another backlight bleeding thread...

[reach]

Hi there!
I've got a replacement SP2 from MS. The first thing I noticed when I powered it up was "OMG, backlight bleeding!".
I didn't know that there is a BLB problem with the SP2, so I really didn't look for anything wrong, it just jumped into my eyes.

I've read every BLB thread here and I became a little insecure. The screensaver test didn't show any difference between old and new, but powering both up is a huge difference.
So I went a bit scientific. I set up my SLR on a tripod, turned off all lights and took pictures from the booting devices. Here it is:
File-Upload.net - IMG_7288.jpg

(sorry for sharing it as a file, but posting this directly as a picture in the browser shows NO diference at all. I intentionally made it so small, so everything happens in the center of the screen, so your own screen's BLB doesn't interfere ;-))

Now guess which is which? Almost impossible, isn't it?
Check out this image to show which spot drives me so crazy:
File-Upload.net - IMG_7288_.jpg

Left is the new one. The spot looks worse on the right side, but it isn't. The issue is a yellow color cast of this spot at the new one. On the old one everything glows slightly white, no issue. But the yellow area is just ugly.


My issue now: 2 years ago I purchased the Samsung top-range LCD TV. It had terrible BLB and I decided to stick with it, because of the same reason people state here: you never seee it under normal conditions. It's the same on the TV, I normally didn't see it, only during power up. But no, there ARE conditions where you see it and it just drives me crazy.
So shall I accept something with BLB again? I will hate it every time I turn it on. And maybe there are also conditions where it's visible.



Aaaaarrggghh! It's just such a love and hate relation with this stupid device. Why are they giving me such a hard time? Why can't they just make it right?

 

[godson594]

Sucks to hear that. I have a "regret" thread up right now and I'm dreading the replacement I get... I'm hoping I don't get something worse than what I have now...

Good luck - It's hard to not return it if your unhappy.

 

[ChemCat]

Hm...

I have the misfortune of falling in love with someone with OCD. When I introduce him to new food, he would try it with such a face that if you didn't know what he was trying (grain size piece) you'd think he was being forced to eat dog poop based on his facial expression. After a year of training him, he's getting better now. Not so damn picky.

He likes to watch shows like that house hunters show. You know what I see when I watch them with him? I see a bunch of brats.

If you can't stand blb, then keep exchanging. Or you can train yourself to be not so picky with unimportant things. I speak from the perspective of an engineer who must insure that our bridges and buildings don't collapse and kill people.

 

[godson594]

Lol @ training him.... That sounds pretty rude to say, maybe i'm reading it wrong or maybe it's because I know people who actually suffer from "real" ocd. I feel sorry for any man who needs to be trained...

Who are you to say blb is unimportant? Obviously it is to the OP because he made a thread. Just because you dont expect perfection from a device like this doesn't mean other people should feel the same way.

 

[reach]

Or you can train yourself to be not so picky with unimportant things. I speak from the perspective of an engineer who must insure that our bridges and buildings don't collapse and kill people.

By that logic I also shouldn't bother if my brand new car comes with a ratteling dashboard. Sorry, that doesn't work for me.
If there wasn't this stupid Samsung TV which made me alergic against BLB, it mightbe no issue, but unfortunately it is.

This replacement device also sometimes doesn't accept the stylus for several seconds. Maybe I'll just keep returning until I get a flawless one. Any idea how long MS lets me do this?

 

[ChemCat]

I knew what I said would be compared to something obvious, making what I said ridiculous.

I've been noticing the blb ever since the technology first came out. I didn't think anything of it, but there were people that were crying up and down about it. So, I started to note down whenever I would notice it, in what occasion, and how it affected me and other people. The result would always be the same. Rarely ever see it. And I've yet to find anyone in real life that actually cares. Just a select few with ocd on the internet.

All brands suffer from this "defect", including apple. I have not noticed any decrease in the number of devices with blb. I don't think it's a quality control problem. I think it just comes with the technology.

Being picky isn't something to be proud of. And I talk as someone who has rejected thousands and thousands dollars worth of materials and work because of quality. You know what I do? I tell the contractor, who work for us, to tear everything out and redo the portion of the project. And I also make them pay for it. That said, I also know when to let things go. That's the difference between a foreman who has been on the job for decades and thinks he knows everything and an engineer like myself. I know what's important and what won't matter much. That's why I'm the guy that makes the decision at construction sites. To the foreman, adding water into concrete is the same thing as adding superplasticizer. That's how structures fail. Adding water to concrete makes it flow better, but it also weakens the concrete. I have yet to find a foreman that understands this.

And yes, I realize it is rude to "train" my boyfriend. But if it was entirely up to him, we'd be eating nothing but hamburger and French fries all the time. I tolerate adult picky eaters to a certain extent, but not in my house. The one thing I've noticed that is universal among picky people is they are so proud that they are picky, as if they have class and the rest of us don't.

Anyway, if blb bothers you so much, exchange it. Keep exchanging it until you find one to your liking. I'm just letting you know that I have yet to find any brand without blb in most their devices. You'd be hard pressed to find an iPad without blb.

 

[godson594]

I would return it until you are happy to be honest.

Mine has blb but I don't notice it during normal use thank god. How are you returning it? I wanted to get my sp2 replaced but they told me no stores have it.... Another moment of disbelief I have, I understand being sold out, I don't understand not allocating units for replacements for faulty hardware.

Before anyone jumps in with a comment about this.... Microsoft is a huge company, they HAVE to understand nothing is perfect and anticipate people will return bad hardware for replacements. This device is touted as a professional device so when something goes wrong they have to know it is affecting professionals who use this for real work.

 

[reach]

I would return it until you are happy to be honest.

Mine has blb but I don't notice it during normal use thank god. How are you returning it?

I definitely will return it. Whenever I power up the "old" one which I still have, it's just such an "ahhh, nice!" effect. It might be stupid and I might end up fighting a hopeless war, but I'll try, at least another one.

Regarding returning: I called MS to ask, when they are going to fix the FW issues and mentioned that mine went terribly hot and I don't trust it any more. The guy just offered me to replace it. I was sceptical, if I might receive a refurbished one, but I didn't. The replacement came in handy, because mine had already so many scratches, so I wanted to protect the new one from day 1. Might be not the nicest approach, but sorry, if MS doesn't tell you that a 1.280EUR device will be scratched after 2 days of normal use, who am I to care.


BTW: does anybody know about this optical bonding thing? They say it's the most sophisticated and most expensive way to make a display. But it still suffers from BLB. What is the advantage of this optical bonding technology, if it still suffers from such an odd simple mechanical issue?
BTW2: my Dell XPS 13 has NO BLB at all.