Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca says the Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker has found a vertical line glitch in the LCDs of some notebooks and mobile workstations, and will fix them for free if they are found within three years:
The cause of the vertical lines has been traced to one specific component used on a small number of LCDs shipped on the potentially affected systems. Dell uses LCDs from several manufacturers and many notebook models are manufactured with screens of the same size from more than one vendor. We have confirmed that the component in question was not used on any other Dell notebook LCDs. Even if you have one of the potentially affected systems with the confirmed component, it does not mean your LCD will develop a vertical line.
Affected units include the Inspiron 6000 and 8600; the Latitude D800 and D810; and the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M60 and M70, and the systems were shipped between December 2004 and December 2006. Menchaca provides contact information in his blog item for those needing replacements.
The problem first surfaced several months ago with some of Dell's higher-end XPS systems with 17-inch screens; some customers have already paid to have the problem fixed but Menchaca said they will get refunds from the company.
