Like many here, i love my tablet, however lately

deepblackmagic · 11-30-2005, 11:41 AM

Like many here, i love my tablet, however lately there have been little pieces of junk building up behind my M4s plastic screen covering plate.

Im under the assumption that there are 2 layers to my swiveling screen. The plastic plate that covers the vast majority of my screen, and the LCD itself buried under it. Its my belief that the plastic plate over it can be removed without damaging the screen behind it.

What i would like to do is remove it to clean the back side of the plate. The particles are clearly offset from the LCD, however not on the outside where i have cleaned with a slightly damp cotton cloth. Is there a way to safely remove this plate? I would hate to have to goto a compUSA to do something so simple.

Thanks for your time.

Edit: now that i think about it, maybe somebody has access to a PDF of the official service repair manual for tecra M4's? I have seen these manuals floating around for other models.

cebec · 11-30-2005, 12:23 PM

if you do a search on the forum, you'll find instructions and pictures for removing the screen protector, i believe. it's risky.

deepblackmagic · 11-30-2005, 01:49 PM

SUCCESS! I used a very small jewelers screwdriver and worked slowly prying up gently around the edge of the screen. Apparently there was just sticky tape holding it in place. I slightly punctured one of the black plastic sticky screw coverings by accident, but thats so minor compared with the 3 massive chunks of crud i wiped off of the plastic plate covering the screen.

Kalakala · 12-01-2005, 02:42 AM

This is probably the single last, biggest issue that's standing in the way of me plunking down all that cash for a top-of-the-line M4: crud getting under the screens.

I've waited a long time for a full-power, no-compromises, large screen tablet (I've got an old, small, barely usable, 1st generation Acer tablet). As best I can tell, the M4 fits my needs (or my wants) pretty well. Yeah, it's not terribly light (I can muscle-up) and it sure ain't cheap (but hey, I'm used to buying Macintoshes, so I'm used to spending money like a drunken sailor when I buy computers). Still, it looks like the right hardware for me.

But for all that money, I don't want to have to be futzing around, disassembling my tablet's screen regularly to keep it looking good - a procedure that sounds a little tricky and/or risky according to at least some posters.

I find it a little difficult to believe that such a serious (IMHO) design flaw has gone unaddressed by Toshiba. I mean, how hard would it really be for them to seal up the spots where the crud is getting in the screen?

Just how widespread an issue is this, anyway? Is this an issue for all M4 owners eventually - depending on the environment they use their tablet in and how tidy/careful they are with crud around it?

I'm generally quite careful with my hardware. I won't be using my M4 at the beach, a flour mill, or other place filled with tons of obvious airborne particles. But there certainly *is* some dust in my office environment (there is pretty much anyplace indoors). If I don't eat crackers off the thing or use the screen as a serving platter, how bad should I expect the "crud behind the screen" to be?

Thanks for your input.

adamdwalker · 12-01-2005, 02:56 AM

Yea but tosh support rules when they finally sort it out. If u can spare your laptop for a few days a year then send it away and after one angry phone call and your laptop going back and forth twice your laptops fixed. O and the best thing is that they just replace anything and everything. They dont fix the broken piece of hardware they just give you another one! Which is great in the 3rd year of warrenty repairs. Laptops going off in christmas hols i think so should be reet, and you get use to the "crud" under screen as in my case its actually jsut a veruy small dot.

Tarc · 12-01-2005, 08:15 AM

Hi,

Yes it is a very painfull fact, when you see that speck appear, the one that wont brush off.

I have read of potential infiltration from microphone holes, but the m4 has none in the screen case.

I strongly suspect the hinge openings...

Still, on a high end machine this is barely acceptable! (As it seem to be a really common issue)

Tarc

Kalakala · 12-01-2005, 08:23 AM

Adam, I'm not quite sure if I understand the thrust of your response. It sounds like you're saying, when you get crud under your screen, just send the computer back to Toshiba for service(!). Really? That seems just a little extreme to me - I don't want to be without my PC for a week or more on a regular basis.

I'm still trying to get a handle on how extensive this problem (crud under the screen) is - how many people experience it, and to what extent it's a function of how much "crud" your computer is exposed to (that is, if you are careful and hygienic and take reasonable steps to keep your tablet clean, if you can avoid the problem - or if some crud is going to get under there sooner or later no matter how anal you are about keeping it clean).

deepblackmagic · 12-01-2005, 10:04 AM

Everybody i know with an M4 gets the crud under the screen, and we ARENT talking little spces of dust, im talking large particles 5mm and up. For me it was a fairly painless procedure as its just a matter of peeling off a plastic panel from some double sided tape. Sofar my experience with the M4 has been great, the hardware is spectacular, its faster than my 2.8ghz workstation. The only downside i have noticed with toshiba hardware, are all their crap utilities and drivers. They are getting better but my M4 still boots with almost 70 running processes (mostly all toshiba utilities to make the tablet stuff work). One other irritation is the hotswapable DVD+RW shows up in an add-remove icon in the taskbar all the time. The gigabit works great, however the intel wireless is kinda trashy, and incompatible with sevel applications i use. Overall though, im still a loyal toshiba customer, and for its price its deffinetly worth it. If the only real hardware flaw is a screen that gets junk behind it every month or two, then i can live with that. After you take it off once, its alot easier to peel off again. I work in a fairly clean environment and i get large particles, so i dont think its a matter of cleanliness. Its just one of those little things.

Metaformer · 12-18-2005, 03:54 PM

I just noticed 3 pieces of dirt that inside the first layer of my M4 Screen too. It appears as a black dot but when the M4 s turned off it looks vanilla colored and has a shadow or second vanilla color underneath. Don't know what it is but being that it is in the center of the screen it is really annoying. Anyone successful in getting Toshiba to take care of this under warranty or be able to show in pictures how to remove the layer and clean it? I am scared to open it up and potentially ruin it or void the warranty.

rbushway · 12-18-2005, 04:29 PM

I've had 3 m200's. Two of them had it, one of them has not (yet). Most folks I know who had the M200 have had this issue as well. Whatever the problem was with the M200 followed over to the M4.