LG stuck pixels - disappointed.

OverDrive

OverDrive

OverDrive

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I’ve had my LG 34in ultra wide monitor since May 2016 and have loved it (model: LG 33UC98-W).

However, over the last year I’ve noticed a smattering of stuck pixels (quite a few across the screen) that are visible when the screen is showing black/dark colours - you can see them in dark settings in games - only when you look closely though, except for a few that are perhaps more visible depending on the scene. In normal Windows use, you can’t see them at all.

I’m really quite disappointed as I’ve had other monitors much longer than this before and never had this issue. It’s also been well looked after. I’ve tried the usual suggested stuck pixel fixes to no avail. I paid around £700 for this monitor back in 2016 and was not expecting this. It’s really put me off going for another LG display. Has anyone else had this issue?

I may replace this monitor, and I’m considering the Samsung Odyssey G9.

I was hoping to sell this and at least have a little to put towards the new monitor, obviously now it would have to be sold for quite a bit less than it should be worth :(
 
Explain this to the LG president UK as it will probably go to the director's office where a separate customer service team will deal with it. I know it's out of warranty but express your disappointment etc considering what you paid you'd have expected better quality, lasting longer without these issues. Express what you think would remedy your disappointing experience, they may compensate you in some way rather than loose a future customer.

https://www.lg.com/uk/support/email-to-president

The G9 isn't exactly a shining example of quality either, you'd be better off with a Dell or an AOC since these have longer warranties.
 
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Thank you for the great advice, I didn’t even think to ask. I’ll write an email to LG and update on here when/if I get a response.

It’s been a great monitor in every other way and I love the curved ultra wide format. I just didn’t think it would have issues at less than 5yrs! My Samsung TV from 2012 is still as good as new and I have an old Dell monitor that I use with my work laptop that’s over 10yrs old and is still working perfectly!

Thanks also for the advice re: Dell and AOC, I’ll take a look. I thought the G9 would be great with my flight simulators, although it would likely take another generation of GPU for me to drive it to its full potential (I have a Sapphire RX6800 Nitro+ at the moment).
 
OverDrive said:
Thank you for the great advice, I didn’t even think to ask. I’ll write an email to LG and update on here when/if I get a response.

It’s been a great monitor in every other way and I love the curved ultra wide format. I just didn’t think it would have issues at less than 5yrs! My Samsung TV from 2012 is still as good as new and I have an old Dell monitor that I use with my work laptop that’s over 10yrs old and is still working perfectly!

Thanks also for the advice re: Dell and AOC, I’ll take a look. I thought the G9 would be great with my flight simulators, although it would likely take another generation of GPU for me to drive it to its full potential (I have a Sapphire RX6800 Nitro+ at the moment).
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No worries, worth you having a look at one of these if you want to stick with 34" for now. I think the premium monitor market is in for a shake up later this year or next when better screen technology starts to appear and refreshed ports DP 2.0 & HDMI 2.1. One of these Philips models was about half (a couple of weeks ago) what you paid for the LG and although it's VA, it's 100Hz rather than 60. If they come back into stock elsewhere at the £350 ish price, I'd go for one of them to tide you over until a better 38" or 49" becomes available.

Philips 346P1CRH
 
OverDrive said:
I’ve had my LG 34in ultra wide monitor since May 2016 and have loved it (model: LG 33UC98-W).

However, over the last year I’ve noticed a smattering of stuck pixels (quite a few across the screen) that are visible when the screen is showing black/dark colours - you can see them in dark settings in games - only when you look closely though, except for a few that are perhaps more visible depending on the scene. In normal Windows use, you can’t see them at all.

I’m really quite disappointed as I’ve had other monitors much longer than this before and never had this issue. It’s also been well looked after. I’ve tried the usual suggested stuck pixel fixes to no avail. I paid around £700 for this monitor back in 2016 and was not expecting this. It’s really put me off going for another LG display. Has anyone else had this issue?

I may replace this monitor, and I’m considering the Samsung Odyssey G9.

I was hoping to sell this and at least have a little to put towards the new monitor, obviously now it would have to be sold for quite a bit less than it should be worth :(
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Did you purchase from us?
 
OverDrive said:
Sadly not from OCUK in this instance, it was a smaller/less well known online retailer.

I have sent an email to LG and will see how I get on.



This looks good, I'll keep an eye out. I've been reading a little about upcoming screen technologies, it looks interesting!
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Back in stock again elsewhere if you google it, stonking offer at that price so gone for one myself.
 
thenewoc said:
Back in stock again elsewhere if you google it, stonking offer at that price so gone for one myself.
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Thank you, I'll have a look :)

I received a personal acknowledgement from LG this morning (following the auto-acknowledgement yesterday) saying that my message has been passed on for escalation to the appropriate team who will look into my case and be in touch shortly. Hoping I will hear something next week sometime. Wondering if I should hold off getting a new monitor until I hear back.
 
OverDrive said:
Thank you, I'll have a look :)

I received a personal acknowledgement from LG this morning (following the auto-acknowledgement yesterday) saying that my message has been passed on for escalation to the appropriate team who will look into my case and be in touch shortly. Hoping I will hear something next week sometime. Wondering if I should hold off getting a new monitor until I hear back.
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Mine isn't due until next Thurs, so you could always cancel if necessary before the delivery date. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome from LG though.
 
When I had a stuck pixel a long time a go. There was an app/website which helped remove them by flashing different colours repeatidly and quickly.
 
thenewoc said:
Explain this to the LG president UK as it will probably go to the director's office where a separate customer service team will deal with it. I know it's out of warranty but express your disappointment etc considering what you paid you'd have expected better quality, lasting longer without these issues. Express what you think would remedy your disappointing experience, they may compensate you in some way rather than loose a future customer.
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Just to give an update on this and also to seek some advice :) LG have today offered to repair my monitor at their repair centre for half price. They said the full repair price would be £595, however they have offered to give me a 50% discount and do it for £297.50, which would include collection and delivery. They said that this was approved by their upper management.

I'm now wondering if I should go ahead with the repair or just resign to purchasing a new one?

The specs of my monitor are here:
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34UC98-W-ultrawide-monitor

If they had offered the repair for £197.50 - I would have gone for it immediately. The price of 34in curved ultra wides has come down a lot since 2016 when I paid £700!

Either way, I am happy and reassured that LG have made this gesture, even if I don't accept it.

This newer model is currently available for £420:
https://www.lg.com/hk_en/monitor/lg-35wn65c-b
 
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@OverDrive

Good they got back to you but I can see the conundrum at the level of the offer.

A similar spec to your model I would guess would be the 34WN80C-B as it too is IPS but has USB-C with Power Delivery charging of 60W to hook up a suitable laptop and this is ~£600. This seems to be a 2020 model and about the best there is in the IPS 34" ones from LG. Not sure if your model with Thunderbolt has the Power Delivery charging.

The 35WN65C-B is a VA panel and is 100Hz but you loose the USB-C stuff and is ~£420.

The 35WN75C is similar specs to the 35WN65C-B but also has the USB-C and up to 94W Power Delivery for ~£600.


It looks like your current model may have a KVM as it has an upstream USB port, none of the above appear to have this. Although your model has Thunderbolt ports do you only ever link it up to one desktop machine?


Did they say whether their repair would be guaranteed for any particular length of time? Would the repair actually eliminate the problem pixels, if they're going to replace the panel would it be tested as being pixel issue free before sending it back to you?


You could try replying to them and say that whilst you appreciate them getting back to you and what the normal price of the repair would be it still came as quite a shock baring in mind that you originally bought it for £700 and similar models now sell for less. Since I've been looking at what is currently available could I ask if you would consider a similar gesture of goodwill of a voucher that I could use as part payment to a new model as I'm worried that a repair wouldn't be guaranteed for as long?


It's worth having a look at the Philips 346P1CRH which I've just bought, not had a chance to try it unfortunately yet since I'm making the desktop (bonding formica to plywood) and need a fair weather day to finish it. Lets just say you went down the route of selling yours with the pixel issues described it may not bother someone who wants a reasonably priced monitor for working from home and isn't interested in using it for gaming. If you could get £300 for it then you'd only need to put just over £200 more to get the Philips which is higher refresh rate and you've saved ~£100 on the cost of a repair and start with a fresh warranty.
 
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@thenewoc

Thank you for the reply :) I've been reading a little about IPS vs VA and my understanding is that one isn't necessarily better than the other. Each has it's respective advantages/disadvantages - either would be fine for me. I wasn't aware that my display had KVM capability though, I only use it with a single PC, so I don't really need this. It does have a Thunderbolt port, I've never used this.

I'm not an FPS gamer, just flight sims. Getting 40FPS is good in that area, so it's well within the regular 60Hz refresh rate of mainstream displays. My current monitor supports FreeSync, up to 75Hz though. I was thinking that a 100Hz refresh rate with some type of HDR capability would be nice if I where to buy a new display today (the new MS Flight Simulator 2020 supports HDR which I can't use on my display). USB-C would be nice too, if I ever needed to connect a modern laptop - not essential for me though.

thenewoc said:
The 35WN65C-B is a VA panel and is 100Hz but you loose the USB-C stuff and is ~£420.

The 35WN75C is similar specs to the 35WN65C-B but also has the USB-C and up to 94W Power Delivery for ~£600.
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Thanks for these, I'll have a read, they look good. LG's attitude to my email has definitely reassured me about them.

thenewoc said:
Did they say whether their repair would be guaranteed for any particular length of time? Would the repair actually eliminate the problem pixels, if they're going to replace the panel would it be tested as being pixel issue free before sending it back to you?
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They haven't said anything about either of these questions, I'll ask. As you say though, I will try and gently/diplomatically push for an improvement on the offer.

thenewoc said:
It's worth having a look at the Philips 346P1CRH
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This monitor looks great too! If you've not used ultrawide before, you will love the format! I would never go back now. I hope the desktop building is going well.. I wish I had skills like that, I can just about manage IKEA!

Have a great weekend! I'll update on here once I hear back from LG.
 
It's luck of the draw, unfortunately. It happened to me on an Asus monitor. I wouldn't let it put you off any specific make of monitor. LG make some nice monitors and that one certainly was a good one.
Given how old the monitor is, there is not much you can do, it's just bad luck. You might like to consider Dell in future because they have a better warranty for failed pixels in their early life.
It may not be much consolation but monitors move on very fast. I bought one of those monitors too, they were great for their day, but there are plenty around now with better specs that are considerably cheaper and if you talk the same sort of money, there are ones around that knock spots off that LG.
Honestly I am not sure whether I would have it repaired. The cost of repair is probably more than it is now worth. Only you can answer that.
 
Personally I’d pick up a monitor from Dell. The Dell P3421W can be bought direct for £546 currently. This will come with their 3 year advanced replacement warranty which is one of the best in the industry. Dell build quality is also excellent as well as their custom service.
 
I just picked up the Dell P3421W for £449 direct from Dell for use with a 2018 Mac mini via USB-C. Can confirm, great monitor and the ultra wide format is excellent. I couldn't go back to 16:9 now. KVM is great feature to run my Linux box side by side but requires a wired keyboard & mouse (or those that come with a USB dongle. The integrated USB Hub allows me to keep the computer off the desk without compromising accessibility.

.....its just not a display that prioritises gaming.
 
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