New M18x laptop, white screen shows up when booting

Question

Today I was the happiest guy on earth for seven minutes. I unboxed my new Alienware M18x laptop and turned it on for the first time. Everything went well, except I noticed a flicker of a white screen showing up with a few horizontal RGB lines.

Initially I decided to ignore it but suddenly it wouldn't work any more and would just show a white screen. I tried rebooting, removing the battery, holding Fn + F5, plus a bunch of other things, but nothing changed. Plugging in an external monitor works fine.

While calling support I noticed that on my lap it worked fine (showed a normal screen) whilst on the table it didn't (white screen). I then noticed that by doing a slight inclination the screen shifted from complete white to normal, back and forth as I inclined. The support guy suggested that it was a problem with the cable connected to the LCD screen, probably badly plugged.

Is it easy to access that cable if I was to open the laptop? What do you guys recommend? I can't return the laptop to the original place because I'm not residing in the US where I bought it.

Answer 1

As KCotreau mentioned it may be very easy or it could be very hard to get to the cable, and along the way you risk breaking the plastic casings.

If it is still under warranty what you should do is call back to tech support and ask them if there is a authorized service center you can send it to in whatever country you happen to be residing in currently. Dell, being as large as it is, more than likely has someplace you can send it in for repair.

Answer 2

You should call them again, and tell them what you already went through, and that you believe it is a bad connection (that sounds very reasonable to me based on your question). Some can be very easy to get to, some very hard, and you could easily break plastic as you take it apart. Get their permission to open it so you don't somehow void the warranty, and ask them for instructions as you do so. If not, you may have no choice but to try on your own due to your location.