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Hardware

Dead Pixel Problem & HP online support

I just noticed that my iPaq has two dead pixels. They are left of the screen, not really centered and not really visible unless you open up media player with it’s black background – then you see them. One is colored red, the other one is colored blue.

As this is a newly bought handheld, I first went to the shop to see if I could exchange it. No luck, they stated (correctly, from reading the docs) that I would need to contact HP support as they handle al after-sales support.

No, I didn’t buy it in the Fnac, or else I would have been able to exchange it for another due to their standard exchange policy. Bweuh.

So I went to the HP support webpages, and selected the online chat support system, which first collects information from your pc (only those parts that you want help with, in this case Active Sync and the model and serial number of my iPaq).

I then had 3 support people (all with Indian names, but that doesn’t really matter, just that I am not used to seeing people with names longer than mine) ‘analysing my situation’, asking me to wait while they did this.

I think this is a standard message they have in the copy/paste buffer, as all I asked was ‘What are your support policies regarding the return of a handheld with 2 dead pixels ?’.

The first support person asked me how ‘big’ the dead pixels were – uuuumm, 1 pixel big ? Duh.
The second didn’t add anything, and the third person referred me to my HP local after-sales telephone support.
So I’ll give them a call come Monday, see what they have to say.

Update :
I called HP Support Belgium on Monday – in the end, they told me that they could not take it in for replacement. They only do iPaq replacements if there is more than 1 dead pixel (I am not sure how many dead pixels you need to qualify, more than 2 I think), and the pixels are totally dead (aka they show up as white-colored).

He explained to me that each pixel is made up out of 3 sub-pixels : red, green and blue, like a RGB-monitor, same principle, and that the fact that I had 2 dead subpixels did not qualify me for an iPaq replacement.

It is only really viewable on a black background, so I am not too bothered about it. Still, it’ll teach me for not checking the screen out before buying it. Kudos for the guy in HP Phone Support – he at least knew what he was talking about.

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