[JHump]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgambogi

I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 which is about 2 years old. 6 months back a column about 3 inches wide began to darken on the left side of my screen. I had the LCD replaced and eventually the same problem occurred again on the new LCD. The problem seems to be linked to how long the laptop has been running and whether the power adaptor is plugged in or not. When I start the machine after it has been off for a while, there is no problem initially. However, eventually the dark column will appear. Also, the dark column only seems to appear if the power adaptor is plugged in. If the machine is simply running from the battery, no dark column will appear. I have no idea why this happens, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

It seems to be your on board video is going bad. Unfortunately, you will have to have your logic board serviced. The reason for this is that over a period of time, depending on the type of mother board your unit has, the onboard video chip will eventually go bad. Meaning, the North bridge has to be reflowed by a certified technician, or simply replace the mother board entirely. This is very costly and I do recommend that you look into another mother board, or get another unit completely. It doesn't matter how long you owned the unit, but whom manufactored the motherboard and how well the motherboard was designed. I hope I have answered your question and you make a valuable decision on investment.