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LCD monitor questions - need your help..

G

Greenwald

Member
Hi,
My wife bought me a new 17" LCD Samsung 171v display for my birthday. So far so good. It comes with a 3 year warranty. I know many companies only replace when there are several dead pixels. My question is, should I spring for the performance warranty? What does a dead pixel look like? How large are they? How common is it to develope dead pixels? What about the tube replacement? How commonly do they go out? I've been using this for several weeks now w/o a hitch. I can still get the performance warranty from Best buy though. What do you think?

Thanks in advance
 
Read the warranty carefully, most do not cover dead pixels or back lights. Use the monitor test program at this link to test you monitor for dead pixels. In reality, no manufacturer today can promise a flaw-free LCD monitor. Limitations of the LCD manufacturing process sometimes result in dead sub-pixels. Three sub-pixels one red, one green and one blue make up a ?Pixel?. A dead ?pixel? three adjacent sub-pixels is rare, however dead sub-pixels are very common. A "dead sub-pixel" can take the form of either a black or colored spot on a white background or a white or colored dot on a black background. Since this is a manufacturing issue sub-pixels typically will not go bad over time.
 
I don't think a retailer will return it based on a couple misc dead pixels. Typically they have criteria for returns based on bad pixels. Something like (number could be more) there has to be more than 5 thorougout the image or 3 inline to each other. These criteria are set by the industry as the level at which all parties would agree there is a problem. I know this from a laptop I bought a few years back. It to had 2 dead pixels at a couple places in the image. I went as far as I could go through the support chain until this was finally explained to me. The same laptop is still in service and the dead pixels haven't spread nor gone away...just something to get used to...
 
Oh and I would pass on the extra warranty. In a couple years when the mfg warranty runs out you'll probably want a bigger and by then much cheaper model anyway...
 
I found out that Samsung's warranty will only cover 25 dead pixels per square inch. So, if I had a few dead pixels spread over the screen it wouldn't be covered. Backlight isn't covered. I sprung for the $49 warranty anyway. I includes free repair/replacement if there are 3 dead pixels per square inch. The guy said that often if one goes, it's not uncommon for others to go in the area (i don't know...). It also covers the backlight and any dimming that may occur. Since we got it for a hell of a deal, we figured what the heck...

Nice thing about the old monitors is they last a long time. My old one was 5+ years old and still looking great. Big bulky sucker though. The new desk space is nice.
 
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