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This morning my ten week old Sony SDM-P234 starting making a high frequency whining noise. Shortly thereafter smoke started rising from the vents on the top, accompanied by the smell of burnt electronics. Image, controls, everything still worked fine.
I called Sony and got the great advice of unplugging the monitor (no shit!) and DVI cable. My two options were to (1) send my unit back for repair or (2) cross ship a factory refurb replacement. I opted for the refurb. My unit has one dead pixel and the backlight is minimally uneven so it wasn't a rare perfect LCD.
Since my current monitor was going back anyway I decided to open it up to see what the problem was. Turns out a little black diode next to one of the transformers was cracked and burnt to a crisp. It had gotten so hot it had basically melted through its wire connectors, so removed it with a forceps.
Funny thing is the monitor seems to be working just fine without this part -- noise is goine, no more smoke, image is great.
I guess I will see how the refurb model looks, since bidirectional shipping is being paid for by Sony. If it has lots of dead pixels or other problems I'll just send it back and keep mine. Since the diode must serve some purpose (maybe the longevity of some other part will be compromised in its absence) I could buy a replacement part at Rat Shack and install it.
Another option would be to sell the still-in-box refurb on EBay and pick up the new Dell 24" if it comes out this week....
I called Sony and got the great advice of unplugging the monitor (no shit!) and DVI cable. My two options were to (1) send my unit back for repair or (2) cross ship a factory refurb replacement. I opted for the refurb. My unit has one dead pixel and the backlight is minimally uneven so it wasn't a rare perfect LCD.
Since my current monitor was going back anyway I decided to open it up to see what the problem was. Turns out a little black diode next to one of the transformers was cracked and burnt to a crisp. It had gotten so hot it had basically melted through its wire connectors, so removed it with a forceps.
Funny thing is the monitor seems to be working just fine without this part -- noise is goine, no more smoke, image is great.
I guess I will see how the refurb model looks, since bidirectional shipping is being paid for by Sony. If it has lots of dead pixels or other problems I'll just send it back and keep mine. Since the diode must serve some purpose (maybe the longevity of some other part will be compromised in its absence) I could buy a replacement part at Rat Shack and install it.
Another option would be to sell the still-in-box refurb on EBay and pick up the new Dell 24" if it comes out this week....