Inspiron 9300, fix or repair?

Ronan

The LCD on my Dell Inspiron is knackered, and at the cost of 550 euros to replace the screen I am thinking of selling it for parts instead of getting it repaired. I've searched adverts.ie but I can't find anything similar so I was wondering what any of you more techie lot think, worth fixing or sell for parts? And would it fetch a decent price?

Specs:
2 years old
Inspiron 9300 Pentium M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
17" UltraSharp Wide Screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Display with TrueLife
1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
80GB (5,400rpm) IDE Hard Drive
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
D- Series 90W AC Adapter
Primary 53 Watt/Hour, 6 CELL Battery
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Go graphics card, PCI- Express x16
EURO - Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card

mad m

Ronan,

How did lcd screen break? Was it an accident in house? If it was then you might be able to claim on your accidental house insurance...Just an idea anyway.

I'd say it would get a decent enough price,Im sure you would be still able to connect it up to an external monitor and use it as a desktop replacement.

Nouveau

I had a laptop a few years ago. The screen stopped working and I was quoted around 350 sterling to fix it.
I took it apart myself and found that all that was wrong was the hidden switch was gunked up. I cleaned it and it worked for another year or two, probably still works now.
If I were you I would have a go at fixing it yourself. Replacing a screen on a laptop is not very hard, check ebay for a cheap one, and it may only be a bit of grunge anyway.

Ronan

There is about 20 or so vertical lines running down it, which from the problem is according to all my research and expert opinion I have sought is the LCD screen being screwed and in need of replacement. It does still function perfectly when hooked upto an external monitor. I have searched Ebay for a new screen, but unfortunately the cheapest is around €415, so maybe that might be a cheaper option.

Tom Dunne

The screen is generally the most expensive part of a laptop.

If you are paying anything over €400 for the screen, you really have to ask yourself if it is worth it. If you went to sell the laptop with the new screen, you may not even get €400 for it.

Kimbot

Ronan... www.laptopparts.ie
Give him a ring and see what price he can do for you for the parts. He seems reasonably priced aswell!!

Tom Dunne

jonny24ie wrote:

Ronan... www.laptopparts.ie
Give him a ring and see what price he can do for you for the parts. He seems reasonably priced aswell!!

Are you in any way connected to that website?

OT: That website wouldn't instill confidence in me. WTF is www.eirlingus.com?

Kimbot

tom dunne wrote:

Are you in any way connected to that website?

OT: That website wouldn't instill confidence in me. WTF is www.eirlingus.com?

Nope!! I was looking for a few chargers etc and he is the cheapest that does them and seems grand to deal with aswell!!

Ronan

thanks for all the replies guys, and that looks like a good link there jonny.

I saw on ebay that I can get a WXGA, instead of the WUXGA for approx €220 delivered, I know it is a lesser resolution but I think I can live with that. So, is there that much to changing the screen yourself?

Kimbot

Changing your screen could be a pain in the rear!!
Just take your time and take photo's of every litlle step so you can retrace your steps and all should be fine!!

TerrorFirmer

Sell it. The spec's are good and it can still be hooked up to an external monitor, with that kind of hardware it's still even usable as a semi-decent games machine. Although I suppose it'd be worth repairing if you can find a cheap screen...

godtabh

Ronan wrote:

The LCD on my Dell Inspiron is knackered, and at the cost of 550 euros to replace the screen I am thinking of selling it for parts instead of getting it repaired. I've searched adverts.ie but I can't find anything similar so I was wondering what any of you more techie lot think, worth fixing or sell for parts? And would it fetch a decent price?

Specs:
2 years old
Inspiron 9300 Pentium M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
17" UltraSharp Wide Screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Display with TrueLife
1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)
80GB (5,400rpm) IDE Hard Drive
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
D- Series 90W AC Adapter
Primary 53 Watt/Hour, 6 CELL Battery
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Go graphics card, PCI- Express x16
EURO - Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Mini PCI Wireless LAN Card

My motherboard died a few months back. Cost €400 to repair but well worth it cause its a fantastic laptop.

At the time I was gona replace it but couldnt find anything similar for the price I paid for it 12 months before hand so didnt bother

Ronan

While searching for LCD screens yesterday I came accross this site - http://www.dellverticalline.com/ which documents the following

There is a defect that is causing vertical (1 pixel wide) lines to form on the LCD screens of Inspiron notebooks that were purchased around March-May 2005. These lines may either be stuck on one color or vary in color depending what content is displayed behind the line.

So I decided after seeing all the other cases and knowing that I bought my Inspiron during the suspected I decided to contact Dell again and asked a manager to look at this site... and amazingly they have agreed to fix my Laptop for free as a gesture of goodwill, and an engineer is coming out today! Hopefully if anybody else has a similar problem this might help.

Tom Dunne

That's pretty good all right. Who says Dell don't care?