Well, I picked a lemon. Any advice?

Hello,

So I bought an LG L226WTQ from Best Buy in January. It started buzzing at me in March or so. I didn't get the extended warranty from Best Buy (stupid, I guess). So I called LG to schedule a replacement. One came. It was an LG W2252TQ (I guess the model I bought has been phased out). It buzzed. Another replacement has just come. It is buzzing. Ugh!

I think it is a design flaw or something with these monitors. If the brightness goes below 100%, it starts buzzing. It is one of those annoying buzzes where in a quiet room, it drives you crazy. And, I can't sit here with the brightness at 100%. I get a headache and I am sure I will lose my good eyesight if I do.

So, I am assuming there is no point in trying to get another one, is there? Just more work on my part shipping back and forth for a monitor that is going to buzz again.

Do you think I can get a pro-rated refund or anything?

Or should I just suck it up and lose my $300 and be done with it?

I am getting a replacement monitor and my top choice is an HP W2207H. Good choice? I am connecting it to a MacBook Pro 15". I am not a gamer or anything. Just use it for programming and other office stuff (email, web surfing, etc.). I usually stare straight at it, so a TN Panel might be just fine with me. I also already have an DVI-HDMI cable, so I am good there.

Any other recommendations?

Thanks.

Ask for another replacement and another until you get one without a buzz.
You may want to go through your local sales of goods act to see if you can make them pay all the postage, even outside the warranty if they failed to fix it previously while in the warranty period.
They will be sure to give you a good monitor if it costs them more.
Ask for a refund if that would suit you better, you may get lucky.

Sell it and buy a different brand?

I think this is a design flaw, not a manufacturing flaw. You could change panels till the end of time and still have buzz.

Sell it and find out what is known to be a buzz free panel. (good luck with that).

Thanks for the replies all. Has anyone heard of the HP's being "buzzy"? That is the brand I am leaning towards.

lcd's dont generally buzz, at least none that ive used or had.

I sure hope so. I might have just picked a bad brand/model or something, because they are just buzzing away when I go below 100% brightness.

I have seen that to be a problem with some people before on some monitors -- I just don't know what could be causing it or what I could do to make it not happen. Plug it into a different outlet?

Its a fault in the lighting control circuitry, most likely a transformer that isnt immune to buzzing at the frequencies/PWM settings used.
Maybe they have used lower quality transformers etc, which means some LCDs or batches of them can have problems.
In which case, you need to strike lucky and get a replacement LCD with parts that arent out of spec.