From: yee@nimios.eng.mcmaster.ca (Paul Yee)
Subject: Re: NEC 4FG Problems
Summary: also on 5FG (anyone know about 6FG?)
Organization: Communications Research Laboratory, McMaster University
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 22:57:26 GMT

In article <881404m.4.726423539@axe.acadiau.ca> 881404m@axe.acadiau.ca (SEAN MICHAEL MCCORMICK) writes:
>I bought a NEC 4FG in November of last year and I had to bring it back 
>because the picture was tilted downward on the left side of the screen and 
>the upper corners were unfocused.

[story about NEC service woes deleted for sake of brevity]

>Has anybody experienced similar problems? Does 
>NEC have sort of quality control problems? I still don't have my monitor 
>back and have to use a standard VGA monitor which the store loaned me. This 
>is not the kind of quality I expected from a monitor for which I paid 
>approximately $1000.
>
>Sean McCormick
>Acadia University
>Wolfville, Nova Scotia
>Canada


In response to your query re: NEC quality control, the answer that I must
conclude is

	"Yes, they have QC problems for their FG monitors."

I just got off the phone today trying to resolve my problem with my NEC
*5FG* - just goes to show that higher price does not translate into improved
QC. After speaking to the "special person" in Technical Support who handles
disgruntled customers such as myself, I found out that this problem of the
screen being tilted on one side or the other (my problem is just like yours
except that the gap is at the left bottom edge of the screen when I fullscan
to the edges) is known and that "NEC is currently evaluating the situation
be tracking how often this occurs."  NEC's excuse is that they can't get the
tube supplier to improve their quality standards until they have the hard
data to prove their case. On the other hand, NEC has also admitted that they
didn't spec the tube properly to have a uniform picture at fullscan and that
NEC hasn't yet reprogrammed their automatic testers to check for our problem!

Currently I'm awaiting word on how they plan to fix the problem. If we were
in the US, they would simply send the monitor to a special "adjustment centre"
in Woodale, Illinois where "the monitor is brought to beyond spec" (if such
a thing is possible) for "demanding applications". In Canada, they make
use of Honeywell-Bull - is that were you had your monitor adjusted?

BTW, this is monitor no.2 that I waiting for them to fix; monitor no.1 was
rejected outright for its "tilt" problem. At least your dealer was willing
to lend you a VGA monitor in the interim; I have previously gone for *3
weeks* without any monitor while an "authorized NEC repair centre" in
Toronto did nothing at all with it! And believe me, my dealer is getting
quite tired of travelling back and forth to Toronto to pick up my usually
unrepaired monitor, only to have to return it later for another try.

The moral of the story: NEC can't get things right even in a year and a
half after introducing the FG series - I don't think that it speaks well
of their engineering abilities, to put it politely (and I am an EE, so I
know whereof I speak).

OTOH, I must say that I chose the 5FG after comparison with a lot of
competing and often larger, less expensive monitors such as the MAG 17S
(Sony tube), Sony CPD1604S, Nanao F550i, Viewsonic 7, etc., simply because
the image can be *simultaneously* bright and sharp - all others fail on one
or the other.



Regards,
Paul Yee
yee@nimios.eng.mcmaster.ca