Here's what they found: on some 17-inch LCD displays shipped with Dell Inspiron 9200, 9300 and Dell XPS Gen 2 notebooks, a one pixel wide vertical line may develop across the LCD screen over time. Systems that may be affected by this issue shipped from Nov. 2004 through Oct 2006.

Here's what we're doing: for affected systems, Dell is offering to replace any LCD that develops a vertical line within three years of purchase, at no charge for parts and labor. Also, Dell will offer refunds to customers who paid Dell to replace defective LCDs with this issue.

The ongoing issues haven't escaped the notice of MGI Research, which offered up this remark:

Recent data points indicate that on top of mounting corporate governance and sluggish growth issues . . . Dell may be also battling quality control problems. The quality problem relates to low end servers, laptops, and desktops, not the high-end server models. Channel checks indicate a noticeable increase in the number of machines that need to be serviced by Dell in the field shortly after delivery, and also units returned to Dell for replacement/repair.

MGI adds:

The rise of problems with low end servers and desktops is troubling -- and our checks indicate that it is costing Dell money and starting to erode its brand. The timing of this quality lapse could not be worse for management, considering the recent announcements about errors in accounting and lax financial controls.

An executive of a system builder that often competes with Dell said he finds the company has been much less cost-competitive since Michael Dell has returned to the CEO position at the company, and that the PC maker is exhibiting a certain amount of "confusion" in competing for business throughout this quarter.

Cost issues and turmoil appear to be piling on to Dell's quality issues from last year, when the company recalled 4.2 million notebook batteries due to fire hazards. For its part, though, Dell has said it has found its response to customers with quality or technical problems has improved.