BogMonster Posted September 30, 2006 Share Posted September 30, 2006 I bought myself a 19" HP TFT monitor while I was away in July, one of these It has been fine up until today, now I have a very very fine vertical green line down the display about four inches from the right hand side. It is almost invisible against a white background, but very obvious against a dark background or a photo etc., it "twinkles" slightly in some places too. It was fine first thing this morning then just appeared at some point through the day while the screen was on. What is causing this - does it mean the monitor is f****d? It is still well within warranty but to send it back would cost more than the screen did so it's not really an option and it would be cheaper to throw it away. Is it a common failing with TFT screens? This one according to the on screen display has done 760 hours but a lot of those have been in standby mode or with the screen saver on, the backlight hours are only 559. Tried "factory reset" etc and switching it off/disconnecting all power for a while, no difference. Any thoughts chaps? I've not had a flat screen monitor before, perhaps I should stick my fist through it and go back to the CRT monitor that has served me without fault for 3 years, or the one before that which is about 8 years old, or the one before that which I got in 1991.... none of those have ever had any problems. Are these flat screens stupid fragile things a bit like electronics in a vehicle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8 Freak Posted September 30, 2006 Share Posted September 30, 2006 I've got 5 in the house and none have done this. The oldest is 3 years old now and not a pixel dead. Sounds to me like a failure and you ought to be able to claim under warranty.. Be pushy if needed, you should not have to pay postage ! Tell them it's essential for your working at home (Or some other story that tells them it's essential.) and ask them to deliver the new one and collect the old one at the same time. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted September 30, 2006 Author Share Posted September 30, 2006 I've got 5 in the house and none have done this. The oldest is 3 years old now and not a pixel dead.Sounds to me like a failure and you ought to be able to claim under warranty.. Be pushy if needed, you should not have to pay postage ! Tell them it's essential for your working at home (Or some other story that tells them it's essential.) and ask them to deliver the new one and collect the old one at the same time. Neil Cheers. Yeah they won't though, I have dealt with high street stores in the past and they are all w****rs when it comes to warranty claims. If you bought it in store they helpfully say "bring it in to the store you bought it from" then if it is like the DVD recorder I had to bring back last year, they take one look and say "oh no we can't do anything about it in store you need to contact the manufacturers" then you end up spending 4 hours on the ruddy phone to the manufacturer who then passes you to the repair agent who then says they need an authorisation number from the manufacturer who then passes that to the repair agent and then you have to send it off for repair which will be done without fail in five working days Sir except it ends up being three weeks so you miss the shipment sending all your other stuff to the container packers so you have to bring it back in your luggage and nearly get stung for about £150 excess baggage. Etc etc etc. And then they send you a bill for repairing it and get told to F off in no uncertain terms! By the time that lot had finished I swore three things 1) I will never buy anything from Dixons ever again 2) I will never buy anything made by Pioneer ever again 3) I will never try and take anything back to UK for a warranty repair If I can't fix it myself I'll just have to put up with it, if I post it back over there it will almost certainly get smashed in transit anyway, either going there or coming back. These things always come in threes. So that's the DVD and the monitor, I guess my new outboard will be the next ****ing thing to blow up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbarton Posted September 30, 2006 Share Posted September 30, 2006 I always buy expensive things from a local shop so I can bang on the counter if I have to. I'm not sure how these things work, but I guess there is a matrix of some sort, a regular fault pattern points to drivers and/or memory faults. Subject to safety considerations I'd take the back off and have a poke around with a plastic rod, could be a dry joint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted September 30, 2006 Author Share Posted September 30, 2006 It disappeared for a while, a little while ago, now its back again but fainter than before maybe I'll put my fist away for the time being and see what happens...... Sometimes I buy things locally too but when they are mostly getting on for twice the price that you can buy them while on holiday, you can actually accept a certain failure rate and still be "in the black"... it is still ruddy annoying though. For example my HP 8250 printer (bought from the same Comet store at the same time) £75 (which was cheap, most places were £100) and I got the VAT back which made it even cheaper. Nearest equivalent here was about £175! Does anybody on here work in the IT repair business, any thoughts on what I could look for? Ta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJG Posted September 30, 2006 Share Posted September 30, 2006 It disappeared for a while, a little while ago, now its back again but fainter than before maybe I'll put my fist away for the time being and see what happens...... Sometimes I buy things locally too but when they are mostly getting on for twice the price that you can buy them while on holiday, you can actually accept a certain failure rate and still be "in the black"... it is still ruddy annoying though. For example my HP 8250 printer (bought from the same Comet store at the same time) £75 (which was cheap, most places were £100) and I got the VAT back which made it even cheaper. Nearest equivalent here was about £175! Does anybody on here work in the IT repair business, any thoughts on what I could look for? Ta Sorry Stephen my "never buy from again" list includes HP. I had a PC made by them a number of years ago and it was the biggest pile of cr@p I've owned ( apart from a Sony TV) Sounds lke a varaition of the dead pixel problem that afflicts TFT monitors. To be honest I am guessing not user fixable and probably only sorted by a relacement monitor.... I could bring you a nice reliable Dell one if you were willing to pay my return airfare.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted October 1, 2006 Author Share Posted October 1, 2006 Sorry Stephen my "never buy from again" list includes HP.I had a PC made by them a number of years ago and it was the biggest pile of cr@p I've owned ( apart from a Sony TV) Sounds lke a varaition of the dead pixel problem that afflicts TFT monitors. To be honest I am guessing not user fixable and probably only sorted by a relacement monitor.... I could bring you a nice reliable Dell one if you were willing to pay my return airfare.... In my case it's the first HP thing I have ever had that doesn't still work! right back to my old Deskjet 500 from about 1990 which is still going strong. Joking aside it isn't worth chucking the screen away for as on a light coloured background it is hardly noticeable, just going to be annoying when photo editing etc. Thanks for the generous offer but I'll use the airfare myself and come and buy another one I think anyway still got 2 17" CRT screens so no immediate loss of computer expected just yet..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted October 1, 2006 Share Posted October 1, 2006 generally if something is under 28days old most stores will give u refund or direct replacement if it fails, including dixons currys etc outwith that they are perfectly entitled to send it off for repair which can take upto 6weeks(for dixons anyway) salesman was at fault for saying u'd get it back in a week but if u were moaning about not just getting a new unit it's unsurprising really as all he can do is follow company policy which states repair after 28days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imspanners Posted October 2, 2006 Share Posted October 2, 2006 Might not help with you being so far souf', but UK Sale of Goods act 1979 states it's the responsibility of the RETAILER to get any repairs effected on a faulty item, not the manufacturer. I had a problem with Dixons over a mobile phone, 3 repairs (via them) over a 6 week period, I'd had enough and forced them to refund, courtesy of that act. See paragraph 48B section 2..... Sale of Goods act Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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