determining cause of cracked lcd panel

How does one determine the cause of a cracked LCD panel?
Particularly, how will Dell decide if it is user damage
or product defect?

I've got a 5 month old Vostro 1500, no extended warranty.
While using it I closed the top to answer the door and
when I returned it looked like a crack at a single point
resulting in 1 inch wide bands of no image below and
to the right of the crack.

I'm expecting Dell service to say user-caused damage.
But I know of nothing that should have cause this crack.
There are certainly no marks on the cover nor the glass
to suggest abuse. Nor any torquing of the case. It
barely moves.

I looked to see if there were reports by others of cracked
panels but saw none. Did I overlook some thread?

What might cause such a crack if not impact?

Any suggestions for approaching Dell service to enhance
my chances of getting warranty service?

Jon LaBadie > wrote:
> How does one determine the cause of a cracked LCD panel?
> Particularly, how will Dell decide if it is user damage
> or product defect?
>
> I've got a 5 month old Vostro 1500, no extended warranty.
> While using it I closed the top to answer the door and
> when I returned it looked like a crack at a single point
> resulting in 1 inch wide bands of no image below and
> to the right of the crack.
>
> I'm expecting Dell service to say user-caused damage.
> But I know of nothing that should have cause this crack.
> There are certainly no marks on the cover nor the glass
> to suggest abuse. Nor any torquing of the case. It
> barely moves.
>
> I looked to see if there were reports by others of cracked
> panels but saw none. Did I overlook some thread?
>
> What might cause such a crack if not impact?
>
> Any suggestions for approaching Dell service to enhance
> my chances of getting warranty service?
There's an active Dell group at alt.sys.pc-clone.dell and I would
recommend that you post this there.

"Jon LaBadie" <""jXlabadie \"@ aXcm.cXom"> wrote in message
news:Nnhtj.6$kI4.2@trnddc05...
> How does one determine the cause of a cracked LCD panel?
> Particularly, how will Dell decide if it is user damage
> or product defect?
>
> I've got a 5 month old Vostro 1500, no extended warranty.
> While using it I closed the top to answer the door and
> when I returned it looked like a crack at a single point
> resulting in 1 inch wide bands of no image below and
> to the right of the crack.
>
> I'm expecting Dell service to say user-caused damage.
> But I know of nothing that should have cause this crack.
> There are certainly no marks on the cover nor the glass
> to suggest abuse. Nor any torquing of the case. It
> barely moves.
>
> I looked to see if there were reports by others of cracked
> panels but saw none. Did I overlook some thread?
>
> What might cause such a crack if not impact?
>
> Any suggestions for approaching Dell service to enhance
> my chances of getting warranty service?

If it is a heavy laptop and you pick it up in the 'normal' fashion - fingers
underneath at the front and thumb on top, then the pressure your thumb
exerts on the casing could cause the lid to flex enough to crack a screen,
but you would have to have a good grip. This would be a structural design
flaw I would not expect from Dell !