Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)
Sunday evening my two year old 1900FP monitor died suddenly while I was
sitting in front of it. The screen dimmed so that it was almost dark,
and what was left of the screen image responded very slowly. If you
typed in text, the text wouldn't appear for 20 seconds or so. If you
moved the mouse, the cursor would gradually fade out of its old position
and gradually fade into the new position.
I swapped the monitor with an old 15" CRT and determined that the
problem really was in the monitor, not the video card.
Early Monday morning I called Dell support. The computer, and the
monitor that came with it is two years into a three year maintenance
agreement. After punching in my express service number and enduring 10
minutes of recorded announcements talking about the effects of the
Sasser worm and what to do about it, I was connected to a live person. I
could readily understand him, although his accent had a slight
international flavor that I couldn't quite place. I explained what had
happened and what I had done so far. He asked me to do one more
troubleshooting test, which was to power down the monitor, disconnect it
from the computer, then power it up again, looking for the power-on
self-test image. The self test appeared after about 20 seconds or so,
but was very dark and so blurry as to be unreadable. He pronounced the
monitor to be dead, and put me on hold for five minutes while he
arranged for shipment of a replacement.
Tuesday morning, Fedex delivered the replacement. It is a refurbished
monitor (no surprise there), but a 1901FP instead of a 1900FP. So they
replaced my two year old monitor with a newer model with a fancy
pivoting screen and a built-in USB hub.
All in all, Dell made the whole experience pretty painless.
Jeff Bean
Sunday evening my two year old 1900FP monitor died suddenly while I was
sitting in front of it. The screen dimmed so that it was almost dark,
and what was left of the screen image responded very slowly. If you
typed in text, the text wouldn't appear for 20 seconds or so. If you
moved the mouse, the cursor would gradually fade out of its old position
and gradually fade into the new position.
I swapped the monitor with an old 15" CRT and determined that the
problem really was in the monitor, not the video card.
Early Monday morning I called Dell support. The computer, and the
monitor that came with it is two years into a three year maintenance
agreement. After punching in my express service number and enduring 10
minutes of recorded announcements talking about the effects of the
Sasser worm and what to do about it, I was connected to a live person. I
could readily understand him, although his accent had a slight
international flavor that I couldn't quite place. I explained what had
happened and what I had done so far. He asked me to do one more
troubleshooting test, which was to power down the monitor, disconnect it
from the computer, then power it up again, looking for the power-on
self-test image. The self test appeared after about 20 seconds or so,
but was very dark and so blurry as to be unreadable. He pronounced the
monitor to be dead, and put me on hold for five minutes while he
arranged for shipment of a replacement.
Tuesday morning, Fedex delivered the replacement. It is a refurbished
monitor (no surprise there), but a 1901FP instead of a 1900FP. So they
replaced my two year old monitor with a newer model with a fancy
pivoting screen and a built-in USB hub.
All in all, Dell made the whole experience pretty painless.
Jeff Bean
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