IBM To Repair Smoking Monitors

Rio writes "A local6.com story says IBM is recalling to repair 56,000 G51 and G51t computer monitors because the circuit board can overheat and smoke, posing a fire hazard. IBM has received several reports of monitors overheating and smoking, including one report of minor property damage, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Comission." And I thought all that smoke was just my mobo overheating.

Comments

MMmm!

[Dark Lord Seth]

I'd like one of those monitors! I'll find myself some dremel and a steel girder to create the first monitor/grill combo ever! Steak anyone?

Re:MMmm!

[tomhudson]

If you notice, the monitors were made under subcontract by the same company that made/used the exploding capacitors that have caused so much motherboard/poer supply grief lately.

Probably not a coincidence :-(

Well that's corporate civic-mindedness!

[Tofino]

If only tobacco companies would be as obliging!

They missed the marketing boat.

[Anonymous Coward]

"IBM G51: The hottest monitor available!"

OT What kind of tech news site is this?

[binaryDigit]

When right next to the article on the monitors, is this:

Man Who Allegedly Ate Cat's Tail Ruled Insane

and

Thousands Flock To See Gold Toilets

Smoking?

[Soko]

Can't they just *cough* *cough* patch it?

*cough*

Soko

What next?

[Anonymous Coward]

First IBM hard drives, now IBM monitors. What's next to kick the bucket?

Re:What next?

[Anonymous Coward]

IBM enterprise class servers.

Re:What next?

[ralphus]

ummm, IBM? ;)

They were probably made . . .

[Rocko Bonaparte]

. . . from components they popped off of returned deskstars.

Monitors

[grub]

Do those smoking monitors have to be used outside in California?

Mobo?

[chowdmouse]

And I thought all that smoke was just my mobo overheating.

Did you mean mojo? Yeah, Baby!

Re:Mobo?

[Landaras]

*regarding mojo overheating*

Well maybe Taco finally figured out that what works for Perl works for the bedroom as well...

"There's more than one way to do it"

Re:Mobo?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen his Perl skills? Not exactly the Kama Sutra.

IBM

[grub]

Maybe IBM should rethink its business focus. Perhaps they should manufacture baseboard heaters, toaster overs, wave solder baths...

Re:IBM

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Maybe IBM should rethink its business focus. Perhaps they should manufacture baseboard heaters, toaster overs, wave solder baths..."

Man, if they had a strategic partnership with AMD, they'd OWN that market.

monitors are in trouble

[Dylan2000]

IBM has received several reports of monitors overheating and smoking

sounds like these monitors just bought themselves a first-class ticket to detention. They should have smoked in the bathroom where nobody would see them.

I blame the parents.

Nice to hear

[stratjakt]

It's good that a company actually has the balls to recall a faulty product. It's kind of a shame that it has to be a fire hazard to make it happen, and not poor quality. I guess it's the lawyers who made the call, fearing wrongful death suits when some kid dies of inhalation while playing UT.

The PC market is flooded with second rate, faulty, poorly designed and nonfunctional hardware.

I once had an NEC monitor that burned out on me, had it replaced, that one burned out, replaced again, that one burned out ad nauseum - 5 in a row. By the 6th, they had stopped manufacturing them and I got a different one, which still works fine today.

I knew the monitor was designed poorly, they knew it was designed poorly (they only made 'em for like 6 months). Wouldnt a recall have been easier and cheaper than cross shipping me 5 replacements in a row?

Oh well. I just wish there were more corporations willing to stand behind their merchandise.

Re:Nice to hear

[DJ FirBee]

//I knew the monitor was designed poorly, they knew it was designed poorly (they only made 'em for like 6 months). Wouldnt a recall have been easier and cheaper than cross shipping me 5 replacements in a row?//

The answer is no. If they had a recall they would have to recall every monitor not just yours. If it would have been cheaper, they would have done it like that. They are a company with accountants and what not. They know what is cheaper.

IBM is doing it's recall no doubt because they fear litigation. IBM did not recall it's crappy GNX series hard drives that fell apart, because they would not catch fire and expose IBM to a lawsuit.

Re:Nice to hear

[vasqzr]

The PC market is flooded with second rate, faulty, poorly designed and nonfunctional hardware

Consumers want $1,000, $500, $300 PC's. What do you expect?

Let's go back in time a few years. The Pentium 133MHz had just come out, making the 120MHz look like a sweet deal. 16MB of RAM was pretty good, and 56K modems were all the rage. You'd get this kind of a deal for $1,999.

A monitor back then, 14" and 15" were standard, would cost you nearly $200. A 17" was a $350-$400 luxury. 19"? $500-700. And 21" monitors would cost you $1,000-$2,000!

Think about how cheap monitors are now. You can't GIVE away a 15". 17" are available for $69 after rebate from any retail store. 19" monitors are $200-$300. Once considered extravagant, 21" monitors are just a little more than the 17" monitors of yesterday. Hell, you can get a 15" LCD for $199.

The problem has always been quality. Sure, the bargain basement monitors work, but the colors are bad, they lack focus, and aren't the brightest, or are too bright.

The de facto standard has usually been the Sony Trinitron displays. I'd rather use a 3 year old Trinitron than a 1 year old bargain brand.

Now, the PC market is flooded with crappy monitors. (Not to mention OTHER components) Take a look at the Apple side of things, or the SGI/Sun workstations. They've had their share of bad products, but much of the OEM equipment is re-branded Sony models etc.

Paradigm shift

[L. VeGas]

All this time I thought it was my bikini models screensaver that was smokin'.

fire?

[_ph1ux_]

I'd say they were more of a water risk....

If you have a smoke detection system that will set off sprinklers in the event of smoke....

then all your machines are Toast!

Inevitable

[limekiller4]

AOL Member: My monitor seems to be smoking.
Customer Support: Oh. Err... [looking at breakroom longingly] Is that an IBM monitor you have there, sir?
AOL Member: Why yes, it is.
Customer Support: Well, then that would be the new Smell-sation monitor feature, sir. It ...uh ...tells you, by olfactory cues, how fast your internet connection is. [co-workers dying of laughter in background, turning blue] We just upgraded our network, so that's probably what you're seei ...er, smelling, sir.
AOL Member: Oh, wonderful! Thank you! [click]

Re:Inevitable

[GreggBert]

**POOF ** You've got SMOKE !!!

related news...

[new death barbie]

Although IBM has admitted problems with smoke, a representative was quick to point out that noone has complained about the mirrors.

Somewhat OT...but...

[bdowne01]

There was something simliar with smoking hardware that happened where I work--

We had a developer who was coding on a Dell Latitude w/ Dell's huge (and expandable) C/Dock-II. For those who don't know what that is, it's basically an expandable dock with which you can add PCI cards, SCSI, etc..

Anyway, the dock started smoking one day during his coding session. I just happened to be walking by and quickly unplugged it from the wall. Apparently a small capacitor inside the dock exploded and got all over everything, causing it to smoke.

We told the developer that because his code was so ineffecient, his compile had melted the dock.

He believed us! har har...

Re:Somewhat OT...but...

[Tim Macinta]

We had a developer who was coding on a Dell Latitude w/ Dell's huge (and expandable) C/Dock-II... the dock started smoking one day during his coding session. I just happened to be walking by and quickly unplugged it from the wall. Apparently a small capacitor inside the dock exploded and got all over everything, causing it to smoke.

Heh heh... and that's not the only thing from dell caught smoking.

What a warranty!

[big_groo]

Here is the link to IBM's page about these monitors. That's one hell of a warranty on a monitor.

My guess is that most of the people that use these are business customers (ie. used as cash register displays or something like that) and they don't want to lose any repeat business.

Re:What a warranty!

[Pharmboy]

My guess is that most of the people that use these are business customers (ie. used as cash register displays or something like that) and they don't want to lose any repeat business.

My experience with IBM has always been great. Twice they have replaced minor parts OUT OF WARRANTY with just a call, free. And this was just on consumer grade products. One reason I half a dozen IBM servers now. (ppro 2 dual's, never a down day in over 4 years, even the used one i bought off ebay).

I am betting most (not all, but most) people that talk trash about IBM have never been IBM customers. As always, you mileage will vary, but they have always treated me, a very tiny customer, like gold.

Maybe a flamebait....but

[greymond]

It seems like IBM is really half-assing their recent products/services. Within the last 12 months I've seen them take a lot of flak for their flaky batteries, and bad hardrives

I know their stance for linux has improved, but still seems somewhat wisshy washy at times....IBM IMO is a really strong business, but they seem to be half-assing a lot lately

Quite old

[rirugrat]

The 6541 model of IBM monitors are quite old since they were manufactured from June 1997 - September 1997. It's amazing that they still work. Our company used to purchase Acer 34 and 76 monitors and they all failed within 3 years.

And only 5 reported failures? In almost 6 years? That doesn't sound too bad to me...

Chris

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just replace them?

[brickbat]

These things are ancient. I've gone through at least two monitors since the G51 was introduced. And a decent new 17" monitor is about $120. Seems like it would be cheaper for IBM to just give owners a credit towards a new monitor.

Perhaps IBM is banking on the fact that most of these dinosaurs are sitting on a shelf somewhere because their tubes blew out long ago. I know I wouldn't bother getting a 6-year-old 15" monitor fixed, even if it was for free.

FLAME POST!

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

Not true dude. I'm using a Deskstar right now and it has never fai^HHHHHHHHHHHH[no carrier]

IBM To Repair Smoking Monitors

[pebs]

Just make sure you don't leave your weed next to the monitor. It may mysteriously disappear. If the monitor starts acting funny, you may not want to believe the excuse that its just degaussing itself. If you notice that there is a lot of red in the picture, or a glazed over look in your screen, your monitor could very well be a pot smoker.

In that case, hey, let the monitor smoke, you may notice improvements when playing games.

Re:Will IBM refund my life ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey buddy, IBM isn't the one who put the can of gas and the matches in your hand.

smoke test...

[mike77]

silly engineers, when I worked for motorolla and we had a new product, the FIRST test we put it through was the smoke test. We went for lunch, and on the way plugged the devices into the car lighter socket to see if it smoked.

we rolled the windows down alot....

More than 56,000

[EinarH]

From the IBM-site. :

Between 1997 and 1999, a total of approximately 700,000 G51 series monitors were manufactured for IBM in Malaysia and China by LiteOn Technology International, Inc. Approximately 117,000 monitors that could potentially include this component were shipped worldwide, and about 56,000 were sold in the U.S.

They are withdrawing all the 117,000:

If you live outside of the US, click here. for a list of phone numbers to contact a repair center.

[rant]
It's only the US-centric slashdot, who want us Europeans to burn... ;-)[/rant]

Fiery IBM monitors are nothing new

[netringer]

Nuttin new.

The IBM monitors that shipped with IBM PS/2 computers in the late 1980's were notorious for bursting into flame. Flames would shoot out of the monitor's vents at the top of the case. One morning I found one had charred the top of its case overnight. Luckily it burned itself out without tripping the office sprinklers. THAT would have been more exciting.

Which reminds me of the sick joke I dreamed up for our IT boss at that job. We were thinking of calling him up on his honeymoon vacation, and saying, "Don't worry about the fire in the data center. The sprinklers put it out!"

Around that time I was interviewing at a 100% "True Blue" IBM shop. I mentioned that the new IBM monitors are known to burst into flame. The response was, "Oh yes, the monitors do often catch on fire. But then IBM replaces them for free under warranty!"

IBM's immediate response was to send adhesive labels for the monitors that advised powering them off when not in use. New monitors came with the sticker pre-applied at the factory.

Re:Fiery IBM monitors are nothing new

[netringer]

Anyone who suggests using sprinklers in the datacenter should be immediately fired. Datacenter fire extinguishing systems should only be gas-based. That's in fact the way it is in any well-equipped datacenter.

Yeah, right. You don't have to deal with Chigaguh.

This particular (small) data center had a Halon system. It also still had sprinkler heads.

Sprinklers can be required because the building owners or city code will not allow them to removed. If the rules or building code say "All rooms on all floors must be equipped with a sprinkler system" it will be interpreted to mean exactly that, no substitutes allowed.

BTW, electrical conduits MUST be metal, we don't get to use the plastic sheathed stuff like the rest of world. Ditto for plumbing pipes, although PVC plastic waste pipes are legal in the city now, after 40 years of being banned. The unions/building departments (often headed by the same person) claim that the plastic would contribute toxic fumes in the event of a fire.

BTW II, Halon is effectively banned now, too. Because the EPA banned freon because of risk to the ozone layer, the gas is not made and thus is so expensive that a installing Halon or replacing it after a discharge would cost $100,000.

smoking monitors

[kurosawdust]

I thought that new Photoshop filter was a little too realistic...

nosmoke.exe....

[3-State Bit]

apparently a true story:

I used to work in a computer store and one day we had a gentleman call in with a smoking power supply. The service rep was having a bit of trouble convincing this guy that he had a hardware problem.

Service Rep: Sir, something has burned up within your power supply.

Customer: I bet that there is some command that I can put into the AUTOEXEC.BAT that will take care of this.

Service Rep: There is nothing that software can do to help you with this problem.

Customer: I know that there is something that I can put in... some command... maybe it should go into the CONFIG.SYS.

[After a few minutes of going round and round]
Service Rep: Okay, I am not supposed to tell anyone this but there is a hidden command in some versions of DOS that you can use. I want you to edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT and add the last line as C:\DOS\NOSMOKE and reboot your computer.

[Customer does this]
Customer: It is still smoking.

Service Rep: I guess you'll need to call Microsoft and ask them for a patch for the NOSMOKE.EXE.

[The customer then hung up. We thought that we had heard the last of this guy but NO... he calls back four hours later]
Service Rep: Hello Sir, how is your computer?

Customer: I called Microsoft and they said that my power supply is incompatible with their NOSMOKE.EXE and that I need to get a new one. I was wondering when I can have that done and how much it will cost..

An old but good story...

No your MONITOR is flambait.

[nlinecomputers]

RTFA! :-D

Sorry I could not help myself.

It isn't just IBM the whole industry is starting to put out crap. Everyone wants cheap PCs and you take a hit on the quality when you go for that.

Don't let IBM change the subject!

[Provocateur]

Focus, guys, focus! Thinkpad Batteries!

I saw a buggy program toast one of these...

[Moses Lawn]

I saw one of these smoke itself spontaneously through code.

When I was in college, we had a couple of labs full of PS/2 Model 50s (286-based). One night, a friend of mine was testing calling assemply language routines from Turbo Pascal. She must have gotten some parameter passing or something very wrong, because as soon as she ran the app, it crashed and smoke started pouring out of the top of the monitor. At the time, we all thought that was the most impressive damn thng we had ever seen - a program that crashes so badly that it kills the machine. That takes more than a 3-finger salute to fix. Today, I'm a little more doubtful of the exact cause. It could have been a flaky monitor, but it would be a BIG coincidence for it to have had nothing to do with the program. (I wanted to try running the program again on a different machine and see if it happened again, but that seemed like a bad idea.)

On the subject of crappy IBM hardware, the PS/2s were far way from five 9s. I wasn't impressed by their service, either. Out of 35 or so systems, there were always about 3 or 4 dead ones. The service rep would come by about once a week, open them up and fiddle around inside, and then leave with at least one still dead. Admittedly, they were in regular use by student goons, but these were supposed to be high-end professonal quality tools. We had less trouble with the Leading Edge 8086es in our old lab.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the Microchannel architecture and the proprietary IBM configuration floppy you had to use to add new hardware and tweak the BIOS. Feh.

Re:I saw a buggy program toast one of these...

[radish]

Reminds me of what is one of the only viruses I've ever heard of which could cause physical damage. It was for the venerable old BBC Micro Model B (ancient british home micro for you yanks). Legend has it that when originally designed this thing had some kind of rechargable backup battery for storing state, but it turned out to be too expensive for the final product. However, they left in the charging circuit, just disable. Someone figured out how to switch the thing on through an undocumented system call (well, actuall a POKE in the right place!). Wait 30 mins while it overheated, and voila, molten mainboard. That's worse than even RedAlert ;)

You let your motherboard overheat till it smokes?

[evil_one]

And I thought all that smoke was just my mobo overheating.

Well that makes you look pretty stupid, doesn't it?

They can't have mine

[Hubert_Shrump]

I put it on the patch, it said it would try. I think it'd be a breach of trust to send it back.

Re:Coincidence can be scary...

[Moses Lawn]

That reminds me of the best coincidence I ever ran across. At my first job, we were developing a desktop environment for DOS (file manager, various utilities, etc). This was in Southern California in 1990.

One of the project managers was testing the calculator and did something to get an overflow error. At that moment, the Whittier quake happened. The PM filed a bug report: "Arithmetic overflow in calculator causes earthquake." The bug stayed open until just before shipping, when it was closed as "Cannot reproduce."