Multi color vertical lines on lcd screen

Nvidia has some bad chips out there. I think you need a new motherboard as the video is built in.

I had mine repaired on my other HP laptop with a Nvidia geforce Go7600 .

Do it before your warranty expires. I had purchased the 3 year warranty so I was covered.

Good luck.

System: Dell Inspiron 9200

Purchased: 2005

Location: Seattle, Washington, UNITED STATES

Problem: LCD, Multiple Vertical Lines, Single pixel lines, One Red (Center), One Green/Yellow (Right side on screen)

Computer is used for ArcGIS mapping, 17 inch screen comes in handy when working right

Telephoned Tech Support: 1(800) 624-9861 at 9:15AM Pacific Time on Tues, Feb 24, 2009

9:15AM, First Customer Service Agent requests for me to pay $49 for tech support. I indicated that the problem was noted in over 100 letters I had viewed in Dell Community Forums so I would not be paying for tech support. I was told that because my warranty expired one year after I purchased the computer, that I must pay. I indicated that people had gone over the warranty and still had their faulty LCD’s replaced. I was told that I would need to be transferred to somebody else. I am transferredfrom the customer service center in India and wait for the next person to respond.

9:25AM, Second Customer Service Agent named Pamela asks for my Service Tag number. Pamela begins a repeated effort at securing a $49 tech support payment. I indicate that this is not a problem which I need to pay $49 for, the matter of a defective LCD which I need to have addressed. Pamela proceeded to swindle $49 in 5 different methods, to which I called her out and told her that she was attempting to take money for defects that had already been diagnosed. Pamela proceeded in battle for nearly 10 minutes before I finally asked to speak to a supervisor. I was instructed by Pamela that a supervisor could only repeat what she had discussed with me. I indicated that this would be fine, to please transfer me to a supervisor. Pamela placed me on hold as she attempted to locate a supervisor. At 9:40, I was told by Pamela that a supervisor was not available, but she would transfer me to a tech support manager to address the RECALL ISSUE.

9:50AM, Third attempt, A Tech Support service agent came on the line and asked for the Express Service Code, to which I also offered the Journal ID # 09055LY0NJ from Wizard ID 341382, from the pages at Dell which troubleshoot your problem. I was asked to hold so the agent could check his resources.   When the tech support person came back on the line, he was familiar with the Vertical Line issue and asked for me to bring another monitor to the laptop to see if the vertical lines appeared on another screen. They did not. The technical support service agent then asked me to power down the computer completely, then power up and press the F2 key 5 times. This brought up a grey screen. The technical support service agent then asked what was on the screen, which I indicated that a black and grey backdrop with white lettering was present. He asked if the lines were still there, and I indicated that they were. At that point, the technical support service agent indicated that the LCD would need to be replaced. He immediately went into suggesting that I purchase a $197.26 warranty, which I could be offered a deal for $149.00. I was told that the Warranty was normally $337. I responded by asking why he would perceive that I needed the Warranty. He indicated that it would be offered in case I had any future problems. I asked why he perceived that there may be future problems and how that might be applied to my LCD screen. He then indicated that the money would not at all be applied toward the current issue with the LCD. I then asked if the $149.00 amount was supposed to be the amount for replacing the LCD screen. He indicated that it was not the amount to replace the screen and that he would not be able to offer a price or a discount for the LCD. I then proceeded to say that if the $197.26 was not affecting the outcome of the LCD being fixed, then why was it suggested? As the technical support service agent was hesitant, offering that in the world, there are these problems and these things happen, I agreed with him, but asked if I could speak to his supervisor. The technical support service agent indicated that his supervisor was only going to reiterate what had already been talked about and probably could not do anything. I indicated that it was alright, that I still wanted to speak to a supervisor. At 10:20PM, I was transferred to a Tech support supervisor.

10:35AM, Fourth attempt, A tech support supervisor came on the line. It was a peculiar situation, as the person on the line sounded just like the person that had just talked to me. They repeated almost word for word the problems that had been discussed with the tech support service agent I had just spoken with. Upon repeating these problems, I was placed on hold for a moment. The next time somebody came on the phone, the accent of the person speaking was different than that of the person I was speaking with before I was placed on hold. This manager asked what I would like for them to do. I proceeded to say that like the 100 letters that I had in front of me indicating that this is an ongoing problem with the Inspiron 9200, 9300, and 9400 versions, I would like to have the problem with the lines in my LCD rectified, if that meant sending a container to send the product to them or having a technician look at the problem. I was asked by the manager where I got my information. I indicated that I found three sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/dell-fesses-to-more-vertical-line-issues-offers-free-replacem/

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2007/04/09/potential-vertical-line-on-certain-17-quot-notebook-displays.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/01/16/41379.aspx

Upon giving the manager these three sources, he proceeded to tell me that the information in these sources really is not accurate a great deal of the time. I proceeded to ask the manager that since I know four people on these sites that have indicated they have had problems, so are you then implying that my friends are lying to me. He said he was not saying that they were lying, to which I replied, “but then you are merely implying that they may be lying.” He then asked for the URL link, and then proceeded to say that it was not working for him. I asked for his e-mail address so that I could send it to him, but he was reluctant to provide one. I finally stated that what I believed that I was experiencing with Dell was a lot of finagling. I also indicated that as a seasoned journalist, I would be inclined to publish the conditions that I had experienced on Dell community forums as well as in other publications.  I indicated that with the number of computers and businesses that I have that use computers, while we use HP and Toshiba among others, it is unlikely that we would wish to purchase equipment from Dell again, based on the treatment from customer service that we had experienced. He then said that the request was really out of his hands, but that he could generate a case number for me, if I wished, where somebody would get back to me within 3 days. He placed me on hold again. When the manager returned, he indicated that I could use this case number he generated as a reference and anybody would be able to use that number to give me a response on the status of my request. I am now waiting to find out how Dell will proceed.

No one is going to offer out-of-warranty service without charge on a notebook that's four years old.   If you think the situation would be different with Sony, Toshiba, HP/Compaq etc., you'll be disappointed.