Dark smudges on LG 37FR LCD Panel

[sqvare]

Bought the 37" LCD in November 2008 and LG's tech wall-mounted it. Smudges that looked like fingerprints, some light and some darker, started appearing by Jan in the top right quadrant, and began to spread. Complained in March, by when an Africa-shaped smudge had materialized dead center. After 6 weeks of followup, LG replaced the panel in May 2009.

By October 2009, the smudges started again, on the new panel! Complained again, just before the warranty expired on Nov 3rd, and LG obligingly replaced the panel again, in 4 weeks this time.

In December, the smudges return!

I'm now torn between trying to understand what's going wrong and wanting to call in an artillery strike on LG's HQ .

Has *anyone* else out there seen anything like this? (see pic) I'm at a loss what to do, since the warranty's expired.

 

[venkatcr]

The new panel should have a one year warranty at the least from the time it was installed. And, I think you should really fire all Bofors guns at LG. If the smudges are appearing across three panels, there is something wrong within the TV.

Cheers

 

[sqvare]

That's what I was wondering too... or that an entire batch of 37" FR-series panels was bad, since it's not as standard a size as, say, 32" or 42". Maybe I was just getting a series of doomed panels.

Frustrating, because I like to use the LCD as a computer monitor as well as for TV/DVD viewing, and I'm a nitpicker who can't rest easy once I see a fault in something. The smears are way more intrusive when editing a document than watching an SDTV program.

I also got the impression from LG Service that the warranty applies on the entire TV, not the panel assembly itself.

Oh, BTW, I was at an office recently; they had a 42" LG on the wall in the reception area playing a looped set of promos. I noticed that this panel, too, had shadowy smears. I'm wondering if this is the reason LG tends to discount their TVs more than others - offloading crappy panels on the Indian market, perhaps?

 

[bobby76]

There is a one more thread going on giving details of problems with LG lcd tvs.
Really bad news for those who want to buy LG lcd tv. Happy to know that at least they replaced the panel two times.

 

[suprateep]

well it is a problem with many panels on LCD TVs whether from Sony, LG or Samsung. Check out the following links:

Sony XBR LCD Uneven/Cloud Problem - CNET Home audio & video Forums
LCD TV Backlight Leakage how common is this? - CNET Home audio & video Forums
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/264174/cloudy-image-on-sides-of-lcd-tv

Google for more information (a lot of webpages are blocked in my office so you would be better placed).

The problem is sometimes due to manufacturing defects - pull up LG and ask for a replacement model. One of my friend had this problem with sony 40V series - they replaced the set twice. Its running fine now.

Ask for a straight refund and go for a different model - maybe a plasma.

 

[sqvare]

Yeah maybe I will ask them to switch her for a plasma! Wanted to get one in the first place, but HD plasmas in 2008 were rare and way pricier.

I'd googled for other victims the first time this happened, and saw Samsungs and Sonys, even a Hitachi, with clouding/dark area problems. Some of these seemed to be caused by pressure or twisting stress on the panel.

Mine is kinda weird though, because any observer'd swear they look like fingerprints, some light and some darker, but up close at an angle against a light source, you can see that the surface of the glass is clean. They're not stuck/dead pixels either, because they change colour with the picture. It even occurred to me that it seems like little mould colonies growing somewhere in the sandwich :lol: in front of the LC layer.

Another funny thing is that in all three panels, smudging started in the same area (top right quadrant) before spreading downwards. Then, the left side would join in. Pretty soon: smudges, streaks & smears...

So I saw that the wall mount brackets didn't leave much space behind the TV, and all the sockets are placed on the left-bottom quadrant. With component, composite, HDMI & RGB all connected, the TV could have been partly resting on the connectors, possibly causing the panel to flex. I thought this could be the reason for the blobs starting in the top-right corner. So immediately after the last replacement, I put a 1"-thick slab of wood behind the bracket mount (against the wall) so that the cable connectors didn't touch the wall anymore. Fat lot of good that did! Another theory bites the dust.

Well, back to playing good cop/bad cop with LG service

 

[sqvare]

Well, FAWC, I thought I'd post the denouement to this little drama... and wrap up this thread

After poking at LG Service for a while, they called to inform me that panel replacement is necessary (again!), and would now be chargeable to me, as the TV was out of warranty.

3..2..1..KA-BOOM!

I politely screamed that that made no sense, since the exact same fault occurred on ALL panels - the original panel and the 2 replacement panels. The only conclusions that could be drawn were that the fault lay with some other component, or that all panels in stock for this model were defective.

If the fault was not with the panel, then LG had failed to diagnose it in all 3 cases and both panel replacements were therefore useless.
If the fault lay with an entire batch of panels, paid replacement was futile, as the new panel would also surely fail.

In either case, I as a customer could not be penalized for what was clearly not my fault, so I informed LG to take proper and appropriate action to rectify this situation, or propose alternatives if the TV could not be repaired.

More followup over several weeks...

... then they offered to take back the TV and pay me the original invoice amount, less depreciation (25%). By then I was so fed up with the whole miserable mess that I accepted. Now they wait while I decide when to let them pick up the TV

Meanwhile, disillusioned with LG and LCDs in general, I'm stalking 42" plasma, perhaps a Samsung C450 or one of the new Panasonics, maybe A20 or X20, since the U20 & V20 are 46" minimum - too big for me.

 

[shredder]

Bought the 37" LCD in November 2008 and LG's tech wall-mounted it. Smudges that looked like fingerprints, some light and some darker, started appearing by Jan in the top right quadrant, and began to spread. Complained in March, by when an Africa-shaped smudge had materialized dead center. After 6 weeks of followup, LG replaced the panel in May 2009.

By October 2009, the smudges started again, on the new panel! Complained again, just before the warranty expired on Nov 3rd, and LG obligingly replaced the panel again, in 4 weeks this time.

In December, the smudges return!

I'm now torn between trying to understand what's going wrong and wanting to call in an artillery strike on LG's HQ .

Has *anyone* else out there seen anything like this? (see pic) I'm at a loss what to do, since the warranty's expired.

BHOOT! BHOOT! Try calling an exorcist
but seriously it's quite spooky.
How much are LG trying to charge you for panel replacement??

 

[sqvare]

BHOOT! BHOOT! Try calling an exorcist
but seriously it's quite spooky.
How much are LG trying to charge you for panel replacement??

:lol: I too considered the "ghost in the machine" possibility, and maybe even a family of gremlins, but whatever it is, they can haunt LG now. Maybe they'll be happier going back where they came from!

I was too ticked to even ask how much replacement would cost! But I was guessing it may have been about 75-80% of the cost of the TV.