Our 1525 is 6 months old and my daughter opened the laptop at college to find the the LCD screeen had an internal crack just at the top middle directly underneath the webcam. The laptop was sitting on her desk and the previous evening was fine. Dell is claiming that it was customer damaged and will not cover under the normal warranty. Unfortunatley I did not purchase the extended warranty. I have read a number of similar internal crack issues with 1525's online and would like to know if it's possible to escalate this to someone at Dell who could approve the repair. When the laptop was home for the holiday break, there was no physical damage to the screen or case - not even a scratch. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Can you upload a pic and share? What would Dell charge to replace the screen?

cheers ...

Cracked screens have pretty much always fallen under the "complete care" warranty and not covered under the basuic warranty.

So unless dell has issued some kind of recall or forced under a class action suite not likley your going to get much from them.

You can always try caling the tech support people and asking for a manager to escalte the issue.

I have seen replacement screens on Ebay for around $ 70.00 USD and they really are not that hard to replace.

qhn - here are the four pictures I have. The laptop is now at Dell depot. Thanks,


URL=http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laptopscreen1rl5.jpg][/url]

Cool. Good luck and share with us the outcome

cheers ...

LCD screens don't crack themselves. Except under some VERY specific and highly improbable circumstances.

And if you search LCD cracks for any laptop model on Google you'll probably find a plethora of forum posts pertaining to the same issue.

However, you could always ask Dell-Richard_B about it and give him the links to the photos to see what he says.

To argue that that LCD's don't crack themsevles, MrEvil, infers that all cracked screens are caused by customer abuse. I don't know if you are an engineer, but I'm confident that the engineering/design of the case/frame/bezel and human hands at assembly are all factors that could contribute to a crack from normal use. Engineers are smart people, but have you heard of the difficulty the domestic auto industry continues to experience competing against Asian engineers. Your argument is shallow and without fact.

There have been LCD screens that have cracked due to pressure from a bezel or hinge or overtightened screw. Ever think that shipment from Asia to the US to the customer might see a dropped box? If you compare the 1525 case to the 1520, it's obvious that cost was engineered out of this consumer product.

That in itself is the problem, how do you prove it either way. No laptop manufacter will cover a crack LCD screen Period, unless you purchase an optional warranty to cover such an issue.

So unless Dell decides to be nice and cover it out of warranty, your most likley SOL.

Improbable does not mean impossible. It just means HIGHLY unlikely. If the crack was a result of some mishandling by someone working on assembly the LCD would have cracked before it ever reached your hands. If it were a defect in the glass itself there would have been a single crack, what you have there is a spider-web effect (however slight) which can only be caused by too much force being applied at one point on the glass. As for the argument of the bezel and LCD lid being the blame. There have been much less expensive laptops with even more flimsy LCD lids and bezels that have not had a rash of cracked LCDs from normal use.

Again, I'm just using Occam's Razer here (as is Dell) the more likely and more simple explanation is that the crack is a result of too much force being applied to the top edge of the LCD immediately before it was noticed.

Again though, I do not make any official calls on Dell's behalf I'm an independent technician that provides labor for their warranty service. Dell tells me to replace an LCD panel I replace it. I'm offering my opinion on the basis of IF I were the one required to make a call on your issue. I run 700+ service calls every year and I've seen ALOT of cracked and otherwise defective LCD screens.

Dell-Richard_B is our resident official Dell person (if you search by username he should come right up) as I said before you can always PM him your issue and your photos and see what he says.