A few month ago I had a purple and green bar appear the full height of my monitor. It was independent of any screen resolution since it appeared in the same place and at the same size every time, and was quite obviously a fault with the monitor. The problem I had was that it was intermittent – the worst kind of fault.
For the past few days I’ve had the ‘Son of Scanlines’ back with me. Without fail, a green bar vertically on the screen, full height, will appear every time the monitor is first switched on. After 30-60 minutes it would fade out, but was easily reproduced by allowing the monitor to go into standby mode and waking it up again. It’s no longer an intermittent fault, and since the monitor comes with a 3yr warranty, it’s time to get it replaced.
I emailed Dell not without some trepidation, since the last time I attempted a warranty return on my laptop they just weren’t interested, fobbing me off with as many excuses as possible. I took pains to test the monitor under as many conditions as possible: the same monitor on a different computer; another monitor on the regular computer and even the same monitor on a different computer via VGA instead of DVI. All results were the same – the band of green appeared whenever the monitor was used.
So I emailed Dell, but even that was tricky since they require a system service tag in order to identify the system they’d sold me. Since I had bought the monitor as a standalone item, I didn’t have a service tag. Since I didn’t have a Case Number already, I couldn’t use the ‘Unresolved Issues’ form. In the end, while examining my original Dell Invoice, I found the address UKI_Customer_Care@Dell.com and used that.
To my pleasant surprise I received an email from Dell the next day, basically confirming my suspicions about the monitor and asking for contact and delivery information to arrange collection. I promptly emailed the info, and the monitor is to be collected on Friday.
So the first tip: Be sure to test as fully as possible because Dell will only ask you to do it anyway. If you test as much as possible and leave no get out, things will go much more smoothly.
Update: Wednesday, 12:29.
Received another email. From the sound of it, they’re sending me another monitor out and picking the old one up at the same time which seems like awfully good service on their part. We shall see.
Update: Thursday, 08:35.
Confirmed – they’re dropping off a replacement at the same time as picking up the duff one. I’ve emailed to confirm if the monitor stand is required as well (since it’s quite weighty). The duff unit is all boxed up ready to go and M has her instructions. So far, Dell have been pretty flawless. Dammit.
Update: Friday, 11:30.
SURPRISE! Dell managed to send me a different monitor completely. Instead of the 2001FP I have a 2007FPb waiting for me. A monitor so elusive that the only pictures I could find of it were on a chinese blog. And of course, it looks nothing like my other monitor. Great!
Sigh. I’ll email Dell back and see what they say this time.
Update: Tuesday 25th, 08:36.
After thinking about it over the weekend, and receiving an offer from Dell of a 2001FP in exchange, I’ve decided to keep the new monitor and buy a second 2007FP to match. As far as I can tell, the 2007FPb is a model in the 2007FP product range, so they should be identical. My current 2001FP is just out of warranty, sadly, so I’ll probably stick it on eBay.