lol. yah that's pretty bad. just send it back. I went through about three until I got a decent one.

Mine is exactly the same way. The manufacturing date on it is Jan. 2006 too. I don't understand why and how Dell thinks this is an acceptable quality to ship to their customers. When I'm paying 400-500 dollars for a monitor, I expect it to be decent right out of the box. Anyways at least they overnighted another one for me, I'm just waiting on that now. Lets hope that its decent this time. I swear i'll exchange it 10 times if that is what it takes to get one that doesn't bleed. I hope that teaches dell to tighten up their QC to reduce cost from overnighted replacements.

I'll post a link to a pic of my monitor's bleeding when I get home.

Mine has this problem also, (received it Thursday) I guess thats why I got a deal $396. I also got a Jan 2006 date. What the best way to RMA, call or web

I'd hate to say it, but I think the best way to get a replacement is to call. But I would try the web chat feature if the call doesn't go well (before you try calling again).

Message Edited by Rolandami on 03-18-2006 10:16 AM

Darn!  This is my first Dell computer.  Not very impressed, but we'll see how they treat me on the phone.  I have the same backlight bleeding around all four courners.  The only good part of the monitor is the very center of the screen.  We just purchased 4 30" dell at work and they don't bleed like these ones.  Mine was manufactured in January 2006 as well.  What, were all the workers hung over after new years?  Too much tequilla I guess.  I will contact Dell tomorrow for an exchange.  I've been reading other forums and from the sounds of it, you may have to return it 10 times.  One guy gave up after version 3.  Good luck to us all. 

Well, I spoke to Tech support this am.  They gave me a reference number and said I would have to contact customer care on Monday to get a new replacement ordered.  He said that it was most likely a manufacturing defect.  I hope it's a good replacement, but after reading these posts, I'm losing faith.  As long as I can keep the monitor until a new one arrives, I'm really not that bothered.  I'll just keep sending it back until they get it right. 

Well, I received my second monitor.  Took it out of the box and plugged it in.  At first I thought I got lucky.  Looked beautiful, no bleeding.  After I took it home and turned off the lights, I could see bleeding in the bottom corners.  Not nearly as bad as the first.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I'll keep this one.  I haven't heard of anyone yet that has one of these monitors without any bleeding.  For the most part, I can't notice it and it didn't bother me when I was watching a movie.  The manufacturer date was March 2006.

I want to laugh so hard when I see ppl go all the troubles to get replacement because of this nitpick problem. Not to mention a waste of precious resources (fuel/packing material required for shipping) and time to get em replaced. Nothing is perfect. Majority of LCD panels have this characteristic. Find out how the lcd panel works. Its not impossible to manufacture a perfect screen with little to none backlight bleeding but they are rarely. This bleeding issue will affect more on the large size screen than smaller size. Its a limitation of the manufacturing method. Improvements are constantly found and the quality of the panels are getting better and better every year.

Message Edited by m3rs4 on 04-05-2006 10:41 PM

Man Dell needs more customers like you. Save them mucho $$$. You obviously don't realize how easy it is to get these replaced.

I am trying to save the environment ( :-) ) and doing what is fair. I read ppl has replaced 3 times to get the "perfect" panel. I know for a fact dell will replace if you are not satisfied and its easy to do.

I tested mine by using Dead Pixel buddy.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/Dead-Pixel-Buddy.shtml

For color black its not pitch black like you will get on the CRT monitor. Its pretty even across the screen. Depending the viewing angle I may see some extremely dark purple. so maybe I have a good one. its manufactured Nov 2005.

Message Edited by m3rs4 on 04-06-200609:14 PM

You got lucky and received one thats pretty evenly lit. I'm speaking on behalf of the people that has gotten 2 corner bleeders (thus needing a 3rd). Have you seen movies on your monitor? Thats why you need the light to be evenly distributed. There are many dark scenes in movies as well as gaming (e.g. exploring a cave in Guildwars). And you do know they recycle all their packing materials right? Or did you not notice the recycle logo on everything the monitor is packed in, my environmentally concious friend?

YEs I have seen dvd movies on this monitor. They are fine. consider that DVD ouput is not HDTV it would not be digital clear when displaying on 1680x1050 mode if viewing full screen. If u are using PC as playback device, software is used to expand to full screen. If you are using RCA as input and blow it up to 1680x1050. good luck ! :)