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IBM dead pixel hell

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daba

Senior member
Hi folks. I'm partially writing this to vent and gather some advice.

I purchase an IBM Thinkpad X40 brand new from my university store back in December. When I finally got it, it had a dead pixel about 1'' from the center of the screen. Unsatisfied with this result, I waited another few weeks for an exchange.

The day my exchange came in everything looked okay until I discovered three dead pixels which showed up on a dark background. This was unacceptable so I went in for another exchange.

Come today, I open up my third, brand new IBM X40 notebook computer. What do you know, the first thing I see is a red dead pixel on the edge of the screen this time. What are the odds of getting three imperfect laptops in a row?

So now I'm really frustrated. I chose IBM for quality, and I paid a premium price for a premium and perfect product. I'm sick of this crap -- it's wasting my time and effort. Anyone have any advice? Should I keep returning these until I get a perfect one? I'm planning on calling IBM directly and expressing my anger.

For the record, I've owned five LCD screens. A Sony VAIO (1400x1050), Dell 1800FP (1280x1024), Hyundai L70S (1280x1024), Toshiba laptop (1024x768), and a Dell 2001FP (1600x1200). Not one of these had a dead pixel.

Thanks in advance,
David
 
bill from thinkpads.com will cherry pick a dead-pixel thinkpad for you for $100. He has really good prices on his thinkpads so it might be almost as cheap to buy it from him, although I don't know exactly how nice your university deal is.
 
I'm a user over at thinkpads.com as well, but Bill's price is a little higher than what my university offers. I'm extremely distraught about this!
 

Since bill is cherypicking the non-dead pixel laptops, I betcha his other laptops have a much better chance of getting dead pixels.....

 
In the past 2yrs I have owned 3 IBM notebooks and none of them had dead or stuck pixels from the start. I did have a T40 that developed white spots on the LCD not pixels but something different and IBM swapped out the LCD and again no stuck or dead pixel.

I feel really bad for you getting 3 in a row. As with you I have had also several other lappys and desktop LCD I have only had a dead pixel on one and that was Fujitsu notebook 1st generation crystal view.

As for Bill cherry picking them he will and does. As for that creating a higher chance of his other purchasers getting one with a dead pixel, Not really the case, as he sells the ones that do turn out to have a dead pixel at a discount and disclosed to purchaser. This is why the $100 fee for cherry picking.
 
I'm surprised that I got three in a row. It's a true hassle.

I'm not sure what I'll get out of calling IBM and asking to speak to a supervisor. I think the people at my university store are getting sick of seeing me there!
 
It seems like this happens more than usual for educational purchases. I wonder if the second-rate units end up at the schools, and sold at their discounted prices.
 
I understand your desire to get the perfectest product out of the box, but dead pixels are not such a big deal to do three returns and waste your and store employee time. My LCD has two dead subpixels (red and blue) in one pixel, a scratch and two tiny nicks in plastic in front of screen (either my brother or my cat is guilty, neither admits). Most of the time, I don't even notice them or the dirt I have on the screen. Is a single dead pixel such a big problem?
Now, I did return a laptop since it had bad pixels, but that was an amount recognized by manufacturer warranty - 3 or 4 stuck-white pixels next to each other in horizontal line.
 
Different strokes for different folks. Thank you for your opinion but I am very meticulous when it comes to a lot of things, and my computers parts are no exception. I paid extra for a ThinkPad (I could've gotten a Dell for much cheaper) so I expect it to be flawless.
 
There are better things in life than to get 'distraught' over dead pixels.

You went with IBM for better quality, but that doesn't necessarily mean 0 dead pixels. If you wanted that, you should have gone with premium services that can offer that.
 
Originally posted by: daba
Different strokes for different folks. Thank you for your opinion but I am very meticulous when it comes to a lot of things, and my computers parts are no exception. I paid extra for a ThinkPad (I could've gotten a Dell for much cheaper) so I expect it to be flawless.
Click to expand...

But when are you going to pay a 'flawless' price?
 
Originally posted by: daba
Different strokes for different folks. Thank you for your opinion but I am very meticulous when it comes to a lot of things, and my computers parts are no exception. I paid extra for a ThinkPad (I could've gotten a Dell for much cheaper) so I expect it to be flawless.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked you got to return the TP for couple of stuipd dead pixels. IBM's policy is 8 or more, or 2 next to each other. I have owned 6 thinkpads over 8 years, they ALL have dead pixels. IBM is great, flawless it is NOT.
 
I've got 2304000 wonderful lil' pix running here.... sorry about your troubles. What are you doing to those things, or what is Fedex doing???
 
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