When I first started this blog years ago, I posted quite a bit about some home theater construction and equipment decisions as I was putting together a new home theater in my house.  One of those purchase decisions was a new TV.  I went for a DLP TV from Mitsubishi, the WD-57833 to be exact, and it’s been a great TV…until recently.

I noticed the problem a few weeks ago.  It started innocently enough with one white dot almost directly in the center of the screen.  On closer inspection my fears were confirmed…a stuck pixel.  As I inspected the screen I began to see others, although they were black dots and as such less noticeable.

Over the next week the number of white dots grew from 1 to 3 to 5 to 8.  I couldn’t deny it any longer.  The DLP chip at the heart of my TV was dying and I haven’t had the TV 4 years yet.

For those who don’t know, a DLP TV uses a chip from Texas Instruments that contains millions of micro-mirrors that move to either shine light toward the screen, the on position,  or away from the screen, the off position.  If these little mirrors get stuck, it shows up as either a white dot, stuck in the on position, or a black dot, stuck in the off position.  And that’s what was going on with my TV.  A slow death of attrition.

I had purchased an extended warranty with the TV, but had read horror stories about people trying to get the chip replaced.  Undaunted, I pulled out my paperwork and gave Fry’s Electronics a call.

After a short wait, I was connected to a service associate who verified my invoice number and contract information and informed me that a service technician would call me within 2 to 3 days to schedule an appointment to come look at the TV.

And that’s exactly how long it took.  Nearly 3 days later, I got a call from a local repair shop to schedule an appointment for the next day.  Promptly at 9am the next morning the service technician arrived.  In his hand I could see a small plastic bag which I could only imagine contained a new DLP chip.

Sure enough, he took one look at the TV, turned it off, opened it up and 20 minutes later my TV was fixed and he was out the door.  No issues and no charge.

And here I was expecting to have to argue with him about the repair.  I think I was kind of disappointed…pleasantly.