Line across my LCD

[SamIAm]

Today, I hit reboot, went out for dinner, and when I came back, the machine had booted-up with a black line lengthwise along one of my Samsung 204Bs. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

It's actually not totally black; it's red in places, like my wallpaper. When I move my mouse under it, the line changes above the mouse, so it's not like a physical crack.

When I move the menu/controls for the monitor over the line, I can still see the line. This implies that it's internal to the monitor. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

What do I do? I bought these things from NewEgg a couple weeks ago.
-Sam

[SamIAm]

Some website said:[ QUOTE ]
A dual scan display, which is sometimes referred to as a passive matrix display, has a row of transistors running on the top of the screen (x-axes) as well as the left of the screen (y-axes). The amount of transistors are defined by the LCD manufacturer, for example, the manufacturer may define 800 transistors along the x-axes and 600 transistors along the y-axes. These transistors power the pixels that are powered in grids by the transistors. Unfortunately, if one of these transistors were to fail, you would receive a solid black line going vertical or horizontal.

[/ QUOTE ]Is that me?

My monitors arrived on the 13th. Is this covered by their standard warranty? It's been 2.5 weeks since they arrived. The invoice email says I have to report damaged items w/in 7 days. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I emailed NewEgg. Wish me luck. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
-Sam

[SamIAm]

(I know I'm the only guy commenting in this thread, but there are a few views. I'll keep updating. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

NewEgg said they got nothin to do with the warranty, and forwarded me to Samsung.

I was worried, but Samsung had nothing but love for me. The tech seemed amazed by my cleverness in moving the monitor menu over the line, and repeated it a couple times back to me. They're mailing me a new one. The tech seemed to imply that they were going to MANUFACTURE me a new one, which might explain why this thing won't get here for 7-14 buisness days.

They're charging my credit card $1,000 till they get a monitor back. I told the tech that was a little silly; I paid $300 for mine, including shipping. He said "Wow, that's a really good price!" I pointed out that, regardless of how good NewEgg is, they're probably not selling them at a $700 loss. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Whatever, I'm happy to lend Samsung the money; I know they're good for it.
-Sam

[1MoreFish4U]

First time I saw this thread Sam. Glad to hear you got good news. I bought one of these after reading about it on here. I am loving it so far.

I also bought an Acer Travelmate 5100 series 17" lcd laptop from TigerDirect a few months ago. The screen started going black on me for no reason. They paid the shipping for me to return it, replaced the screen & inverter board and got it back to me - having had it for less than a week.

It's good to know that there is good customer service from some of these outfits.

[1MoreFish4U]

Well, guess what. The Samsung 204B that I bought in July now has the same line running across the monitor that yours had.

I turn the monitors off at night to give them a rest, and when I turned it on this morning - there it is.

Lets see how Samsung responds on one almost 6 months old.

I have an added twist. I live in Ontario nad have my brother-in-law in Michigan pick up my electronices for me when it's a better deal over there, so he has to do all the work for me of contacting Samsung, etc.

[BiPolar_Nut]

Good to hear Samsung is standing behind their products.

It used to be a big issue w/ cheap LCD's that pixels or lines would burn out. Manufacturers wouldn't consider them "broken" until a certain percentage of the screen area was broken. I was concerned when I started reading the thread that this would be the case. Glad to hear the good news...and will be interested to hear how they respond to 1MoreFish4U.

I only own one LCD, but it's a Samsung (170MP) I've had for about 6 yrs or so (17" w/ built in tv tuner, s-video and RCA inputs, built in speakers, picture-in-picture...pretty kickin for it's time). It's been dropped, used in an 18 wheeler for 4 yrs/500k miles, had an incense cone burn a hole in the top of the case, and will actually display resolutions above what the manufacturer states...which I still don't understand...this monitor acts like a CRT and looks fine at many different resolutions)...I love it. A friend of mine bought the HD version of the same monitor 2 yrs later, didn't subject it to any abuse, and it died in a year...go figure.

[1MoreFish4U]

It'll probably be a couple of weeks. He is going to call Samsung after xmas.

[BeaucoupFish]

Sam - I had exactly the same problem a few weeks back (same model). Newegg was less than helpful (ignored my email in fact) but it soon became apparent Samsung would be the ones to deal with the problem. Took a while to send me a new black one (they only had silver and I didn't want mismatched monitors).

Samsung handled the problem very well, in the same manner as your experience. A bit worrying that this is not an uncommon problem though.

[blinden84]

I have the same issue, but, due to christmas and all, I don't have $1000 available on a credit card, I wonder if I can send mine back FIRST and then get a new one, I would rather do that then pay $1000 for a monitor I got for $300.

I have other monitors I can use, ohh well, we'll see. Seems to be a growing problem with this model.

[thorleif]

All this talk about getting the 204B for $300... Are you guys talking about buying the "open-box" LCDs on newegg for 269? Or have their prices changed since OP?