strange problem with LCD display on laptop

Problem appears to be hardware related. Windows 7 is fully installed and activated. It is an Inspiron N1710
Pressing D and power shows problem on display. Problem is normally hardly visible on the Windows desktop.
1/3 of the left side of the screen is involved. The remainder is perfect. When screen changes abruptly it is very obvious probably because it goes to black before showing next screen.
It is not visible on a white screen. The displayed color changes as a color block is moved from left to right till it crosses the 1/3 point. Black is the most obvious and changed from black to gray to streaking to black to streaking to various shades of gray then abruptly to black at 1/3.
Cyan shows no change at all. Green, red, magenta, and blue are light colors but not just a solid light color. You can see vertical strips.
Moving a windows around will also show smears on the background.

I have reseated the MB connectors and tapped on the screen and the inside back of the screen and screen connector with no change or flashing seen.

Attached are 3 files showing a windows on left & right sides and also of the smearing to the left of the window. You can see where the problem stops on the right picture in the black block at the top left 1/2 way thru. Also in the lft picture in the bottom black strip about 1/5 way thru. Interestingly the edges of the red block are solid red and only strips appear in the center - the right end of that block is outside the affected area.

So can you tell me what the issue is?

Hi I would hook up an external monitor to it and see if it shows same thing on the external. if showing same on external then you will know its the graphics chip and not the screen. if ok on external then most likely the laptop screen is faulty.

It may be a driver problem.
Right click on the desktop - screen resolution - set to recommended.
Open device manager - Display adapters - right click - update driver -serach automatically.

If I go to this page:

en.community.dell.com/.../19458888

the color bars do not change at all. It looks the same on any part of the screen.

ext monitor is fine, so it is the display ...... BUT how can it look fine for something and not others?

if I change the res on the LT it looks ok - same as before but lower 800. If the monitor is connected it fills the screen on the monitor (wide screen) but there is a band on left and right of laptop, left side being maybe 60hz flickering horiz bands of gray/black, right side all black. Looks like a bad capacitor.

But why only when monitor is plugged in?

This problem gets stranger all the time. --- well now the vertical band is only on the left side as described.

it is an i5 with integrated video, so I used the driver direct from Intel when I reinstalled the OS.

I would at least try the driver from laptop manufacturer support page

Do you have any yellow alert on device manager?

no, all the drivers appear to be happy. B4 I reinstalled the OS, the video driver was from Dell. So the issue is the same. It is likely the display itself, but the problem is so strange I want to find some way to verify it b4 I plunck down $70. for a new LCD.
If it is the display why does the problem show different depending on the background or open windows??? I would think it would show the same defect regardless.
The BIST produces horiz and vertical bars. The horiz bars look pretty much normal. The vert bars show the problem. The "D" with power on screens all show it clearly except the white & gray.

For what you wrote, I don't think is a hardware issue. I would bet it's a software / config problem.
Wrong resolution, wrong display driver.
Did you look for Dell support Support | Dell US
Add a Service Tag or other product ID

I redid the drivers from Dell, so it is probably a display issue but not the display itself. It must be in the display driver board. When I ran the complete diagnostics for the display I get real strange results. The SMPTE test only shows the 2nd box from the left on the bottom with lines and flickering-the rest is perfect. The gray box only shows about 1/4" on the left edge and the bottom&top edge 1/3 from left with a problem. The rest of the screen is perfect. Solid colors clearly show the left 1/3 with a problem except for cyan and black just shows a slightly different black in that area. In Geometry, the left 1/3 of each line has another gray line below it about 3x as wide (about 1/8 inch) and the black boxes are as the black screen on that side.