Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 28

I'm on my second Prism to fix another problem, and just today I noticed a single red pixel that won't go away in the 3rd pixel row from the bottom, right above the text portion of the graffiti writing area. I think I would have noticed this right away when I got the Prism because it really irritates me, so I think it just appeared. I noticed 1 or 2 other posts with a similar problem, but noone seemed very upset.

What's the deal with this? Any idea what caused it? I haven't tried a hard reset yet. Am I going to have to send another Prism back?

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 125

That is what is known as a stuck pixel. Its quite common in laptop LCDs. The pixel just went bad (nothing you did caused it nor will a hard reset fix it). You can try gently massaging the pixel with a pencil eraser tip to see if you can get it back in sync with the rest of its neighbors but be careful! On laptops, industry standard dictates that anything less than 10 bad pixels is acceptable due to the fact that there are millions of them, the probability of one of them going bad is pretty good. Personally, I think it is a bunch of BS because if you pay $3k - $4k, you should expect nothing less than a perfect screen. However, on a device with a screen as small as that on a PDA, just one bad pixel is even less acceptable to me. You should try contacting HS to see if they will replace it. Good luck!

Marty

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 77

My first Prism had a stuck red pixel, but only in certain modes. It was fine in Datebook Plus, but if you started Zap 2016 or anything graphical (?) it would show up stuck.

I called them and they replaced it promptly... no hassles.

Brian

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Midwest
Posts: 232

Pixels go bad. I had a green pixel permantly stuck ON, on my LCD screen for a Sony video camera. It should have been noticed and pulled by quality control at the factory, but it wasn't. As it turned out, it wasn't the green pixel that was broken, but the other two colored pixels at that "spot" that were defective. Thus only the green showed up anytime any color that had a green component was assigned to that screen position. I noticed the sony camera pixel problem, but liked the camera so much I decided a single bad pixel didn't bother me enough to send it back.

Call Handspring. They should replace it. At more than $400 for a Prism, you should expect a good screen.

Dave

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There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

I just got off the phone with HS a couple of hours ago with the same problem. My wife's Prism (it was a Valentine's Day gift), is sporting a blue pixel (more cyan, really...which leads me to believe the R is no longer firing correctly). A fella named Dan helped me out, he was super-friendly, and he said that HS would send another unit out right away (2-3 days). I also asked about the infamous Prism Paint Rub-Off issue (for mine, which I've had for about three weeks), and he said he wasn't sure if the paint process had been changed yet, but if I wanted to, I could return my unit as well, since it is also a warranty issue. (I'm holding off on that until I can verify the painting process has improved).
Anyhow, you should have no problems with returning to HS for the bad pixel. So far so good for me, anyway.