a choice of LCD part numbers with which to send to a technician, but he didn't know which was the LG Philips that I was requesting. I told him the part number that was listed in these forums (XK309 I think). He said he saw it in his list of choices, conferred with another department to make sure that part number WAS an lgphilips, and by Tuesday I had an LG philips installed. And it looks so much better. I had a samsung. I'm not saying all samsungs are bad, but the one I got was. The funny thing is I had a WXGA+, and they basically gave me the upgrade WSXGA+ because I thought it was the same part, but oh well.

If the tech support isn't willing to work with you, hang up and call again. The tech support are the ones who choose the part to send to the tecnician, so if you have a part number they can select it. The tech rep told me he had lcd part numbers to choose from. And they do have a dept. they can get in touch with (he did), that can tell them what part number is for what manufacturer.

I too thought that maybe people were just exagerrating the grainy screen issue. But they are not. I see the difference. The LGPhilips does not look dirty, greasy and no sparkling that I saw with the Samsung. And no, I did not have to look real close to see it. The LGPhilips is nice and bright on those white pages. Thanks Dell.

Anthony

 

glad to hear you got it sorted!

 

Got my 1400 last week with the same display problem plus an audio problem also. Compared display with my portable DVD player side by side playing the same movie at the same time and my notebook's display looked dramatically worse! Looked up hardware ID for my display and it was SEC 4457(samsung). Called tech support yesterday, explained the situation and requested a lgphillips. He told me there was only one number for my notebook lcd, WK097, and didn't know what manufacture it was. He told me I could replace it but couldn't guarentee what manufacture the replacement would be. I haven't seen a ID/part# for the 14" anywhere yet(only for the 15"), so I couldn't give that to him. Needless to say, he couldn't fix the audio problem over the phone so I will have to send it in anyway but I want to make sure they replace the lcd with a lgphillips. I have read here many people requesting and getting the lgphillips but haven't figured out how to do it myself yet. I will take Jorune's advice and keep calling until I can get the lgphillips, but in the meantime, if anyone knows the ID/part# for the 14", I will greatly appreciate it.

 

im looking for the same as roca808

 

Yours is not so bad...

I asked for a screen replacement for my WUXGA 17" 1720 notebook.

For stupid reasons, I only sent in the LCD and not the entire notebook.

Huge problem. 3 weeks later and basically my LCD got lost.

I must have called Dell 10,000 times and wasted hours and hours talking from talk support to customer care to finally the Dell resolution team.

Finally, they agreed to send me a new LCD kit which only took 1 day to ship. I got it today. However, no screws were shipped along with the parts, so now I have to wait for the screws.

The good news is that they sent me an LG screen. I really hope that this thing looks as good as the samsung WSXGA I had with my previous 1720 notebook.

 

I don't think LG makes a 14" panel. From what I gather, the panel makers have trouble making this size.. graininess has been an issue for some time with the wxga +. Believe it or not, the SEC is probably has the best 14" wxga + at the moment. If you thing those look sick you should see how the 14" AUO wxga + is... those were really pathetic. I might be wrong, but I don't remember anyone saying that got an LG wxga + on a 14". If they only have that one part number then they are only using SEC now.. Which is good, since they must have thrown the AUO out of the mix. My suggestion is try another SEC or cancel/refund and reorder with regular wxga which should look better then any wxga + on a 14".

 

I'm afraid you might be right. No wonder I can't seem to find any specifics for the 14" wxga+ panels. And after being on the phone for hours for the last couple of days with tech support and customer care, I still can't confirm or secure a lg specific wxga+ replacement for my system. So what I would like to know is what are all the 14" wxga+ system owners with this problem doing about it if they don't want to keep the 1440 x 900 resolution? Just living with it? That's scary because my display is obviously substandard, I can't belive they can label it "High Resolution". Anyway, I am replacing my system at their recomendation with notes attached to my case record reguarding my concerns and request for a lg panel. I will see what happens and hope I don't receive one that is worse than the first one.

 

Sorry, correction on my last post. I meant "what are all the 14" wxga+ system owners with this problem doing about it if they "do" want to keep the 1440 x 900 resolution?

 

I have the AUO screen. To be honest, it is not all that bad. I looked at an HP 1440 x 900 screen on a 15" or 17" laptop, it is a bit grainy too. My 20" Dell LCD has a bit of grain if you look closely. So, I am happy with what I have.