[German]Owners of a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 whose display suddenly shows cracks may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Microsoft has started to repair such devices free of charge if their screen is not cracked by an obvious fall.
A production issue causes display cracks?
In early 2020, reports of spontaneous screens cracks of Surface Laptop 3 devices began to accumulate.
Bunch of reports coming in of spontaneously cracking Surface Laptop 3 screens. No warranty coverage or acknowledgement yet.
A few threads: https://t.co/D2As5sx4Pyhttps://t.co/pRRngjPcCHhttps://t.co/eJo9XWkH0o
— Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) February 16, 2020
I had mentioned that issue within my blog post Surface Laptop 3: Does a serial error crack screens? The following tweet indicates that Microsoft is investigating the problem.
I closed the screen on my Surface 3 laptop a couple nights ago and heard a scary, crunchy popping sound that seemed to come from the left/bottom of the screen, but no crack, yet.
Microsoft Acknowledges Surface Laptop Problem via @forbes https://t.co/JsUZIxRHbo
— David Pollette (@SirKnightDavid) February 19, 2020
Mary Foley had confirmed this in this article in mid-February 2020. Problems with displays have already occurred with older Surface models. The Surface Pro 4 had problems with screen flicker. In this old case Microsoft finally replaced the affected units.
Free display repair for Surface Laptop 3
I didn't pursue it any further because I don't use surface devices (too expensive, too many issues). But on May 8th, 2020 Microsoft published this support article.
Surface Laptop 3 cracked screen reported incidents
We have investigated claims of screen cracking on Surface Laptop 3 and have determined that, in a very small percentage of cases, a hard foreign particle may cause a hairline fracture in the glass that may seem to appear unexpectedly or without visible cause.
In Kurzfassung: Microsoft hat die Fälle gerissener Displays beim Surface Laptop 3 untersucht. In einer geringen Anzahl von Geräten (liegt im Prozentbereich) haben Fremdpartikel wohl zu unerwarteten Haarrissen im Display geführt.
If affected individuals believe that their Surface Laptop 3 (13- and 15-inch units) is experiencing this problem, they should contact Microsoft Support to initiate a free repair during the warranty period of the unit. Anyone affected?
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