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Sony Recants on Dead Pixels (Sort Of)
Ayaress writes "As reported on Gamestop, Sony will now warranty PSP units suffering from dead pixels. Sony still insists that dead pixels are a common problem in all LCD displays, saying "A very small number of dark pixels or continuously lit pixels is normal for LCD screens, and is not a sign of a malfunction," and asks that PSP owners use theirs for at least a week or two, to see if it still bothers them. User who encounter, "persistent and aggravating dead pixels," are instructed to contact Sony customer support, and will be allowed to mail in their PSP to recieve a unit with a new screen."
Why does Sony seem to have a higher level of complaints than all the other LCD makers? Was it a rushed process resulting in dropped quality or do they have the same quality as others and the media is just picking up on their problems?
BTW, requisite PA comic on the topic
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Wired article as proof
"Yes, it bothers me. Replace it."
How can they say it isn't a defect? Of course it's a defect.
"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
-sp-
I have one dead pixel on my 17" Powerbook. The blue is stuck on. I don't normally notice it because usually something white or bluish is over it, but I can notice it when the screen is black. Sometimes it fails white, but if I rub at it with a fingernail, it goes back to blue.
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"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
I got a laptop from Rock, who are a reputable company with good customer care. It had a few faulty pixels, and they replaced the screen. My dad got a laptop from PC World; it has some faulty pixels, and they refused to replace it. Their policy is that ten adjacent dead pixels constitutes a fault! Serves him right, I warned him not to buy expensive hardware from PCW.
And what really burned me was their non-existent customer service.
A close family member used to work at their american tech support center. Turnover was high. Expectations were high. Typical "get the customer off the phone" policies. He was there for about 9 months IIRC, and at that point was the senior member of his team.
IMHO, (and this is an informed second-hand opinion) Sony really needs to stop treating customer service as a cost center, and give it the same branding treatment they give all their other products BEFORE sale.
Or to rephrase: branding doesn't stop just because the consumer has bought your device.
It continually amazes me that a company that is SO great at branding (see: playstation, XPlode, SonyStyle, Walkman, VAIO) drops the ball at such a crucial part of the branding experience.
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
Hear hear.
If the technology's not ready for the marketplace don't market it.
I too am not going to buy a flat panel display until it's guranteed not to have a dead pixel. I wouldn't pay hard earned money for a CRT display that might have a small crack in it or a RAM module that may have a few dead chips on it would I ?
Mind you this should hopefully be the case by the time my lovely Iiyama 19" dies (my last 17" lasted 7 years until I dropped the fecker... bugger...)
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
Back in the day, most vendors would not replace an LCD with a few dead pixels unless they were somewhere intrusive, like the middle of the screen. It was then very hard to make an LCD with all 100 jillion little elements working perfectly, and back then they were a lot more expensive for system vendors to buy. (As recently as 2000 over 1/2 the cost of a laptop was the LCD.) I don't know the actual numbers but I expect that allowing, say, three dead pixels in nonintrusive areas even today may double or triple the production yield.
...) with high resolution LCDs may never notice as they are just pulling menus and writing documents. How long have you worked with a piece of dust or a smudge on the screen before you: a) noticed; b) findlly got irritated enough to do something about it? In my experience many users either never notice dirt or dead pixels, or just put it out of their mind. Therefore I assert that vendors can "get away" with allowing a few dead pixels - most users won't do anything about it, and those picky ones can return for a different one, and costs are kept lower.
Non-demanding users (IOW, not hackers, graphic designers,
A few years back when I could afford such things (and LCDs were no doubt less reliable), I bought an Apple Powerbook. It had (IIRC) three dead pixels in the 800x600 monochrome LCD. When I talked to the Mac shop where I bought it, they checked with Apple. Apple's policy at that time was that fewer than (again, IIRC) five pixels did not constitute failure, because LCDs almost always had a few dead ones. As it happens, shortly thereafter and still within warranty, the wiring between the top and the base got flaky, and they had to send the laptop back to Apple to fix it. (No, I didn't arrange this, it just happened!) Their fix involved a new top, which had a new LCD. It only had 2 bad pixels, and they were in out of the way places.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
I'm on my 2nd Panasonic AE700 lcd projector (1280 x 720) (based on the Epson D-4 LCD chips). 1st unit had 3 clumps of stuck-on greens. Fairly close to even the 1:33 'center of action' (this is a 1:78 projector). Pixels were visible from the couch. Unsatisfactory. Vendor graciously swapped units. Panasonic woulda most likely told me to get bent.
2nd unit has 1 stuck green, out of the way (regardless of aspect ratio being shown). This one's much dimmer, it can rarely, if ever, be seen from the couch, even when you're actively looking for it. I chose to keep this unit. Returning / swapping is a PITA when the object in question is your only HT display.
What irks me is 1) Epson willingly sold defective panels to Panasonic, 2) Panasonic willingly accepted them, and 3) Panasonic has the brass balls to say in the manual "stuck / dead pixels are a by-product of lcd technology and will not affect performance" Such bovine excrement!
Seems to mainly be green pixels, too. I had a Sony Vaio laptop with one lone stuck greenie, but it was as bright as the sun.. sold off on ebay. Then this projector, twice, green panel again..
Is there something inherently evil about green LCD?!
They hide behind excuses, while selling product with visible, known defects. WTF? And then they *tell* you those defects are normal? Double WTF!
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
In each case that I've had to do this, the pixels would stick a few more times before ultimately giving in in defeat and bowing to my will. They then behaved like good working pixels for the rest of their useful lives.
I know the PSP screen is shielded so that you can't make direct contact with the screen. I wonder just how many "stuck pixel" issues could be fixed with a nice little massage to the pixel area, if only you could get to it...