Viewsonic woes

[Ice_Berge_00]

Bit of a long story, but I will keep it as short as I can. If you are even thinking about geting one of their products you really should read this before deciding!

 

Last year I bought my parents a 19in Viewsonic std aspect ratio LCD to replace their old CRT. The monitor was a VX922. The monitor was beautiful, picture was amazing and everyone loved it.

 

Then after about a year the display suddenly just stopped working. The screen would just go black, and the power light would start flashing. Since I live 5+ hrs from my parents, it had to wait awhile for the next time I came back to take a look at it.

 

I determined the monitor was bad, so I called and setup an RMA with Viewsonic to get it fixed. Initially they were very helpfull, except that my parents had to foot the bill for shipping even through the monitor was well within warranty (so there went about 50 bucks).

 

After a few weeks my parents got the repaired monitor back, they waited for the next time I came home to set it back up, about another month after they received it I did. No sooner had I taken it out of the box, than I notice the Base was bent!!! Some idiot had dropped the thing in the factory before packing it up and shipping it to my parents (the box and packaging was undamaged.

 

 

So just for sanity's sake I plugged the thing into the computer and fired everything up. 10 seconds after I did so the screen went black, so not only was the monitor now damaged, but the original problem was never fixed!

 

 

My parents called in again on the following Monday to get a replacement. Viewsonic agreed, and even paid for shipping after my parents insisted. A few weeks later they received a "replacement" and again waited until I came home to set it up.

 

 

So today, here I am, I take it out, immediately noticing that it is a totally different monitor. I also notice scuff marks over several parts of the finish! Then I realize, Viewsonic replaced their 19in 1240x1024 LCD with a 19in 1440x900 wide screen (A smaller and cheaper monitor!)!! The replacement was a VX1932wm.

 

After sitting on the phone with customer service for 45 minutes, we got virtually no where. The person kept insisting that since they no longer make 19inc wide screens that this was our only option to get this smaller, cheaper monitor which my parents can't read cause everything is too small on the display. This was why I got them a 19inc std aspect ratio in the first place. The rep said if we really insist on a same model, she can put in a request, send back the wide screen, and wait an indefinite amount of time for "one to come in" but that they are not being manufactured anymore so she cannot say when we would see a monitor.

 

Eventually we asked to speak to a manager only to be told that we would have to wait until Monday to be able to do so. I insisted that if they cannot give us a std aspect ratio equivalent to what we had originally that they should then give us something equivalent in size to what my parents had, not a downgrade. Again, no where, so my mom will call on Monday to try with a manager.

 

 

In the mean time, I figured I might as well just try this "replacement" widescreen to see if it even works ok. Guess what, it did NOT. Soon as I set it up, I immediately notice the display freezing and sporadically faiding to nearly pure white!!

 

 

So for those keeping score, the full tally to this point is:

~$ 250 original cost

~$50 spent in shipping

2 RMA's (3rd to be coming shortly)

3 Dead/fautly LCD Monitors

1 Extremely frustrated former customer

 

 

Needless to say, I am done buying any of their products. I used to think they were reliable but after both the initial failure and treatment from customer service I am done. Reading reviews on www.newegg.com I see I am not the only person to have similar problems.

[Preacher]

The company who makes Chi Mei, Hanspree, Hanns G and like 40 other brands (I think chi Mei is the company flagship brand) not only makes one of the best looking LCDs they also have very nice and helpful customer service folks. I have had 5 of the monitors for me or my customers and never one complaint. I ordered one from Newegg that had 6 dead pixels in the center of the screen and newegg told me I was out of luck so I called up Chi Mei and they sent me the new one and paid for free shipping back to them and the new one had zero dead pixels (which was wierd anyway since none of the others I had purchased had any)

 

Customer service is a lost thing I think for the most part, but every once in a while I get surprised.

[Ice_Berge_00]

I recently bought a Chimei for myself based on your feedback and others in a post about a month ago I made. I've been very happy with that Chimei since.

 

I am just frustrated beyond description with Viewsonic and their products at this point. It's bad enough that we're getting jerked around with customer service, but they've also sent us 2 dead monitors!

[nut]

That's crazy. I'd get fed up so fast of that BS. I got a Samsung 19' SyncMaster 940BF. thing is soooo nice. i love it. and i have never had any problems with it.

 

 

Hope you finally get an equivalent !

[Cujo]

i'm assuming you've tried a known working monitor at this point to ensure it's not some other component that is failing ie. the vid card.

[bushwack]

i'm assuming you've tried a known working monitor at this point to ensure it's not some other component that is failing ie. the vid card.

That's a crazy story Iceburg, feel for ya. Wanna hear a funny story? I've been using CRTs all my life so when I got an 22" Asus last Christmas it looked and reacted so bad I thought I got a faulty one. I shipped it back and and the replacement I got was just like the first one. Come to find out LCDs are just crappy displays, silly me! So I ditched it and got a new old stock 20" viewable CRT and have been loving it, then last week it dies out of the blue, only 3 months of use.

 

You know you can change the font size in windows and web browsers right?

[Ice_Berge_00]

i'm assuming you've tried a known working monitor at this point to ensure it's not some other component that is failing ie. the vid card.

You assumed correct. I've built my fair share of computers and have 2 LCD's myself, not to mention helping a few friends with their comps and choosing components.

 

Suffice to say we have a different monitor on the computer which is working fine confirming it isn't a video card issue. Also I tested the LCD on a separate computer and confirmed the problems as well as both the VGA and DVI on the off chance it could be specific to one of the ports.

 

 

i'm assuming you've tried a known working monitor at this point to ensure it's not some other component that is failing ie. the vid card.

That's a crazy story Iceburg, feel for ya. Wanna hear a funny story? I've been using CRTs all my life so when I got an 22" Asus last Christmas it looked and reacted so bad I thought I got a faulty one. I shipped it back and and the replacement I got was just like the first one. Come to find out LCDs are just crappy displays, silly me! So I ditched it and got a new old stock 20" viewable CRT and have been loving it, then last week it dies out of the blue, only 3 months of use.

 

You know you can change the font size in windows and web browsers right?

These are definitely defective. As for using CRT's, for what I do and my parents LCD's are definitely superior. I can't speak for the LCD you are tried, but today's high quality LCD's have a responsiveness that makes image ghosting a thing of the past for gaming. Also the brightness and contrast in my opinion are better.

 

But that's my opinion, you have to choose what best meets your needs.

[Preacher]

Berge is wrong we're hear epecially for the strict purpose of telling people what they need. What you need is a USB grill or you're going to die!!

 

http://www.b5network.com/

[aldan]

*aldan rolls his eyes at the preach...*

 

It's possible that the LCDs that wacker was trying had poor refresh rates. That's something that CRTs don't have a problem with. If you buy a cheap LCD, it's likely got a slow refresh rate, so it will seem to stutter with a fast or graphic-intensive game.

[dwEEziL]

LCDs don't have "refresh rates" in the sense that CRTs do. For LCD, the spec you're looking for is "response time".

[Preacher]

Even cheap LCDs now have at least a 12ms refresh rate so there shouldn't be any ghosting since I believe the above-average human can only see ghost images at around 19ms. Most folks see at around 26ms.

[dwEEziL]

I've heard anything higher than 8ms is noticeable. My TV has a 5ms response time.

[Cujo]

my monitor is rated at 12ms and i definitely noticed it at first when switching from the crt. i gave it a chance though and within a few days i no longer notice it.

[Preacher]

most of the "ms" ratings on these things are not on the same scale. It just depends on the company.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Preacher

[bushwack]

*aldan rolls his eyes at the preach...*

 

It's possible that the LCDs that wacker was trying had poor refresh rates. That's something that CRTs don't have a problem with. If you buy a cheap LCD, it's likely got a slow refresh rate, so it will seem to stutter with a fast or graphic-intensive game.

Cujo recommended I go with Asus or Viewsonic so I know they're the best. I spent $300 on it 6 months so I know it's not cheap, at the time it was kinda pricey for a 22 incher. Also it's a 2ms GTG. I just noticed the specs on newegg for the monitor is now 16.2 colors, when I bought it it was 16.7 million I know.

 

I had it several months and the blur issue never went away at all and I quit playing my favorite game, UT 2004.

Here's what I'm talking about: Move your mouse cursor back and forth horizontally but follow your eyes with the cursor movement. See that smudging or blurring? When I play UT it's the same but opposite, my crosshairs stay still and the game world blurs when I look around. I only notice the blurring in FPS gaming.

[boiler]

*aldan rolls his eyes at the preach...*

 

It's possible that the LCDs that wacker was trying had poor refresh rates. That's something that CRTs don't have a problem with. If you buy a cheap LCD, it's likely got a slow refresh rate, so it will seem to stutter with a fast or graphic-intensive game.

Cujo recommended I go with Asus or Viewsonic so I know they're the best. I spent $300 on it 6 months so I know it's not cheap, at the time it was kinda pricey for a 22 incher. Also it's a 2ms GTG. I just noticed the specs on newegg for the monitor is now 16.2 colors, when I bought it it was 16.7 million I know.

 

I had it several months and the blur issue never went away at all and I quit playing my favorite game, UT 2004.

Here's what I'm talking about: Move your mouse cursor back and forth horizontally but follow your eyes with the cursor movement. See that smudging or blurring? When I play UT it's the same but opposite, my crosshairs stay still and the game world blurs when I look around. I only notice the blurring in FPS gaming.

This is not a common thing for LCDs - I have NEVER seen that kind of ghosting before, and I've been gaming on LCD monitors for roughly 6 years.

[Unclean]

It depends on how sensitive your eyes are to that motion blur.

 

For a more extreme example, take a window with a lot of small text, then drag the window around in a circle. Watch as all the text makes gray smudges.

[Cujo]

unclean, that happens on crts as well though. my eyes have always been really sensitive to things like that. when i used a crt anything below 100hz would hurt my eyes. i can not use 85hz for a prolonged period of time. don't get my started on 60 or 75hz. with the ghosting i definitely noticed at first but my eyes quickly adjusted i can't point it out anymore. actually, i don't think my eyes adjusted at all. my brain adjusted. i knew it was normal so i learned to ignore it i suppose.

 

for the record, i no longer recommend viewsonic. dell and samsung are the two i have had good experiences with. mostly dell. i really wish preacher would come to ff so i could see his hanns g cause i want to know why this thing is so good. i also wish he'd come to ff so he could see why my dell is so good. one thing i noticed walking around ff is how crappy some people's viewing angles were. i would walk around and look over shoulders and not be able to see properly just at walking height. i'm not even that tall at 5'10". where as with my dell there really isn't an angle you can view it with where the colours go weird. except those angles where you'd never actually view it from anyway.

[Preacher]

/me notes how cujo begs me to come meet him

[boiler]

I've said it numerous times, but I'll say it again. Dell monitors are absolutely outstanding in quality and picture. Their prices are a little higher than some (depending on the model) but I guarantee that when I finally get around to building another desktop, I will be purchasing a Dell monitor to go with it.

[Cujo]

/me notes how cujo begs me to come meet him

 

lol. hardly begging. i just want to know what all the fuss is about.

[dwEEziL]

For the record, last time I checked, Dell LCD monitors are just rebranded Samsung.

[Ice_Berge_00]

*aldan rolls his eyes at the preach...*

 

It's possible that the LCDs that wacker was trying had poor refresh rates. That's something that CRTs don't have a problem with. If you buy a cheap LCD, it's likely got a slow refresh rate, so it will seem to stutter with a fast or graphic-intensive game.

 

For the record, the stuttering was happening by just moving the mouse slowly around on the desktop. My parents don't do any gaming. A 2 year old could see what was wrong with this monitor.

 

My parents called Viewsonic again to talk to a manager yesterday and they tried to tell her the problem was cause they didn't install the drivers. Too bad I did that.