Advice needed - Dell warranty

The story
My son has a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop. When it was just over a year old the screen failed and was replaced under warranty.
Last summer it started doing silly things - screen goes blank randomly, sometimes comes back, sometimes doesnt etc. We restored it to factory settings but it still continued. I wondered if it was the graphics chip.
I couldnt get him to take his stuff off it so we could send it back to Dell so he went off to college with it. The idea was that we would get it looked at under warranty when he came home, having backed up his stuff in the interim.
Fast-forward to yesterday when I get a text full of the F-word. Apparently he was walking across his room with a bowl of pasta in his hand, he tripped over a wire and the bowl hit the laptop screen!
He has broken the screen it seems, which is accidental damage presumably not covered by the warranty.
My question is two-fold
Is it fairly simple to replace the screen? - I have looked on YouTube and it looks reasonable.
Will Dell accept the laptop for warranty repair if the screen has been replaced but not by them? It has been replaced before so it has been opened up - would they notice it wasnt the same screen as they put in and if they did would it negate the warranty?

Any help gratefully received :)

It's very easy to replace them, and not that expensive either. As the problems you're experiencing aren't going to be related to the screen (as it's been replaced already), I'd see no reason why they would mind.

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Originally Posted by witch

The story
My son has a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop. When it was just over a year old the screen failed and was replaced under warranty.
Last summer it started doing silly things - screen goes blank randomly, sometimes comes back, sometimes doesnt etc. We restored it to factory settings but it still continued. I wondered if it was the graphics chip.
I couldnt get him to take his stuff off it so we could send it back to Dell so he went off to college with it. The idea was that we would get it looked at under warranty when he came home, having backed up his stuff in the interim.
Fast-forward to yesterday when I get a text full of the F-word. Apparently he was walking across his room with a bowl of pasta in his hand, he tripped over a wire and the bowl hit the laptop screen!
He has broken the screen it seems, which is accidental damage presumably not covered by the warranty.
My question is two-fold
Is it fairly simple to replace the screen? - I have looked on YouTube and it looks reasonable.
Will Dell accept the laptop for warranty repair if the screen has been replaced but not by them? It has been replaced before so it has been opened up - would they notice it wasnt the same screen as they put in and if they did would it negate the warranty?

Any help gratefully received :)

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You'll get a much cheaper screen from ebay. I've bought 3 over the years and their usually easy to replace.

Give your lad a clip round the year for using the F word in a text to his mum. Mums dont deserve that kind of language from their kids:director:

I'll vouch that screens from ebay or one of the various geek suppliers would be cheaper than from dell direct.

Changing a screen (even for the non-technically minded) should take an hour tops, and follow instructions if you have them.

As for the issue before the text, yes, graphics chip is gone. My mrs has had the same issue on her work laptop which is a similar model. Its a known fault among that range of Dells, so they should swap it out no issue.

Thanks - that's what I thought. The issue now is can I get a screen and change it and get Dell in before he has to go back to uni? I have been warned to wait till it gets back here - on Sat - so I can open it up and look at the screen as there are different versions?
If I cant get it done he will have to take my laptop - which he wont like as it is a little Lenovo T60
But I love it and I cant bear to see it go......:(
As for the f-word - I'm afraid that the downside of being mates with my son is that he talks to me like he talks to his mates!

1, yes.

2. Graphics chip, only maybe. I'm seeing a lot of HP failures (printer wise) due to bad soldering and failing BGA chips. I've seen that in laptops too. However, primarily, I'd look at the inverter as a culprit. When it goes dark, take a torch to it and see if you can read the display. If so, your inverter or CCFLs are dying.

As long as he loves his mum as his mum and a mate that's all that matters I suppose

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Originally Posted by kili

As long as he loves his mum as his mum and a mate that's all that matters I suppose

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As long as I keep coming up with the money - I'm sure he will! :)
I did point out that I needed to know if the screen was actually physically damaged or snapped or what and saying over and over "it's F****d" wasnt actually helping at all. Also, if anyone should be cross it should be me as it wont be him paying for the repair!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by witch

As long as I keep coming up with the money - I'm sure he will! :)
I did point out that I needed to know if the screen was actually physically damaged or snapped or what and saying over and over "it's F****d" wasnt actually helping at all. Also, if anyone should be cross it should be me as it wont be him paying for the repair!

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Being a father of 3 who have all been through UNI I feel for you :rolleyes:. It's not till they reach their mid twenties that they seem to mature to a state that they become one of us older people lol...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kili

Being a father of 3 who have all been through UNI I feel for you :rolleyes:. It's not till they reach their mid twenties that they seem to mature to a state that they become one of us older people lol...

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What I find difficult is the oscillation between child and adult. His older brother, 24, is so grown up and responsible about 80% of the time - and then he isn't!
This one is about 50/50 and we clash a lot as we are far too alike. Everyone just ducks when we start! My daughter gets very annoyed and the eldest just sighs..

accupart are reliable and cheap for screens. Never had a screen take more than 15 mins to replace.

You take your chance on the warranty repair for the other fault though.

Rob

I have asked Dell support this exact question before, and they have explicitly told me that as long as the replacement is performed to a good standard, they would still honour the warranty on any other part failure. Unless their policy has changed, you should be OK.

I would research the laptop model on the net and check for common faults these days as a first point of call, some Dells are prone to screen problems (either the screen or the connecting cable), especially in the inspiron ranges, we had a couple of teachers have dead screens just after the warranties had ended