Portege R600 - black or dead pixels?

Hi all, I just posted this on Toshiba Europe's forum (Toshiba Canada or U.S. doesn't seem to have any user forums), hoping to get a response of fellow R600 users, but not yet. Wondering if anyone here might be able to help me...

I'm having a serious problem with what seems to be suddenly occuring black or dead pixels on my R600. See here:

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9523/toshibar600deadpixels.jpg

This is actually the second time this has happened. I've had the R600 since November 2008, and in March 2009 I got the screen replaced because several lines of black pixels starting appearing near the top of the screen.

Now it's August 2009 and the same thing is happening, but at the bottom part of the screen. About two weeks ago, two thin lines appeared about one-inch up from the bottom of the screen, and an almost thick-band of black pixels appeared at the bottom of the screen, and also two big splotches of black pixels at the bottom left of the screen that appeared last week.

The kicker is that the the authorized service centre says the screen is "physically damaged" now because of the two splotches, but I didn't press anywhere on the screen! Because it's considered physically damaged, it would be outside of warranty-coverage and would cost me $350-$700Cdn to replace the screen! I've been able to escalate this to a supervisor at Toshiba Canada and I'm supposed to hear back in 2 to 3 business days.

Needless to say, I'm not impressed; seems almost every four months, I'm experiencing this issue, and now Toshiba may not even repair this for me, even though this is no fault of my own.

(Note: I use this laptop in an office/retail environment; I protect and treat this $3000Cdn unit like a baby and never put any pressure on the screen. My R600 is either docked or in a Zeroshock case, and when transporting it, I put it in a padded backpack.)

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on how I can resolve this with Toshiba?

thx,
nomad416

p.s. In the meantime, I'm using my OQO and an old Dell Vostro laptop as backups. *sigh*

 

The only reason I could possibly think of this happening is by pressure being put on the screen, but if you treat it as well as you say you do, then that's pretty much impossible.

When you put it in your bag, is there any pressure on the top cover? Like the screen being pressed down into the keyboard while closed? Does the screen flex a lot?

When I broke my PSP screen, the reason it broke was because of a large amount of pressure on the screen from my earphones, and when I closed the case, I accidentally dropped it, and the screen cracked. There were also black splotches on it like you said.

And don't worry, I treat my laptop like a baby too

 

Hi guys, ok I definitely didn't put any pressure on this screen. Today the screen looks different! See my copy of the posting below on the Toshiba Europe forum:
===
Ok, this is getting weird. It's been only about four days since I first posted the original image of my screen with it's black lines and splotches at the bottom left. Now my screen looks like this:

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/2508/toshibar600deadpixels2.jpg

Some of the black pixels on the lines are now normal, but about two or so new splotches have appeared at the bottom of the new screen.

And I still haven't heard back from Toshiba Canada yet. Grrr.

 

Just wait. It's probably nothing you can fix without getting the screen replaced.

 

It looks like the fluid is running a bit low on your liquid crystal display... time to fill it up!

Jokes aside, it looks like physical damage to the LCD, and even if it was not your fault I doubt Toshiba will replace it. The only way that you could prove that you did not cause this would be to open up the screen and show where there is pressure being applied by the chasis, however in opening the screen you will probably void your warranty.

Whatever the case, that really sucks and I'm sorry.