Dead pixels on your PDA. How do you deal with it?

[epdm2be]

Hi ppl,

As some of you know I had previous trouble with an Toshiba E800. Since the store where I bought it, didn't have any E-800's anymore and considering that Toshiba is leaving (or has left) the PDA market I ordered an Asus MyPAL 620BT instead of another high-end PPC.

Upon receiving I immediatly saw a red dot allmost in the middle of the screen. A broken pixel! I returned this unit to my retailer. The gentleman phoned both his distributor AND Asus (in my presence). I was told that I could not return this defective machine since their return waranty is only valid if more than 5 pixels where defective.

They also pointed me towards their website where this is suposedly mentioned though I didn't find this. They do mention this for LCD monitors but this is a PDA NOT an LCD-monitor. Plus screens on a PDA are much smaller 320x240 so ONE defective pixel on a PDAscreen is a huge blob compared to a 1024x768 monitor.

Anyway. I'm NOT happy with this. Even if this was an LCD-monitor. I expect no defective units when I BUY new stuf. Dead pixels on a display device or other machine which depends on its display is a DEFECT! No matter how tiny these defects are!

So I want to know if other ppl have PDA's with dead or missing pixels and/or their experience regarding this issue and whether or not they got their machines repaired/exchanged.

My former experiences was with an HP Jornada 568 (the well-known dust issue) which HP repaired 2 or 3 times swiftly to no avail. The machine STILL has that issue (whereafter my last call to tech support I demanded a refund which they never did). I gave this PDA after 6 months to my dad (he wanted a GPS so I bought a GPS antenna for the Jornada and give this as a birthday present). When I later learned that HP dropped the Jornada's in favour of Ipaqs and OS updates became non-excisitent I was glad I got rid of it (though giving away is an expensive way to get rid of stuff which shouldn't have had this kind of problems in the first place). Needless to say that I NEVER bought another HP PDA agian.

Now this Asus thing is new and already things go awfully wrong as far as support goes. I bought this brand upon investigating many aparantly good reviews of these units and I already regret it. Did I buy a lemon? AGAIN?

Thanks in advance for you responses

Kind regards,

EPDM

[Darius Wey]

Take the fuss to a higher level. When I first got my iPAQ h1940, it happened to be a rotten egg and would not start up within the first few days that I got it. HP would not allow me to exchange the device straight away without paying (and it was still under warranty!!!), and was going to make me wait a few days before I was to be told what to do. Fortunately, I created a bit of a fuss, and the people at the store where I bought it from also thought HP were a bit fussy, so we all got into a fuss, and contacted HP and demanded that an immediate exchange be approved...and hey...I got what I wanted!

Talk it up with the store staff a bit more, and get them to contact the manufacturers and see what you can get going. It may even help if you can try and contact the manufacturers yourself to get a one-on-one chat going. Hopefully, you'll strike gold! Unfortunate that you got a dodgy device straight away. :(

[netboy_my]

Bad Pixels on LCD screens aren't known as a defect. It's actually considered as a technology limitation instead. To avoid being on the unlucky side, just check the PDA you're purchasing at the retail outlet when you're making your payment, then you won't have problem asking the retailer to change/repair for you.

[BTS]

It's not a bad idea to purchase technology like this at a retail outlet. I had a Casio EM-500 that had to be replace due to a couple of bad pixels. I had bought the extended warranty and the retail chain was forced to cough up a new one.