Defective Fujitsu Screens?

Please look at the following thread:

Defective Fujitsu Screens?

(No sense in copying the whole thread here.)

If you would like to participate in the discussion, especially if you have had a similar experience with a Fujitsu notebook, please do so, either in that thread or here. Thank you.

 

Is this problem strictly relating to the P series...or do ALL Fujitsu laptops come with a chance of having this defect?

 

You guys should've seen my old Fujitsu Lifebook P5020D's screen, man it had over 50 stuck pixels when I bought it used!

I sent it to them for repair as it was still under warranty and they fixed it. It comes back to me and 10 minutes after powering it up, the brightest red stuck pixels pops up smack dab in the middle on the screen. I was ANNNGGGRRRRYYYYYY!!!!!

 

I've had three P's, never seen anything like that or heard any similar stories from people here.

 

I have used 3 fujitsu notebooks...(now I use Acer Ferrari 4005 turion-x700-1gb) and yes never seen anything like that or heard any similar from my fellows or in net. Fujitsu screens are great. Definetely great!!! :fujitsu: I can always advise people to buy a Fujitsu without any hesitation.


regards,
clearday

 

Clearday,

It's great that both you and Brian have had three Fujitsu notebooks, and none of them had a screen problem. (Surprising you both had the same amount of them. Are you Brian?)

I myself have another Fujitsu notebook (C2210), a couple years old now, and it doesn't have a screen problem. (I'm typing on it right now, in fact.) (Obviously, if I had had a similar problem with it as I had with the new one, I wouldn't have bought the new one.)

That doesn't mean there isn't a problem though. In order to say there is a problem with Fujitsu notebook screens, every one of them does not need to have a screen problem. Not even most of them, not even 20% of them. IMO, if one out of 100 have a defective screen, that's a problem. (I'm not saying that is the percentage, just arguing with your "logic" that assumes that since you have had a couple of Fujitsu notebooks, and didn't have a problem, that the problem doesn't exist.) (Obviously if most Fujitsu notebooks had screen problems, or even 20% of them, the news would spread VERY fast, and they would go out of business in a hurry! But there is no need for that type of percentage to say "there is a problem".)

Furthermore, it looks like there might (I certainly hope not!!!) be a problem with their customer service and warranty repair, in dealing with defective screens. Even if the percentage of defective screens is one in a 1000, if you are that one person, and the screen on your brand new notebook suddenly cracks, without any kind of impact that could have caused that, and the manufacturer refuses to repair it under warranty, that is definitely a very major problem! (I am hoping that won't happen, and am taking the chance of sending them mine. But I am worried about it, from what the repairman at the authorized service center told me, and from what I have read in other people's posts.)

More on the subject of customer service--definitely a minus, although much less important than the above, is that Fujitsu makes the customer pay for shipping a defective product to them, whereas most laptop manufacturers send you a prepaid shipping box overnight. Considering Fujitsu is considered a high end notebook company, one would think that they could grant that bit of consideration to their customers, that is granted by makers of much less expensive notebooks. Yes, not a major matter, but it says something about their attitude towards customer service.

Your statement "never seen anything like that or heard any similar from my fellows or in net", is rather puzzling. Well, I don't know who your "fellows" are, and what notebooks they might or might not have, but if by "in net" you mean "on the Internet", if you read the thread on the other forum that I referred to in my original post here, you would have seen several such reports of problems with Fujitsu screens. So, if you read that thread, your statement that you "have not seen any reports of problems with Fujitsu screens on the net" (unless you mean something different by "in net") is quite obviously not factual. If on the other hand, you did not read the thread referred to, why on earth did you respond, when you don't know what you are responding to? Kneejerk reaction to the thread title?

I would suggest, if you wish to participate further in this discussion, that you read that other thread, so that you know what is being discussed, and you will see several posts dealing with screen problems on Fujitsu notebooks.

 

Maiki, chill. I can understand your frustration with having a problem with your laptop, but as clearday mentioned this is the first time that this has come up here. Obviously some people have had problems for one reason or another. Not gonna assume if it's a mishandling or a defect problem.

But a question. Are those models sold in the USA. And were all the purchases made direct from Fujitsu?

Quite a number of the users here (including me) purchase thru portable1 and their service has always been more than great. Even the users who were dealing with Fujitsu (USA) directly got great service. I remember a user here a few months back had Fujitsu send him 3 laptops before they realized there was an issue with the screen for the whole batch that they had, and then they gave him a different model ... so the service that users here are reporting is nothing close to what you are describing!

About shipping back fees ... since I deal with P1 I never had to pay for shipping back to them. They just give me an account number and I use it. Not sure if dealling with Fujitsu directly is any different!

 

I also purchased from P1. I haven't contacted them about this problem. Perhaps I should have. Perhaps I should now, before sending it to Fujitsu. (I'm going to pick up my P7010 at the service center today, I couldn't get there before they closed yesterday.) Is P1 also an authorized service center? You send it to them for warranty repairs, and they cover shipping both ways? If so, perhaps I should send it to them, instead of to Fujitsu.

Yes, Fujitsu definitely makes the customer pay for shpping and insurance to them. (Probably a lot of insurance to pay for a $2000 plus item!) You can read that on their warranty, see it on their web site, and they will definitely tell you that if you call about sending them a laptop. That is unusual for laptop companies.

Perhaps I'll call or e-mail P1 today, and see what they say. Thanks.

 

Oh, yeah, definitely call P1 if you bought from them. They will be good to you.

 

I got screen replaced thru P1. They are an authorized serviced center. They do an excellent job. Take almost no time ... extermely fast (1 day turnaround for screen exchange). and oh ya it cost me $0.00

I think you made a mistake by not contacting them first. But at least you got back on the right track . And ya I have heard that some service centers are not really as good as others (I remember someone mentioning something about some bad service he got in canada).

Hope it turns out all well for you. Let us know what happens. I would like to know cause I'll be gettin a P7 soon! ... Cann't wait

 

I called them today. The rep was friendly. But alas, it didn't help the situation.

He said basically the same thing as the service center guy here in L.A.--that Fujitsu doesn't cover cracked screens with the warranty-they assume it's the user's fault.

So, basically the only choice I have left if I am going to pursue it at all further, is to send it to Fujitsu, as the escalation Fujitsu rep told me it's possible they might cover it, they would have to look at it to determine if it was defective or an accident.

It's a long shot. With both the local service center and P1 telling me Fujitsu won't fix it under warranty, and several other posters complaining about that, the probability seems to be that they will blame it on me, and refuse to fix it under warranty. If they do so, though, I will put up a fuss about it, for sure, as it's not right. Despite the low odds, I don't feel I should just give up on it now, so the only choice now (besides giving up) is to send it to Fujitsu in Memphis. I'll send it tomorrow.

BTW, the guy at the service center told me he could get a screen for me for $600. Good price, or not?

 

If I may ask, what was the problem with the screen you had replaced, under warranty?

As I just wrote in another post, when I explained my situation to a P1 rep on the phone today, he also didn't think they could get it covered under warranty.

 

I should point out something else. I keep seeing posts in this thread, from people who say they have never heard of such problems before, never read about such problems on THIS forum!

Well, did you notice?? One of the posts I quoted in that other (Leog) thread was from---------Notebookreview.com---------This Forum!

Sounds like a similar experience, but a different Fujitsu notebook:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.badipt=2844

 

I am guessing that repairing cracks is not included in warrenty because they cannot know for sure that it was no accident but a defect. But I guess if they inspect it as you are going to do then maybe they will realize what is wrong. (I guess that is the case of all manufacturers, since LCDs can easily get damaged due to mishandling, and companies always want to avoid paying $$$)

My screen was exchanged due to stuck pixels.

 

You might try the better business bureau. There was somebody on this forum that went to them for some reason or other and fujitsu was extremely responsive he said. It might have been the guy that went through the three screens or whatever. I don't recall exactly and I can't find the thread.

Maybe you could send it in to P1 and they could look it over and see that it hasn't been handled roughly? Or did you already suggest that to them?

 

I just remembered that user's user-name that noah refered to. and yes that is the guy who went thru 3 screens I mentioned before.

His user name is "ChaosBlizzard" you can use the search to find out what he exactly did with BBB. The story is spread over multiple threads, so you're gonna have to put it together

 

Well, if I lived in that area, I certainly would have, having bought it from them. However, that not being the case, bringing to a local service center seems usually to be a better option, no? You never know what could happen during shipping. Also, if the notebook is still usable, and the repair requires a part the center will have to order, you can bring in the notebook for them to see the problem, but then take it back with you and continue using it, while they are awaiting the part. When they receive the part, bring the notebook back to the center.

So, for most cases, if there is a decent authorized service center within driving distance, I would think that to be a better option than shipping it anywhere, Fujitsu or P1.

In this case, the guy at P1 told me that if they replaced the screen for me and didn't charge me, under warranty, they would have to send the bad screen taken off mine to Fujitsu, and Fujitsu would probably call the damage due to "accident", and charge them for the new screen. (I guess Fujitsu doesn't believe their service centers whether a screen is defective, they require that the removed screens be sent to them for inspection.) Therefore, Fujitsu is going to make the determination in any case whether the screen replacement will be covered by warranty--so I might as well send it directly to the source, and see what they say. That would probably be the thing to do for anyone with a similar situation--a contracted service center, whether local or P1, wouldn't want to take the chance of fixing it for you for free, and later getting charged themselves by Fujitsu.

If they say they won't cover it, I will take the suggestion of going to the Better Business Bureau (would it be the one in Memphis Tennessee, where their service center is?), as well as appeal anywhere else I can, as I know nothing happened to this computer that could have damaged the screen, I even bought the three-year warranty for this unit (which I had for less than a month at the time), I shouldn't have to put up with this.

 

Well, I looked at the warranty, and there is no exclusion for damaged screens of any type. There is, however, the exclusion for accidents, etc.

I could think of a various instances of computer failure (hard drive failure, etc.) where it might be hard to know for sure whether the damage was due to an accident, or a structural defect of the computer. But---one would think that if a company wishes to keep good customer relations, have repeat customers, recommendations, etc., they would give the customer the benefit of the doubt in such a situation, and not assume that the damage is probably the customer's fault.

Of course I don't know yet how Fujitsu will decide on this, just that it doesn't look good, from what I have heard from two contracted service centers (local and P1), and from reading posts from other users who had a similar experience. I'm certainly hoping that they will come through, and fix it under warranty.

As I mentioned, the P7010D is the second Fujitsu notebook I have had. If they do not fix this problem under warranty, I will certainly never buy another Fujitsu notebook. So, I think they should consider becoming more customer-friendly. (A prepaid shipping box, like other notebook companies service centers provide, would be a small step in the right direction as well.)

(I am referring to Fujitsu USA. Although the notebooks would, I assume, be the same anywhere in the world, made in Japan, the customer service departments might vary from country to country. Someone wrote in the other thread, for example, that Fujitsu UK does send a prepaid shipping box for repairs.)

 

I'm going to try to get my P7010D shipped out to Fujitsu today. Anyone know which shipping service (USPS, UPS, Fedex, etc.) might be better for sending a notebook? Factors include, of course--cost (including over $2000 insurance), care of handling, security, speed, etc.?

 

Thanks for the tip. Doing a search for posts from that user name, I found one thread so far mentioning the BBB. And interestingly enough, the thread starts with a post with someone else who had a problem similar to mine--

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=12997

Again, I'm surprised that some have written in this thread that they have never seen such a report as mine before, when they have even participated in similar threads before, with very similar reports.

 

Well, my screen wasn't cracked. It had a backlighting defect. The N3510 they sent as a replacement to the C2330 had a bunch of dead pixles. They took that back as well, and repaired it. They covered overnight shipping for all of these problems.

The N3510 I have now started to malfunction, or rather the video chipset has. I get a lot of display corruption. :-(

I have already called them, and they are sending a box, and will be paying for the shipping again.

I also went to the Fujitsu website, and extended the warranty on it for another 2 years.

 

You can extend the warranty anytime within your first year of purchase, right?

I cannot believe how unlucky you've been with Fujitsu's screens and well now video cards! What type of corruption are you getting? Is it like artifacting, sort of what you see when the GPU overheats? Just wondering if it could be a cooling issue, maybe the heatsink dislodged a bit!

Anyway hope it works for you. On the bright side if they will replace the unit one more time for you, I guess no need for warranty renewal + you will have your CPU speed bumped up a bit

 

I get complete and partial display corruption. The partial corruption is when the system has 10,000 dots on the LCD that look like stuck pixels. However, if you refresh the screen, they move around, and sometimes disappear for a while. I also had the system boot into a white screen, black screen, and the BIOS screen even had corruption on it.

I know it's not the LCD screen, as the corruption appears on my CRT if I hook it up through the back of the laptop.

When I was re-installing Windows, it looked like the matrix, with lots of green moving things. :-(

Well, they have about three more years of having to deal with me if they don't fix it now. lol

I doubt it's a cooling issue, as the system shows corruption on the BIOS screen as soon as the system boots.

Yes, my warranty was about to expire in another month. I wasn't about to let this defective system stay defective. So I went to the Fujitsu registration site, and increased the warranty to the maximum allowed.