Dell E4300 Display Issue

While attempting to get my E4300 laptop’s touchpad to comply with the relatively simple (I thought) request to SCROLL, DAMMIT, I did a reboot to find that the image onscreen had shrunk by a third.  In other words, someone left the image in the dryer and it only occupied two thirds of the screen.

This was a new one, even for me.

The sinking feeling really set in when I noticed this happening as the unit was booting up also.  I called Dell support, which I mentioned earlier, and eventually got to the right person (at the number I always call for the right person, mind you).  We determined that the display was foobed (technical term), to be polite.  The actual error message from the diagnostics was something along the lines of “Cannot connect LCD EEPROM.”

Dell did what they always do; sent a part next-day, as well as a technican.  This guy was totally on the ball.  What really got me was the absolutely flimsy construction of this laptop.  After seeing it in various states of apart I was led to wonder how they charge more than ten dollars for it and how the parts manage to stay attached to each other during normal use.  I understand most laptops are made this way these days but this one’s a real piece of shit.  The display bezel broke while the tech carefully opened it.  Of course it broke - it’s paper-thin plastic.

I asked the tech about the keyboard.  I noticed that it sags at the bottom right when I press a key.  He showed me the keyboard by itself.  It’s a wonder it even works out of the box.  It sits on a thin, very flexible piece of soft metal, not much thicker than aluminum foil.    Of course it bends - it’s very flexible and not supported by anything.

The real joy of the experience appeared as the tech turned turned on the laptop.    I can definitely state that my issue had been resolved: the picture appeared to take up the entire display.  I say appeared because I couldn’t be sure, due to the fact that the top half of the display was borked.  Yes, it was broken right out of the box. It looked as if someone had put tape across the top half of the display and ripped it off, taking the display with it.

The tech was impressed, as was I.  He had to call Dell to have them ship yet another display as well as the bezel replacement.  Another day shot.

He reappeared the next day, second new part in-hand.  I asked if this one was pre-broken as well and he said that he hoped not.

A few minutes later and I had a working laptop with a screen that displayed everything where it should.

This is our second E4300 and the second E4300 with serious issues.  My laptop is about a month old and the display failed.  This is not good, Dell.