Dell 7720 i7 FHD uneven screen backlight

Hi there,

I'm having issues with my Inspiron 7720 backlighting, but different to yours.  I'm getting intermittent, extremely bright white flashes across the entire screen when running on mains power, and low-level, occasional flickering when running on battery power.

When I'm using battery power, the screen brightness increases, and when back on mains power, it dims.  This seems totally illogical to me—surely it should be the other way around.

Whatever, I'm guessing that DELL have some inherent but undiagnosed design issues with the backlighting in the Inspiron 7720 laptops.

Very annoying for a $1300 machine!

The Inspiron 7720 represents by far the worst experience I've had with a computer in my life.

I bought it 2 weeks ago with the illusion of having a powerfull portable computer, but the computer turns off all the time.  

Just turns off, the computer is just dead.

I have had these kind of problems with old computers when they work hard and the heat makes them turn off, or assembled computers with conflicts between the mother board and the processor.  But never with a new computer.

When I bought it (I live in Israel), they said that if something goes wrong you can call Dell and they send you a technician home, so I called and they said they were going to send someone the next day, but it never happen, I just waited for three days and they didn't even call.  Today I just returned the machine to the place where I bought it and now I am just waiting for them to give me my money back, I don't want to know about Dell any more in my whole life.

I strongly recommend not to buy a Dell and I will tell all the people I know about it.

I think that lots of users of this inspiron (7720) has problems. Starting from the BIOS which is somehow locked since A11 version...

I also have screen issue, it flickers in the lower part.

I got throught dell and they're sending me a techinician.

Unfortunately Andre I'd have to agree with this— "The Inspiron 7720 represents by far the worst experience I've had with a computer in my life."

I've had numerous minor—but very irritating faults none the less—since day one with this machine, and they're still not fully resolved to my satisfaction.  I'm finding it difficult to understand how a company such as DELL—with (allegedly) a worldwide reputation for manufacturing stable, high quality laptops, and providing first-class after-sales service, can apparently ignore the litany of errors as posted on this site.

And, like you, I'd certainly never recommend a DELL computer to family or colleagues.  I'd be embarrassed if they were to experience the plethora of annoying faults with their machines similar to me, and blamed me for recommending DELL in the first place.

Many manufacturers of IT gear will consider a new replacement machine if the product is effectively DOA straight out of the box.  This includes any fault whatsoever that makes the machine unsuitable for the use for which it was sold (such as faulty back-lights, keyboards,  graphics cards, optical drives, I/O ports, motherboards, LCDs etc).

Obviously this is not the case with DELL, and for that reason alone the company should be condemned for unsatisfactory, inadequate warranty/return/repair/replacement terms and conditions.

@ausGeoff - you may want to check your "Power Plan" profile for when the laptop is on Battery and Mains in regards to screen brightness as that is controllable from the profile itself, you may have them set the opposite of what you think.

As to the screen flickering now that itself may be an issue.  But, the screen brightness changing while switching between Battery and Mains can be controlled.

Thanks CyberMax...

Have checked the power plan and reset it.  Screen brightness now seems OK. :emotion-1:

Screen still has low-level intermittent flickering on battery power.  :emotion-6:

The (originally low-level) flickering on battery power has increased noticeably over the past few days—almost to the point of making the laptop unusable when away from mains power.

The flickering is now at a level that's constantly visually distracting.

Every day when I boot this thing up now, I'm asking myself WHY I ever succumbed to DELL's advertising and special discount offers, and purchased it.

—Once bitten; twice shy?

Thanks for that CyberMax. Much appreciated.  :emotion-2:

I eventually got onto a DELL rep in India yesterday who pointed that out to me as well.  (To be honest, I didn't even know that control panel dialogue box existed LOL.)

The rep couldn't seem to comprehend my description of the white flash however, which is still occurring intermittently.  It's like a camera flash going off in your face, and scares the deleted expletive outa you!

I'm guessing it's an issue with the backlighting LED array, rather than the display panel itself?

Cheers, Geoff.

Have to agree with your sentiment that this is the worst computer I have ever owned AndresFernandez. You can see the issues I've had here:

terribletruth-beautifullie.blogspot.com/.../dell-customer-service-and-dell-inspiron.html

I have a 6 year old Gateway MX6455 that cost me around $600. In that time it has needed one repair - because my 5 year old broke the power switch.

In less than 7 months my 7720 has needed 4 repairs with another one pending, and cost me $1100. So if I have it as long as the Gateway it will need approximately 60 repairs.

Complete junk.

Thanks for your blog link Jimmy.....

Have read and responded.

I bought my very first PC thirty years ago (ouch!)  It was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 16kB RAM and no HDD.  Had to learn BASIC to use the thing properly LOL.

 So I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the quality expectations one should have from computer products, particularly those from multi-billion-dollar corporations.  And which is why I consider myself well qualified in confirming your assertion that this DELL 7720 is "complete junk".

—Geoff.