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stars
"Hideous LIGHT LEAK on ALL 9300 screens (Dell-approved!)" on by Honest J
Pros: Dell did everything right, except for the screen
Cons: Lousy SCREEN, but not because of "sparkly whites" . . .
Summary: Long-story short: Dell KNOWS that there is a light leak fogging the bottom inch of all 9300 screens, but considers the fault "acceptible". It ISN'T. At the very least, they could tell their tech people about the problem, and not waste HOURS of their customers' and tech people's time trying to fix an INNATE MANUFACTURING PROBLEM.
See for yourself; pop in a letterboxed DVD, or change your desktop to solid black and you will see the white fogging along the bottom of the screen. May not be a deal-breaker for some people, but we found it, and the obnoxious rigamarole Dell put us through, highly annoying. Read our pathetic little story before calling Dell about this problem. Don't let them waste your time the way they did ours.
Based on reviews here, we thought that we had found our reasonably-priced, fully-featured dream machine. We decided to order from Dell, though we'd been hoping to acquire a laptop more quickly than the custom-build (top of the line EVERYTHING, including SCREEN) and shipping would allow. After two and a half weeks of anxious waiting our fully-loaded 9300 arrived. It was a big honker, but we'd expected that. It seemed pretty well-built, and all of the components seemed to work well. After seeing people here make a stink regarding the screen, we looked for the "sparkly" whites, and saw no real problem there. Then we popped in a letterboxed DVD, and saw a quite pronounced white fog along the bottom inch of the screen.
We tried everything to get rid of the problem, even some of the (ridiculous) "press-away-the-light-leak" methods found on the internet. We called Dell's tech support. The first tech we spoke to put us though the standard (45-minute) list of generic display-correction routines, such as plugging in an external monitor, resetting video card settings, etc, etc, without EVER recognizing our clear, specific, description of the problem. She referred the matter to an on-site tech. He arrived the following monday, and, without even booting up the machine, tore it apart and replaced the entire LCD screen and screen power supply. When he turned it on afterwards, the light-leak was still there. Hmm, he didn't know what to do about that. He told us to call Dell again the next day.
We spoke with the same tech that we had on the first call. She displayed no knowledge of our case (as if she didn't make a single note during the first long call), and tried to make us jump through EXACTLY the SAME laborious, unproductive hoops as the first time around. When we balked, she transferred us to a "specialty" (ie, "problem-customer") tech, who, taking an unnecessarily patronizing tone, immediately informed us that the problem was obviously their top-of-the-line graphics card, which, in his opinion, tends to run hot. He would send out the on-site tech the very next day to replace it. We expressed doubt regarding the card (housed in the body of the laptop) causing a white, suspiciously light-leak-type fog in both the first and second LCD screens, and received a condescending lecture on electrical impedence, the omniscience of Dell's tech support, and the necessity of another tech visit. We acquiesced, because we'd been taking abuse on the phone for an hour-an-a-half, and we were weary.
The next day the same on-site tech popped by and spent two hours completely disassembling our darling 9300 and replacing the hard drive, graphics card, and LCD screen. When fired up, the same glorious light leak was evident, and the tech sulked away, telling us to call Dell AGAIN, and ask them what to do. As instructed, we called back the second, more arrogant tech, and told him of our results. We offered to e-mail him a photo of the screen, in which the light leak was clearly visible. For the first time, he trotted off to actually LOOK at a 9300. He called us back to say that YES, HE'D SEEN THE LIGHT! But there was nothing that he could do about it. But it was really no big deal when viewing a white screen (!). We told him that, in addition to being annoying, we needed a premium LCD screen for professional photo and video manipulation. He had the gall to suggest that we simply attach ANOTHER MONITOR for important tasks like those (that the 9300 is ADVERTISED as being PERFECT for!). We were speechless. When we regained our composure, we asked him to transfer us to the Returns department.
After a month, heartbroken, we shipped the laptop back. Shame on Dell.
And shame on c-net for heartily endorsing a product without checking for what we now know is a common, but NOT inescapable, large-LCD problem.
- 32 replies to this review
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I purchased a nice new E1705 from Dell about a month ago. Like Honest J, I was so excited about this new machine, I didnt read the reviews prior to placing the order. After the order was placed, I began to read articles about this infamous "light leakage". I have used a laptop for the past 6 years as the main computer for the house, but have always had a Dell flat panel as a monitor. Therefore, I was not aware of such light leakage. I got the machine and set it up. I didnt notice a lot of the problem until one day I was watching some videos on iTunes. Holy Cow, there it was. Plain as day. I dismissed the issue because I dont do any kind of video or picture manipulation that would be hindered by that problem. But then it hit me. If they were aware of this issue, why would they continue to sell this model? I only called them once, and a tech remoted in to my PC. I tried to tell him, that since he remoted in, he was using his screen and not mine, and would not see the fog at the bottom of the screen. He seemed unphased by the comment and continued anyway. After about an hour and a half, I asked to be transfered to the returns department. They were very friendly while taking the information and it was returned on the next day. I do however want to know if the other two screens that they offer with that model will fix this problem. I dont want to give up on them yet, but I cant handle the fact that for as much as we pay for the "top of the line", it is flawed. If anyone knows if the new screens will help, please let me know. <br><br>John<br>Goodman-ka@cox.net
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I have had my 9300 for well 2 over years I haven't had a problem.
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i have a dell 9300, and i put on a black screen and don't see any problem.
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hey everyone<br>well i must say that my insprion 9300 has NO SCREEN PROBLEMS<br>and this is from purchase, no exchanges ever done, so i guess it's not ALL screens, just a large part of them.
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I bought my shiny Inspiron 9300 in April of 2005. It's now August of 2006, and the swanky 17" display is failing across multiple sectors. Having had nothing but good experiences with Dell devices over the past 18 years or so, I did not elect to extend my warranty. Of course, as the factory warranty expired in April 2006, I'm now stuck with a big laptop with a failing display. Output to external monitors is fine, but that's not what I bought it for. I suspect my next purchase (after I try and find a cheap replacement display) will be a Powerbook. I'm extremely disappointed in the quality of this device.
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After two repair attempts and the expiration of the one year warranty the LCD screen eventually blacked out permanently! I had to remove the screen and am now forced to use this laptop as a desktop. Not what I had intended when I purchased it nor did I ever expect this to happen. I too had based my purchase decision on a CNET review and what I had thought was a "Dell" quality product! I am Soooooooo disappointed that I am NEVER going to purchase another DELL product if I can help it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I just went to the Dell Direct store in SF. One out of the three demo laptop has the light leak at the bottom of the screen (XPS M140). I didn't see it on the XPS M170. I was originally think of getting a dell laptop (President's Day sale), but I'm not going to after I saw the problem myself.
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I appreciate Honest J's thorough post and would like to respond to those who are slamming him for being "picky." Last week I purchased a Toshiba A105 with the *exact* same problem (the bottom inch and a half of the screen was noticeably lighter from the rest of the screen). I had to return it to OfficeDepot, although with considerable difficulty as a group of their employees gathered around telling me that it is "barely noticeable" and just a "minor" problem. Perhaps some of us are pickier than others. But if I'm going to part with $1500 of my hard-earned money to buy a *new* laptop (not refurbished, store sample, open-box or anything like that), than I expect it to be *perfect*. This is 21st century for cryin' out loud, and we live in the world's most advanced nation -- crappy quality is just not acceptable. I won't be buying a Dell Inspiron 9300 (thank you Honest J), but to Dell's defense I'll mention that I own a Dell desktop (Optiplex 280) which is quite nice (so they obviously are capable of making a good product).
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I bought a 9300 about 1 month ago it's unreal. The screen is flawless. I bought the 256meg video card though.
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You idiot. Stop trying to scare people away from this amazing laptop. Threre are absolutely no light leaks, you're just a conspiracy freak.
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The worst part is not that the quality of Dell is half-way, the worst part is that their attitude says: NO way! Unfortunately Dell is not alone among the giant corporations who are slow learners when it comes to service. The only way to teach them a lesson is to vote with your money.
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My Inspiron 9300 does NOT have the leak. It's been suggested that the problem exists only on monitors from certain manufacturers. Mine was made by Sharp.
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What ever you guys do dont buy 9300 inspiron. it has a leakage on the screen and you can see the white patches too...dell techincans changed the motherboard, twice the lcd screen and video card, which the problem got worst. after changing the motherboard they screwed my computer and my screen started fluctuating. now i cannot go excess my comuter. they gonna do system exchange and i think iwill get the same problem...so dont get dell 9300 if u are picky
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"ALL" screens? i'm on my 9300 right now, and i've checked for my screens leak. there is none. i've checked my friends 9300, no light leak there either. you need to get your facts straight.
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Thank you for this honest review. You clearly illustrated all of the "pre-escalation" steps you took and it seems clear to me that they really were minimizing this defect. Shame on Dell.
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Thank's J for sharing you sad but true horror story with the Dell 9300. I am not going to buy one after reading your opinion. Matter of fact, I will be hesistant to buy anything from Dell now. I will keep looking for other laptops from other companies. Thanks J for the tip-off.
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I was taking a look at this computer because my parents are planning on getting a destop replacement notebook. I saw this model scribbled down on a post-it next to the computer and figured I'd take a look, and to my astonishment (sarcasim)I found numerous complaints on this and a good portion of other Dells. Formerly working at Circuit City, doing my fair share of computer sales, complaints about Dell and their superb (sarcasim again) costomer service is all but an uncommon thing.<br><br>This just adds to my strong distaste for this company. There's not quality to these products, they're cheap for a reason. I will never purchase a Dell and I would never recomend them to anyone either.
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My bought an Inpiron 9300. I like it a lot. But it does have the backlight leakage. A friend of mine has the same computer -- he doesn't have the leakage. We did some reasearch -- we went to our online Dell account and look at the LCD part # -- mine is a Samsumg his other a different part (we think LG). I wonder for those of you who have encountered this issue, can you check if your LCD is a Samsumg LCD? Again, go to your online account, to "your systems" and there is a way to see the computer details.
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There is a light leak on the screen of the 9300 but unless you are staring at an all black screen you would never notice the light leakage. And it's not like this is an uncommon occurrence, most laptops with bigger higher end screens have some light leakage, so just don't put an all black screen as your background and you'll never even notice that it's there.
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ill go right to the point. You shouldn't approve of a screen that has a light-leak. Even if you say it is "barely noticable".. i dont care. This is America... not a 3rd world country, if you are satisfied with faulty manufacturing thats cool for you but stop flaming those who dont approve it. If you let these companies think they can get away with poor quality, guess what? THEY WILL. Stop defending companies. If i pay for a product i expect it to be RIGHT, not something ill have to replace. And oh yeah maybe honest j is not a computer nerd like me and you and he doesnt know the technical terms for everything. IT DOESNT MEAN HIS OPINION DOESNT COUNT. in fact don't put companies before people. I hate whiners, but when there is a problem YOU MUST COMPLAIN, or youll get crap next time too.<br><br>[Edited by: admin]
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Have had mine for 7 months....no light leaks.
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Yes, before I purchased the 9300 I knew about the light leak problem. And when I got it I barly noticed. You will only see it when the screen is totally black in a completely dark room and at full brightness. Otherwise the "problem" is not noticeable in any way. Sorry Honest J, I I think you are not honest, this laptop has been a great purchase and the screen looks awesome with games, pics, etc... who stares at his/her PC when the monitor is black anyways?? Get with the program and stop complaining about nonsense.. no wonder Dell techs didn't want to deal with you
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I came across a thread in another forum that recommended the following adjustments to the resolution problems with the 9300:<br>Change the default W-UXGA 1920x1200 to W-XGA 1280x800. Scale back to 96 DPI and use small icons as well as enabling Clear Type Fonts and going with Tacoma 8 pt font.<br>I have not had the opportunity to apply this procedure to my 9300 in so far as I only ordered mine today. Could the display problems be why I saved $750 off the full retail price?
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DELL IS THE WORST COMPANY TO HAVE PROBLEMS WITH. ALL THE REPRESENTATIVE ARE SOMEWHERE IN ANOTHER WORLD, READING FROM A BOOK TO HELP YOU WITH PROBLEMS. NONE OF THEM ARE KNOWLEDGABLE. YOU GET THE RUN-AROUNDS FROM EVERYONE. CUSTOMER SERVICE JUST SUCKS OVERALL.
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I was disturbed to see this post, as I didn't find it until I had already ordered the 9300. <br>It's not here yet, but Dell has confirmed that there was a problem, and it has been rectified.<br>According to another recent buyer, his has no light leak problem at all. Let's hope that your experience was not in vain then!<br>The Dell rep was adamant that if there WAS to be a problem, they would ship a replacement at no charge, and pay for the return of the first one. He sounded very confident that the company wouldn't be paying out any extra sheckles.
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Got the same problem on XPS Gen2.
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I'm here to set the record straight. It is TRUE many 9300's have this TERRIBLE light leak, and in my opinion it sucks really bad to get one like this. Not all of them have this poor panel however. I've not seen this light leak problem on the XPS models, which leads me to believe Dell may possibly save the better panels for the XPS.<br><br>I buy 15 ~ 20 Dell laptops a month, out of the last batch of 5 9300's I purchased, only 1 of them had the good screen. The last 3 XPS systems I purchased 100% all of them had the good screen. Whichever Dell supplier is providing them with the crappy panels, I'm hoping Dell kicks them to the curb.<br><br>Hopefully this is the case because the last 9300 I purchased (only last week) did in fact have the good quality screen.
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What a sad story, but not unusual. I have encountered similar experiences with almost every major computer dealer, including Dell. Support is frustrating all the time. Just go to a web site and try to figure out how to get support and notice how relatively hidden that information is. It is always interesting to compare the people at sales to the people at service. That being said, the last two times I called Dell service, I received very nice support, one tech was in India, the other in South America. I was rather surprised though to discover that even though I had a year of warrenty left for hardware, they offered me software support for an extra fee, for which I finally went to Symantic for the same software for free.
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It's more around the entire screen though.
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We have had our 9300 for about 5 months now, no "Light Leak" or any other problem. The 1920X1200 resolution is fantastic. The external TV tuner that CNET does not like is also a treat because it also works on my desktop so when the wife is using the 9300 I can still watch TV.
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First of all, you can't say ALL of the 9300 screens have this light leak. I highly doubt that you have personally inspected each and every screen.<br><br>Secondly, most laptops I've ever owned have had some type of "light leak" at the bottom, and sometimes on the side. I'm sure you, like most who have little tech knowledge and bad experiences, exaggerate. <br><br>And lastly, it's nice to see that you have to use big words to compensate for your lack of technical computer knowledge. "Sparkly whites"? I honestly laughed reading this review.<br><br>In conclusion, cry more n00b.
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I've had one of these machines for a week now and was surprised to see this review - I didn't even know what they could be referring to by "light leak" until I read it.<br><br>I chose to get the xga (1440x900) display having heard so many "sparkly white" complaints of the wxga+ and I have zero complaints of any kind regarding the lcd panel I received.<br><br>I would recommend saving yourself money and frustration by not getting the supposedly high end display. 1440x900 on a 17 inch monitor is still the highest dot density I've ever owned on any lcd panel (I've owned 4).
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