fuzzy text on a dell 5150

hey folks,
I 've had a dell 5150 for a few years now and about six month's ago I noticed some of the text fuzzy, ironically about the same time I started running it through airport scanners..... I didn't really think to much about it but at the time and slowly but surely the problem hs intensified. Now while I use outlook's calender (the yellow daily screen) It clearly shows a whitish diamond shape spaced about a character apart on very other line of text. I have attached an external monitor to see if the condition is displayed there and it was not. I have reseated the monitor- vid card connection and the problem persists. When I started things back up a system test process started (i guess for dell technicians) and during the screen testing the condition existed there as well. The lcd screen is not scratched or damaged and I am pretty sure I have'nt dropped the thing, maybe a little banging around in the back pack however. I called dell to inquire and got the standard duh.. you are out of warranty and that'll be 500.00 plus shipping for a new screen. So I guess what I 'm asking is what role does an inverter play and is there a way to establish if it's that...maybe a cheap fix or replace the whole screen, inverter, lcd housing process...
thanks

It sounds like it is running below the native resolution of the screen. Sometimes when a game or program that alters the resolution crashes, the screen gets left at a somewhat lower resolution than the native resolution of the LCD screen. So you might want to try upping the resolution of the screen.

Another posibility is a bad cable from the LCD to the video card. Sometimes those can get crimped or damaged since they go through the henges of the laptop to get to the LCD.

I don't know of any way that an inverter could cause fuzzyness. The inverter is simply for changing the voltage from real low DC voltage to real high AC voltage so that it can power the Cold Glowing Flourescent Lamp or Lamps that act as backlights for the screen. The bulb and inverter as far as I know are usually a completely separate circuit which would have no bearing on image quality other than brightness. You could get some interesting flickering from oscellations if the inverter is going out, or things could be dim, but it would not cause fuzzyness. That is the LCD itself.

hmm thanks I'll keep experimenting

LCDs on ebay are way cheaper than $500. I've seen them as low as $70 for a panel for my 600m, cheaper if I didn't mind minor marks on the screen etc. Do you have any pictures of the problems that you are describing?

yeah I sure do

any thoughts?

try to set the graphics to high quaility and refresh rate to 30 hertz and see what it does if not that get new graphics and mother board drivers

I couldn't get to any refresh rate changes...only one option 60hrtz and none were available under "hidden" either, so I tried dell's last driver update .....from 2004 ...and it's cleared up.
Thanks.