Wierd blue ghosts appear on my LCD screen....

[ArkiStan]

No they're not that spooky, but I get the feeling something's wrong....

I have a Dell 24" Widescreen LCD monitor. Everytime I turn on my monitor after it being off for more than a couple hours, I find lots of light blue flickering noise lining the edges of the images on the screen. It'll continue flickering gently for a couple minutes and disappear. It'll work fine until the next time I turn the monitor on. I've tried capturing the screen so I can show what it looks like, but the captured screen doesn't show the noise. So I'm guessing it's the monitor itself that's wierd and not the actual signal that's being output. Obviously updating my video card drivers didn't help at all.

I've tried googling with no success. Any ideas? I'll try taking a photo of it when I get a chance.

TIA.

[ArkiStan]

OK, I've discovered that I can remedy the symptom (until I turn it back off again) by hitting the top of the monitor lightly.

[Kevster]

What was the cause? Mynocks chewing on the power cables?

[ArkiStan]

I'm tellin ya. It's the ghosts!

Although I can temporarily remedy the problem by hitting the monitor. I'm gonna have to get the monitor fixed or exchanged sooner or later.

[Agent Plissken]

I recently had (different) problems with my Dell 20" WS. After getting them to send me a new one for the 3 year warranty they shipped me a refurbished unit. Im going to ship that refurbished sh*t back and tell them to shove it. I will not be satisfied unless they send a new one!
But for your situation, is what you are describing the backlight "halo" that is complained about widely in these models?
Maybe thats not what youre describing, but if so, that is a design issue and they cant fix it.

[ArkiStan]

hmm. I just read up on that and it doesn't seem like the problem I'm having. By the way Agent Plissken, how long did it take you to receive the replacement monitor? Did they wait for your problematic monitor to arrive before sending out the new one? I'm just worried about how long my down time will be.

[Agent Plissken]

No this is the second monitor dell has replaced for me and they ship it within a few days with a return slip for the defective monitor... Im a pretty big customer though, I dont know if that is their SOP.
The first time they sent me a NEW monitor though (it was a defective 15" LCD)...

[Jeffbx]

Im going to ship that refurbished sh*t back and tell them to shove it. I will not be satisfied unless they send a new one!

Couple of FYIs on this -

1) Practically every major MFR has a policy that replacement parts are refurbs. Dell, IBM, Gateway, HP, etc. They all do it. If you read the fine print of the service contract, it's stated in there that replacement parts will be refurbs. Arguing won't get you too far.

2) If it works, why stress over it? A part is a part - if it works, it works. Refurb does not mean defective, it means they can't sell it as new for whatever reason - usually because someone else bought it & returned it. Plus (and I'm kicking myself because I can't remember my source on this) a lot of the 'refurb' parts they send out are actually new. I think they were sending out a mix of new & refurb parts in the past, and they got too many complaints like yours, so they began marking every warranty part as 'refurb'. Looks more consistent that way.