Laptop Display Horror Story

[Samuel Green]

The story begins when I replaced my 5 year old Samsung laptop with a shiny new Dell. You know what they say 'Dude, you're getting a Dell!' but not this time. What I got was a laptop with a cashback offer that seemed almost too good to be true! A Dell Inspiron 5767 with a 17" screen. And what a screen! It was a FHD IPS panel that was wider than I was.

 

The trouble started not too long after I took the laptop out of the box, though. After a couple of weeks, the screen started flickering wildly, and lines started appearing in the top left of the display. A quick off and on solved the problem, but little did I know, it was already too late. After just 2 months of light use, sitting on a table, the screen suffered a spontaneous catastrophic hardware failure. An ink blot the size of my palm appeared on the corner of my screen. I had to send it back. 

 

UK people will know this, but the biggest consumer electronics retailer, Currys PC World has an absolutely terrible reputation for it's customer service. To compete with Amazon, I guess they had to cut costs somewhere... Officially, they said that the laptop could be gone for a month for repairs, which considering how important it is, is a touch unreasonable. Nonetheless, I sent it back, and they actually saw to it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't see to it in the way I expected. They claimed that it was 'accidental damage' and required £130 to fix it (accidental damage isn't covered by the warranty). This is total BS, it's been 2 months and it spent the entire time on a table. 

 

Here's where the law gets involved. Currys PC World ought to automatically fix the product as it's so new and clearly a manufacturing defect by extension. This isn't just how I feel, it's actually enforceable by law. So I actually started a claim against Currys PC World for refusing to uphold their duty as a seller under UK law, and because I had to buy a new laptop in the meantime, I'm suing to be reimbursed for the cost of the replacement. Now Currys PC World wants to hire an 'expert' to determine whether this could have been accidental damage. Obviously, any 'expert' would be biased in Currys PC World's favour, but at this point, I can't find or afford an expert of my own to explain the logic of how a manufacturer defect works.

Does anyone in the tech community have any evidence of computer displays becoming spontaneously faulty? Or of display manufacturer failure rates? Or even just some source which explains how a display can break? Hoping for a victory for the little guys here ?. Oh, and don't shop at Currys PC World ever. If Currys PC World have the best price, then go to John Lewis and notify them so that they can match it. They have far superior customer service as well.

[GilmourD]

There's a very clear crack in that screen... So I'm honestly not sure.

[Samuel Green]

12 hours ago, GilmourD said:

There's a very clear crack in that screen... So I'm honestly not sure.

The screen surface isn't actually cracked. It's just the internal panel. 

[AshleyAshes]

Even from the photo it looks like you smashed it.

 

 

[GilmourD]

2 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

Even from the photo it looks like you smashed it.

 

 

OK, good. Not the only one that thinks that.

 

I deal with 2800 Chromebooks distributed to students that don't give a rat's arse. I see smashed screens all the time. Doesn't look much different from the kids that put a Chromebook in their backback and toss it half way across the gymnasium.

[AshleyAshes]

2 minutes ago, GilmourD said:

OK, good. Not the only one that thinks that.

 

I deal with 2800 Chromebooks distributed to students that don't give a rat's arse. I see smashed screens all the time. Doesn't look much different from the kids that put a Chromebook in their backback and toss it half way across the gymnasium.

Yeah I mean the OP says it' snot a crack but it's clearly a crack.  The damage follows the crack and the crack is even somewhat lit up as the crack area itself is refracting light differently than the undamaged area.

[Samuel Green]

16 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

Yeah I mean the OP says it' snot a crack but it's clearly a crack.  The damage follows the crack and the crack is even somewhat lit up as the crack area itself is refracting light differently than the undamaged area.

 

16 hours ago, GilmourD said:

OK, good. Not the only one that thinks that.

 

I deal with 2800 Chromebooks distributed to students that don't give a rat's arse. I see smashed screens all the time. Doesn't look much different from the kids that put a Chromebook in their backback and toss it half way across the gymnasium.

This isn't a petite Chromebook, it's a massive 17 inch laptop. You couldn't throw it even if you wanted to. Also, it's screen is made of plastic. Isn't that meant to be broadly shatterproof? If you want, I can turn off the screen and shine a light on it so that you can see there's no crack on the outside.

 

I think this guy is having the same problem as me.

[GilmourD]

55 minutes ago, Samuel Green said:

 

This isn't a petite Chromebook, it's a massive 17 inch laptop. You couldn't throw it even if you wanted to. Also, it's screen is made of plastic. Isn't that meant to be broadly shatterproof? If you want, I can turn off the screen and shine a light on it so that you can see there's no crack on the outside.

 

I think this guy is having the same problem as me.

If you look at my signature you'll know I'm familiar with behemoth 17 inch laptops. Specifically this one:

 

It's heavy as sin.

 

Plastic isn't break-proof. There's all sorts of plastics, some of them flexible, some of them stiff and brittle, and those stiff and brittle ones tend to be what's used in LCD panel substrates, if it's not actually glass on the inside.

 

There's not going to be a crack on the outside if it's the substrate within that cracked. There is a plastic layer on the outside holding it all together but there is glass on the inside.