BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[Shoshin]

Hello, I have a problem with my Playbook that appears to be getting progressively worse over time.  It started about a month ago when the display would occassionally appear "inverted" (for lack of a better term) from a colour standpoint.  For example, areas that are normally blue are red or pink while areas that are normally red are blue.  It still worked normally otherwise.  Putting it in and out of standby normally corrected this right away.

More recently it got worse.  When I tried to take the playbook out of standby, I had a black screen.  The left half had vertical banding but was essentially black, while the right half of the display was black.  I could not get out of this condition even when I tried powering it on and off.  I had to hold the power and the volume buttons to try to do a reset.  That appeared to help, but after that I saw the inverted colours as well as the banding frequently when trying to turn it on and off.

I bought my Playbook 10 months ago and am hoping to return this under warranty as it is getting progressively worse even though I have not made any recent software changes.  I am using the latest OS available to me (2.0.1.358) but I have not seen a correlation between software changes and this problem.

Has anybody else experienced this problem or found a solution?

[Shoshin]

Just a quick update, I completely wiped out the playbook and reinstalled the operating system and the problem still occurred. In fact, now I get situations where the brightness is really light (I can barely see the icons). Definitely a hardware problem which is causing these video display issues. If I press the volume buttons to create a screen capture, I hear the click (which means it's operating), I just don't see anything on the screen. When I later get the display to work and look at the pictures, they look normal.

I never dropped the playbook and kept it in excellent condition with a pretty heavy duty case. I contacted RIM and now they are sending me a box to return my playbook for evaluation.

For anybody else experiencing this problem, call RIM at 1-877-644-8405 (in Canada - it's a different number elsewhere). The RIM website states a different number, but that's for their phones. They eventually direct you to the number I listed which is for the playbook.

[smt64]

Hi Shoshin, 

I'm having exactly the same problems. Inverted screen colours, black screen / vertical lines, problem coming out of sleep mode. I've had issues with extremely bright screen. My screen issues don't seem to be getting worse / more frequent but there is definitely a serious problem. This has been happening for a month or so, and I've had my PB for about 7 months.

I was going to do a security wipe to see if it solves the problem but see this does not work from your last post.

I'm going to follow your lead and contact BB for a return. Thanks for your post - your work saved me time going through the same processes, and it's good to know this is an established issue. 

[Shoshin]

The problem I had was pretty stable for a while and then got worse a month or two later after I first started to experience it.  When I spoke to customer support, they indicated they had not heard of the inverted colours issue, but they had seen the black screen with the vertical banding before.

I downloaded Blackberry Desktop and backed up my Playbook and then wiped it out and reinstalled the operating system.  I just got my Playbook back today and restored my backup.  Seems to have done a reasonable job but it didn't recall my email settings so I had to set that up again.  It kept most of the settings including the order of my icons.

For those who have to go through the process of returning your Playbook for repair, this is my timeline to give you a sense of how long it takes:

1. Called in Thursday night to describe my issue.
2. By 2:30 AM Friday morning I called in to get an RMA.  They indicated they would send me a box to return my Playbook in 1-2 business days.
3. Received my shipping box on Monday through FedEx (no cost to me).
4. Called FedEx to pick up my package Tuesday morning (no cost to me).
5. Arrived at the repair centre in Lavergne, TN at 10:29AM Wednesday.
6. Received an email on Friday from RIM indicating that my Playbook had been repaired and had been shipped back to me.
7. Received my Playbook back from FedEx Monday morning at no cost to me.

     The Playbook I received had the same serial number as my original.  My screen protector was gone, so either they took it off or they replaced my screen (not really sure).

     Overall the repair was pretty quick and it didn't cost me anything so I'm pretty happy (as long as I don't have any problems).  So far so good.  Good luck with your problem.

[angkorbeer]

Hi,

So I've been having the same issue.  I've just been through the process of talking with RIM's cutomer support, re-installing the software, and now they'll be sending me a box so I can ship it in for repairs.

For those who might have a similar problem and want to follow my experience, I'll be updating a thread I started on Crackberry : http://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-playbook-f222/screen-display-bug-748579/

And thanks to smt64 for the helpful tips and for giving me this link.

[smt64]

Hey Angkorbeer, good to hear you're making headway with your case. 

Best of luck!

[hollyjey]

Hi,

I was having similar issues with my screen, but it was more frequently the black screen when turning on from standby. After calling it in, and trying their tech support advice, I called in again the next day and they agreed to take it for repair. It only took 5 business days, and while the device I got back was not my original (diff serial number), it's in perfectly good working order and I'm just happy to be able to turn it on and not experience issues. I just wanted to thank you for your thread because if I hadn't read it, I probably would have just given up on it and got a new tablet. Instead, this cost me nothing but a few days without one. Painless and a good customer service experience from RIM.

H

[Shoshin]

Glad to hear it.  My Playbook is still working fine.  I have not experienced the same problem since.

[asiayeah]

I am glad to find this thread, as I am experiencing the same problem. It looks it's rather common as well.

Unfortunately, my PlayBook is out of warranty. Nevertheless, I will give BB a call and see if they could help me.

I doubt any shop would know how to fix a PlayBook...