[wadeb_21]

I have a Dell XPS M170 and I have these vertical lines on my screen. I don't remember bumping or dropping it so I think the screen might be on its last leg. I was wondering if anyone has a good website where I could find a replacement screen for my notebook and was wondering if its difficult to replace myself. Thanks in advance.

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i assume the laptop is no longer under warranty?

the lines showing on the screen...are they always in the same place or do they move around? it sounds a lot more like the video card is going bad than the monitor...usually when an LCD goes bad it either just stops working, or the backlight goes out so the screen is really dim....they usually don't develop odd scan issues like CRTs would (scrolling lines etc...)

[dsenette]

i assume the laptop is no longer under warranty?

the lines showing on the screen...are they always in the same place or do they move around? it sounds a lot more like the video card is going bad than the monitor...usually when an LCD goes bad it either just stops working, or the backlight goes out so the screen is really dim....they usually don't develop odd scan issues like CRTs would (scrolling lines etc...)

[fleamailman]

booting into linux from a live CD would tell you very quickly if it is hardware or software issue here

[wadeb_21]

i assume the laptop is no longer under warranty?

the lines showing on the screen...are they always in the same place or do they move around? it sounds a lot more like the video card is going bad than the monitor...usually when an LCD goes bad it either just stops working, or the backlight goes out so the screen is really dim....they usually don't develop odd scan issues like CRTs would (scrolling lines etc...)

Correct the laptop is no longer under wattanty. Yes the lines are always in the same place. Would that mean its the video card?

[wadeb_21]

booting into linux from a live CD would tell you very quickly if it is hardware or software issue here

how do I do that?

[fleamailman]

OK, you will need a blanc CD and to download the linux ISO, which is free, then burn ISO to the CD using Nero or the like(but not the windows standard burning program as that does not let you make bootable CDs, wonder why) and that's all. Simply, you then boot onto the live CD which loads itself onto your ram drives, not touching your harddrive that is, either way it is very useful for exactly this type of problem because it isn't windows os, it is a different os(operating system0, great for getting data out of crashed windows systems too, malware proof too, or when the harddrive is dead and one needs the Internet, and what's more when you turn off the computer removing the CD, no a trace remains, here a link then

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php