Replacing a Faulty LP171WX2 17inch Screen from a DELL Inspiron 9300
Problem Description
I had bought a DELL Inspiron in the year 2005. In 2007, the LCD screen had vertical lines of varying colours. Dell had then offered to replace the screen for free and they had accepted this to be a known issue to their customers. Then, in late 2008, the same problem occurred! I had first emailed dell about this, but with no response at all even until this very day. I decided to ring their hot line in which i had spoken to three different people, all of which had started to try and convince me to spend my money on buying extra warranty, but when i had finally talked over them to explain the vertical banding issue, they all denied that DELL had these issues with their Inspiron 9300 line! I decided to ring on another day in the hope that i would get a different person. This resulted in this different person acknowledging the problem as known, but they said they could not offer to replace, at no cost, the faulty screen they had installed in 2007. According to the person i spoke with, the LCD that they replaced in 2007 has apparently been tested to be not defective so there was nothing i could do without spending money.
Now that it is the start of 2010 and have graduated university, i have had the time and money to get the screen replaced. I found a screen on ebay that is a different brand to that of the LG Philips brand in the dell 9300. I bought it and installed it. The result is horizontal banding! This can be seen in the picture above.
I have contacted the friendly seller on ebay who has agreed to send a replacement LCD. The below section describes the process i had executed to replace the defective LG Philips LP171WX2 LCD with the also defective Samsung B170PW03. The same procedure was performed when i installed the non defective LCD.
Remedy
This article shows how to dismantle a DELL Inspiron 9300, remove/replace the LCD screen. Please follow common sense such as remove the battery from the laptop before dismantling, and handling your new LCD with care. Be aware that you will void your warranty if you dismantle your laptop.
My DEL Inspiron 9300 with its defective LP171WX2 17inch LCD screen.
We shall start the dismantling process by snapping off the cover that is above the keyboard. There are no screws that hold this in place, simply use a flat head screw driver to lever it off.
Here is the removed plastic cover exposing the wire that connects to the graphics card.
Unplug the wire connecting to the graphics card.
You will need to use a flat head screw driver to remove the rubber feet and screw covers that hide the underlying screws.
Once all screws are removed, use your flat head screw driver to lever off the front cover of the LCD laptop screen.
Here is the front cover removed
Every laptop is different, simply locate the screws that hold down the frame of the LCD panel, and remove them.
On my Inspiron 9300, there are screws on each of the sides and on the front top frame.
Here is another view.
Once all screws are removed, the defective lcd panel can be set free. Again, every laptop is different, for this laptop, the wire connecting to the LCD is located on the top and is very fragile. You must access it by lifting the bottom of the LCD screen. This allows you to use your two fingers to unclamp the flat connector from the LCD screen.
It’s now time to install the new LCD screen. Simply follow the reverse order when you dismantled your laptop.
This is the new LCD screen replacement i bought from ebay. As you can see, it has horizontal banding as opposed to the vertical banding present in LGPhilips brands.
A close up of the defective lines.
I have yet to take pictures of the non defective screen that i have installed. This article shall be updated when i have the time.
Conclusion
Overall, the remedy was a success and hope the more reliable brand LCD manufactured by Samsung, lasts me a long time. LG PHILIPS LCDs are prone to banding issues and should be avoided. It is hard to tell whether a laptop has a LCD that is prone to banding but it pays off to do some internet research before purchasing a laptop whose screen will only last for 3yrs before being rendered unusable. I post this blog to warn others of this vertical/horizontal banding issues that are evident in LCDs and more specifically, LG PHILIPS. I have learnt from DELL forums and numerous forums that this is a known issue, but getting DELL to replace them for free is like trying to make pigs fly. The most logical pathway is to avoid LCD brands that are known to be defective (LG PHILIPS) and laptop brands that don’t stand by the quality of their product (DELL). With having installed my new Samsung LCD screen, I shall hope to have no banding issues in years to come.
Fixing Hardware, Personal Projects | 
January 7, 2010 1:44 am
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