Samsung DLP and the "white dots" issue


When Heather and I got married back in October 2006, some of our friends gave us a very generous wedding gift: a Samsung 46-inch DLP high-definition television. We use it pretty much every day that we are at home (it’s even on in the background while I write this post). Unfortunately, early October the TV started having a problem. It developed a small white dot in the upper left hand part of the screen. Then a second dot, and a third, and so on. Over the course of the following two months the TV screen developed dots on a substantial fraction of the screen, as you can see from the picture below:

Googling turned up this forum thread, which basically said that this was not an uncommon issue with Samsung DLPs of this era. Unfortunately, back in early October the latest update on the issue from Samsung was that this was a “normal” dead pixel issue, not any particular manufacturing defect, and that we would need to pay a repair shop to fix our out-of-warranty TV. A call to Samsung’s support line yielded the same story. The forum thread suggested replacing the DLP chip yourself for about $150-200, and a few hours of figuring out how to actually perform the surgery on the TV. I nearly went down this road in late October, but that time of year is the travel season for me. So I punted until the end of November when all of my travel was finished.

Well, come late November it turns out that Samsung came around and initiated a recall program for their DLP TVs with this issue. A different forum explained the procedure, which was really simple. Basically just call Samsung and tell them that you are having these symptoms, and they will send out a technician from a nearby authorized service center to replace the DLP chip at your house.

So I called Samsung, told them my problem, and they said that someone would get in touch with me within a couple of days. The ASC called me the next day to schedule an appointment. We had to wait 4 or 5 days for them to get the part in, but otherwise it was painless. The technician showed up at our house on time and replaced the part in about 30 minutes. I watched for part of the time while he disassembled/reassembled the TV and I was glad that he was there to do it. I’m pretty sure that I could have done it, but it would have been pretty nerve wracking and would have taken me a few hours at a minimum.

Overall, I have to applaud Samsung for owning up to the problem and fixing it at no cost to us. They could have been a little faster and proactive (I nearly replaced the part myself), but the eventual outcome was exactly what it should have been. If things had gone differently, I might have sworn off Samsung products forever instead.