A rare thing happened to me last week - something that I own actually broke under warranty!!  :)

I currently have a blue line (dead pixels?) on the lcd screen of my Dell laptop.
I bought it in April this year I think.  1 year on site warranty.
So sunday night I got onto the dell website,  put in my service tag and a description of what is wrong,  got an email back to tell me to run diagnostic tests, which I did and confirmed that and then I got another email saying a technician will come to my house within 2 days to replace the LCD screen

Wi Hoo! 

Now Im not entirely sure if this is a reasonable life span for a LCD screen?  it should have lasted a lot longer???   but Im very happy at how easy it has been so far to just get it replaced under warranty.

Dell Laptops can take 3-4 weeks to arrive when you order from their website - and sometimes longer, but my experience so far with them is that once you have the laptop they are definitely good value for money and a very nice machine!