Has HP got a problem with its laptop screens?

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 9 Jul 2008 at 09:54

Dozens of HP laptop owners are reporting faults with their screens - but the company has so far refused to act.

The problems are affecting the ZD8000 range of Pavilion laptops. Several users are reporting the appearance of fine lines across the laptop's screen, while others are experiencing more severe issues.

PC Pro reader Derek Varley contacted us when rogue lines started to appear across the screen of his ZD8044ea.

"One day the screen went blank with just a thin line showing," he says. "I managed to get back the screen using a basic Windows VGA driver at a low resolution, but now had a permanent line of pixels from top to bottom, half way across the screen."

Videos posted by Pavilion laptop owners on YouTube highlight similar problems. One shows vertical lines running down the length of the screen, while another posted at the end of May shows shows a display with half the screen obscured.

Internet forums, such as Fixya are also full of customers complaining about lines across the screen.

HP denials

Derek Varley says HP has refused to acknowledge a problem with the laptop range. "If I wanted it repaired, I must pay the full 'one payment fits all' fee of a little under £300, with no offer of any contribution from HP," he claims.

The YouTube complainants claim they've been met with a similar response. "HP does not recognise this as a problem," the second YouTube videomaker claims, who says he was offered a repair for $600 (around £300). "Many, many owners of these laptops are now stuck with a laptop that is particularly useless."

HP was unable to comment on the laptop faults at the time of publication. Interestingly, however, the company has issued a BIOS fix for another range of its Pavilion laptops, which are believed to be affected by problems with Nvidia's graphic chips, which are detailed on our sister-site, Custom PC.

Dell experienced a similar problem with lines appearing across certain models of laptop screen last year. The company's website says it will replace any affected LCD panels.