Asus Repaired My Swift Monitor On-Site

S

stanc87

n00b
Joined
Jan 23, 2015
Messages
6
I bought my monitor in August and it was in perfect working order until 2 weeks ago. Like many others, the monitor began to exhibit fuzzy text, flickering, and blurriness on half the screen. Luckily, Asus has an in-home warranty service since I live in Hong Kong. It took two weeks to schedule a time but the technician did manage to come today. I figured some of you guys might be interested in seeing the repair process.

First, he replaced the main board and the LCD driver. Reassembled it and asked me to test it. Nothing changed, the fuzzy text, flickering, and blurriness was still there. This took about 30 minutes.

To my surprise, he then pulled out a brand new panel out of a thin cardboard box. Disassembled my monitor again, and then swapped my panel. He had to disassemble it for the third time because he forgot to plug in the side panel buttons to the main board :D All this took another 20 min.

This time though, everything was back to normal. The new panel also has considerably less light bleed than my old one which is a nice bonus. All in all, it seems like it really is the panel that's at fault. Nothing to do with G-sync. The warranty process was quite painless, but the horror stories tell me this issue can comeback anytime.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the overall process.

He used the tool on all four sides of the panel to pop it out.
20150124_114246_zpsxrhqbf7v.jpg


Back panel off
20150124_111352_zpswqzn9mix.jpg

20150124_112105_zpsobecfnn7.jpg


Main board
20150124_111415_zpsw357vsgz.jpg

20150124_113524_zpsgfw18mew.jpg


LCD Driver
20150124_114629_zpst3rusxod.jpg


Swapping boards. The thing with the heat sync is the G-Sync module.
20150124_112118_zpscpihvhr3.jpg


Panel Swap
20150124_114914_zpsm9n5hhlx.jpg


Plugging up the side buttons :D
20150124_115123_zpsqceh0epb.jpg


Everything back to working order. A bit of a light bleed on the right corner. The left side is actually not apparent in person.
20150124_122636_zpslwormwyy.jpg


The new panel came with the service menu enabled. Not gonna disable it yet cause I'm not sure what the deep sleep setting is yet. The burn in pattern cycles through Black, White, Blue, Red, and Green colours.
20150124_122225_zps7epq81us.jpg
 
neojam said:
I would sell that display now if i were you, since repaired units develop the same issue some time after (according to posts at asus forum anyway). There seems to be something really wrong with this particular model.
Well, this was actually what i did when i got my repaired unit back (I also had the same issue, but had to send my monitor to Asus for repairs. Took em about 4 weeks to send it back :/. It was really shitty service, considering they sell their products at premium prices...).

P.S.
Did you ask the technician how common this problem was? (not that he would tell you the truth, since it would go against company's policy not to disclose or discuss product issues to/with customers)
Click to expand...

I think i'll give it another try since its not too troublesome to schedule a time for them to come over. Or maybe until the variable refresh rate 34" 21:9 screens comes out.

I actually did ask him if he repaired this particular model before. He said this was his first. Seemed honest enough, but who knows.
 
jaguax said:
Wearing a (down?) jacket and working with circuit boards with absolutely no anti-static protection. Nice.
Click to expand...

I've been working on / building PC's for over 10 years. Never worn a static band or took precautions. Never once have zapped a PC component because of this. Not saying it can't happen but if it was really a big deal I would've noticed it by now.
 
neojam said:
I would sell that display now if i were you, since repaired units develop the same issue some time after (according to posts at asus forum anyway)
Click to expand...
The display controller board, display driver board, and panel were all replaced. Unless gremlins lurk in the plastic casing or button board then it is effectively a new monitor.
 
jaguax said:
Wearing a (down?) jacket and working with circuit boards with absolutely no anti-static protection. Nice.
Click to expand...

Boards resting on the bubble wrap; no clean room and suit, however did he manage to fix this piece of consumer technology? :eek:
 
damstr said:
I've been working on / building PC's for over 10 years. Never worn a static band or took precautions. Never once have zapped a PC component because of this. Not saying it can't happen but if it was really a big deal I would've noticed it by now.
Click to expand...

http://www.treston.com/index.php?article_id=6220&__from_id__=6180

Latent ESD

Sometimes the ESD current isn’t enough to destroy components completely, but instead partially degrades them - lowering performance and shortening their life span. This is known as latent ESD damage when the failure of a component is delayed. Latent ESD is estimated to be the most common type, and the most costly to repair.(4)
If the correct quality checks are in place, a component destroyed by catastrophic ESD can normally be spotted before it can leave the factory. Latent damage, however, isn’t visible and might not cause a component to fail for months or even years later.
Click to expand...

http://www.pmt.eu/uploads/media/ESD_Myths_and_the_latency_controversy_01.pdf
 
Hmm, so from the OP, it looks like problems with fuzzy text and graphical corruption on these are due to the panel. Most people still think it's the G-sync module. Also, thanks for more pictures, peckaa.
 
That synthetic jacket looks like a static magnet to me. There is no way that I could get away with something like that around delicate electronic components.

I will point out that the more oil (sebum) there is on a person's skin, the less prone they are to static electricity.

I have in the past been zapped by escalators, shop shelves and car door handles. I know that I have to take every anti static precaution that is possible.
 
**MaRVeL** said:
That synthetic jacket looks like a static magnet to me. There is no way that I could get away with something like that around delicate electronic components.

I will point out that the more oil (sebum) there is on a person's skin, the less prone they are to static electricity.

I have in the past been zapped by escalators, shop shelves and car door handles. I know that I have to take every anti static precaution that is possible.
Click to expand...
The threshold for a palpable electrostatic discharge is around 50 V if I remember correctly. That's more than enough to zap a small SMD component without your even noticing a shock. Still, with a ton of components on the board and some deft handling the chance to damage an entire circuit beyond functionality seems low enough now that I've never had it happen to me or known it to happen to anyone else with modern components.
 
aeliusg said:
The threshold for a palpable electrostatic discharge is around 50 V if I remember correctly. That's more than enough to zap a small SMD component without your even noticing a shock. Still, with a ton of components on the board and some deft handling the chance to damage an entire circuit beyond functionality seems low enough now that I've never had it happen to me or known it to happen to anyone else with modern components.
Click to expand...

In the past it was a big problem, you could easily kill components with a single shock. Nowadays with the advances in design the chance of actually shocking a component to death is quite small. I pretty much chuckle when I meet older engineers that insist I wear a strap and connect directly to a proper ground before doing any work on their consumer products... I had a guy insist that I connect directly to a buildings ground just to change out some RAM on his cheap company laptop. I still chuckle about that one to this day, I basically told him he can either get the RAM upgrade or I could leave and he would keep what he had. That discussion was over rather quickly heh.
 
NoOther said:
I had a guy insist that I connect directly to a buildings ground just to change out some RAM on his cheap company laptop. I still chuckle about that one to this day, I basically told him he can either get the RAM upgrade or I could leave and he would keep what he had. That discussion was over rather quickly heh.
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah. :D Gotta say, these new smilies are terrible.
 
These monitors are so ugly on the inside. Tape, coords, glue, plastic and mainboard mounted in an angled way. A disassembled monitor is best left unseen, or you will really question why you pay premium for it.
 
aeliusg said:
Hmm, so from the OP, it looks like problems with fuzzy text and graphical corruption on these are due to the panel. Most people still think it's the G-sync module. Also, thanks for more pictures, peckaa.
Click to expand...
Exactly. Mine have overheating problem also. I disassembled it to locate heating. It's some T-CON component. G-Sync module and that main board zone is cool. Image below shows warm zone (green zone) from both sides of panel when it's covered by plastic (assembled) and overheating zone (red zone) where I can't hold finger more than 5 secs (so hot). Disassemble didn't help - still got fuzy text and brightness blinking after some minutes.
sYZC3Gq.jpg
 
peckaa said:
Exactly. Mine have overheating problem also. I disassembled it to locate heating. It's some T-CON component. G-Sync module and that main board zone is cool. Image below shows warm zone (green zone) from both sides of panel when it's covered by plastic (assembled) and overheating zone (red zone) where I can't hold finger more than 5 secs (so hot). Disassemble didn't help - still got fuzy text and brightness blinking after some minutes.
sYZC3Gq.jpg
Click to expand...
Interesting. Must be some components on the other side of the board suffered thermal breakdown. Possibly FETs shorted to gate.
 
I hate integrated tcon and tab boards. Overheating is a big deal with them and all small form factor displays use them. That is why you don't have these kind of problems in larger form factor displays. High refresh rate displays heat up alot on the tab board and then you add the tcon to the mix and you get shorts. Most manufactures have worked out the kinks but I guess Asus dropped the ball on this model.
 
Everyone's a fuckin know-it-all here ain't they... Nice one for taking the time to post the pics dude.
 
Nice to see the pics. That said, I can't help but feel like the displays look like some sort of prototype devices with that box that looks like it's just thrown in there and taped to stay put. I'm just glad my PG278Q has worked like a champ ever since I bought it first became available.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top