SCEPTRE x22wg-Gamer Black 22" 5ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor - Retail
2/7/2006 5:00:30 PM

Wonderful, just out of warranty. I decide to test out the HDMI port after over a year of DVI/VGA. Looks great, HD quality picture and what do you know the fucking thing dies on me after trying to switch back to DVI. Went from no DVI signal, to only HDMI, now VGA won't even work it just blinks the LED on and off.

I dunno what the fuck I'm gonna do without a widescreen LCD

3/4/2008 8:57:33 PM

i think the whole problem here is

Quote :

"SCEPTRE"

o but that price looked sooooo good huh

3/4/2008 9:01:23 PM

had good reviews at the time, I think a couple people in tech talk picked them up as well. Until now I've never had a single problem with it. I might have just fried something with the HDMI from my cable box who knows. I'm still hoping that it magically starts working again when I plug it back in later.


sweet now it won't even turn on.

[Edited on March 4, 2008 at 9:32 PM. Reason : .]

3/4/2008 9:14:04 PM

i think the whole problem here is

Quote :

"SCEPTRE"

o but that price looked sooooo good huh

3/4/2008 9:33:23 PM

how long was the warranty?

3/4/2008 11:28:02 PM

So how much did it cost relative to a real monitor now that you can factor the cost of two.

3/4/2008 11:33:29 PM

i think the whole problem here is

Quote :

""SCEPTRE""

o but that price looked sooooo good huh

3/4/2008 11:43:44 PM

have you tried unplugging it for 30seconds and then plugging it back in?

sounds like it could be a hardware logic latch up... like it's stuck in HDMI mode instead of switching to DVI...

3/5/2008 12:41:59 AM

^that's what I was hoping. But for some reason now it just won't power on at all. Before it was letting me switch sources and just saying nothing detected on DVI. Then the LED started flashing on and off and it was making sort a switching noise. I unplugged it and let it sit for about 30min and here we are now.

I paid 375 shipped for it and I'm pretty sure if I never hook the hdmi up to it "just to see" it would have served me for another couple years at least. Great monitor, just dunno what happened tonight with it. Sceptre isn't some retarded obscure brand name, there were over 300-400 reviews on newegg and a large percentage were 4 or 5 stars. Apparently there were issues with the HDMI and DVI ports, but it's been over a year and none of those reports were made after a couple months (ie. defective units)

and it was 1year parts/labor three months released from RMA obligation.

3/5/2008 1:40:48 AM

I know its kind of apples and oranges, but my polaroid lcd tv recently crapped out as well. The cable on it worked fine for almost a year, then when my laptop died I decided to use the tv as a monitor for my desktop computer. It worked fine until one day when I switched it from computer input to cable it blacked out, not even the LED status light would come on. Long story short, the RMA tech asked me to manually configure a lot of things, and after I told him I couldn't do any of that because it doesn't even power on, he was like 'oh I see...well here's your RMA number.' I think you're screwed with no warranty left.

3/5/2008 3:41:16 AM

I've had a few polaroids back in the day..got them cheap and sold them--they all were shitty, half of them didnt work when I got them, etc.

Stick big brands who are known for high quality TV's, it's not worth the risk

3/5/2008 8:10:47 AM

Quote :

"Wonderful, just out of warranty."

Most all credit cards will double the factory warranty. You may want to check that out.

3/5/2008 8:37:44 AM

Quote :

"Sceptre isn't some retarded obscure brand name, there were over 300-400 reviews on newegg and a large percentage were 4 or 5 stars."

Sceptre has been a notorious shitty LCD brand from the getgo. Bottom of the barrel, super sketch quality. Newegg reviews are fucking worthless, it's all 12 year olds buying LEET stuff with their parent's credit cards that write reviews. I've wanted to blow my brains out reading some of the reviews when I was looking for new stuff.

3/5/2008 10:36:28 AM

buy another one of the same model from newegg, send back the old one as an RMA

sure, newegg eats the cost of shipping, but sceptre (if it's still around) eats the cost of a busted LCD (in theory)

3/5/2008 10:42:02 AM

i think the whole problem here is

Quote :

"SCEPTRE"

o but that price looked sooooo good huh

3/5/2008 11:36:04 AM

The DVI going out on Sceptres is a known issue. Read the reviews for the other HDMI one (24" I think). Everyone initially rated it high, saying they got a great deal, and then 4 months later, EVERYONE says their DVI is going bad. Coincidence?

o but that price looked sooooo good huh

3/5/2008 12:41:19 PM

glad i didnt bite on this deal back when you bought yours. I remember being really close to getting this same monitor.



my acer hasn't given me any problems, other than the single dead pixel that it came with.



I'll probably buy another acer in the near future. 2 22"s are better than 1.

3/5/2008 1:22:14 PM

Quote :

" Most all credit cards will double the factory warranty. You may want to check that out."

I can't register the product a year and three months after I purchased it can I ?

Quote :

"The DVI going out on Sceptres is a known issue. Read the reviews for the other HDMI one (24" I think). Everyone initially rated it high, saying they got a great deal, and then 4 months later, EVERYONE says their DVI is going bad. Coincidence?"

Yeah, apparently they fixed that problem. Every claim dealing with DVI port failure had occurred within the warranty year. Mine worked flawless for 15 months and survived two moves. So yeah that price *did* look good. Sad thing is I chose acers for all my friends and family. Oh well.

[Edited on March 5, 2008 at 3:03 PM. Reason : .]

Quote :

"You have successfully initiated a Visa Warranty Manager claim. Your claim has been assigned the following unique number:"

[Edited on March 5, 2008 at 3:14 PM. Reason : we'll see.]

3/5/2008 3:01:27 PM

Quote :

"Damnit, my Folex just stopped working. What the hell??"

3/5/2008 5:50:01 PM

^Gee gosh, that is quite possibly the most accurate analogy I have ever had the pleasure of reading! I appreciate your wonderful contribution to this message board and look forward to subscribing to your newsletter.

3/5/2008 5:59:05 PM

What the hell else do you expect me to say? You bought some cheap ass generic brand monitor that over half of us have never even heard of, then you are gonna bitch when it breaks? You get what you pay for so don't be surprised when it stops working.

3/5/2008 10:18:27 PM

Hey there cockboy, I posted it in this forum because if you recall around a year ago there was another thread pushing the quality to price ratio of the same LCD.

3/5/2008 11:25:48 PM

Quote :

"What the hell else do you expect me to say? You bought some cheap ass generic brand monitor that over half of us have never even heard of, then you are gonna bitch when it breaks? You get what you pay for so don't be surprised when it stops working."

just because you havent heard of it doesnt mean it is some 'cheap ass generic brand'. Sure it is not the top name but myself as well as many other people i know use them and have had absolutely 0 problems with them. In fact my 22" Sceptre looks better than my 22" samsung with nearly the same specs but cost a lot more than the Sceptre when I got it.

Obviously Grandmaster had a problem with his monitor but honestly after the heavy use that me and several other people I know have gotten out of scepter monitors over the past few years, im surprised its known as a crappy brand. i guess we've all gotten really lucky...

3/6/2008 12:06:45 AM

go through this thread...
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2049206&enterthread=y

see how many Samsungs you see versus Sceptre.

exactly.

but to make your point, both Samsung & Sceptre's have had AUO panels in them.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 12:40 AM. Reason : .]

3/6/2008 12:38:31 AM

I'm 95% sure if I never fucked with the HDMI port, I'd have gotten years of use out of the DVI port. I don't really care that people are attacking my choice in brand, it served me well and I had the 375 to spare at the time. I took a chance and had 15 months of a great picture, no dead pixels, and for the most part complete satisfaction. At the time HDMI capable monitors were significantly more expensive (granted I never ended up using it until now). But if my tone came off as anything more than generally annoyed I guess I should have revised my posts a bit more.

My main concern is the majority of the people slapping me in the face for the purchase decision are actually established TWW and tech talk contributors. This kid registered a week ago and has 10 posts per day of random bullshit uselessness and comes off as a coat tail riding douchenozzle. And even if it's some older member reborn, such as NCSUJew (or whatever that name was), most of this rant probably still applies.

3/6/2008 1:41:26 AM

I'll go ahead and consider myself one of the "established TWW and tech talk contributors" with the others, since, while I haven't been here as a poster for years, I've been here off and on and I know my shit...

That said, expect a large deal of flak from most here for making a cheap purchase then complaining when it fails ... sure you got a nice piece of gear while it lasted, but it's how the game is played, is it not?

Ah, go ahead and pick on that new guy though, I'm sure he deserves it. Then again, I imagine you'll want to lambast me, I don't care ... I actually only contribute to Tech Talk and it's usually useful information because I like helping ... of course, I also join in sometimes because I like laughing.

Cheers.

(fwiw, you did get more mileage out of that sceptre than most of us would've anticipated)

3/6/2008 3:38:16 AM

sceptre is a garbage brand. I dont care how you try to sugar coat it, or how many threads were made about it, or how many reviews you read on newegg.

It's been a garbage, 3rd tier brand since they started. I dont care what kind of panels they use. It doesn't matter. They have had terrible, abysmal reviews across the board since the inception of the company.

This is akin to the people who claimed Epox motherboards were great deals, or the constant stream of "modders" who buy absolute garbage hardware, spend ridiculous amounts on money "overclocking" it, only to end up fucking something up and paying for it all over again.

How can you even say something like:

Quote :

"after the heavy use that me and several other people I know have gotten out of scepter monitors "

Heavy use out of a monitor? Seriously? Are you like overclocking the monitor?

I've never, in 22 years of being on computers, ever, had a monitor fail. No crt's, no LCD's, no projectors. That's encompassing several hundred displays conservatively. My monitors run 24/7/365 from purchase to resale, and I've never had one go bad. My current LCD is going on 3 and a half years, TONS of abuse (its been transported in a trunk around the country twice) and is still kickin like the day I bought it.

This thread is so silly

3/6/2008 4:01:30 AM

ive had 2 acers die on me but then again i think acers are crap.

and by heavy use i just meant hours logged.

and for the record, until this current sceptre monitor breaks it still was a good deal

3/6/2008 6:57:48 AM

I had one die about a year ago. Can't remember the brand. Must say something.

3/6/2008 8:23:06 AM

lets not forget about the NEC/Sony rebadged Dell CRTs that EEStudent and Garth are all too familiar with that needed resistors soldered onto them to correct brightness issues.

3/6/2008 10:35:59 AM

i agree with Noen, no one really knows the lifespan of LCD's yet because they haven't experience that many failures... a well-made LCD should last years and years without dying.... even CRT's can last a long time.

fwiw, i've never experienced a failed display of any sort either.

although i'd say Noen is incorrect in saying that the manufacturer of the panels doesn't matter... albeit most of the problems are probably the monitor itself that causes the issues, not the actual panel.

3/6/2008 11:07:11 AM

Hahahahaha, I bought a 17" LCD from Aldi's (yes, the grocery store) my freshman year of college and used it for about 5 years until I bought the 24" Dell I use now. I can't even count the number of car trips and moves that thing has been on, let alone the fact that it has a nice fat knuckle mark in the screen from where I punched it. The bastard still works to this day. I don't know anything about Sceptre, but after my experience with that monitor, a screen failing after 1 year must either be spectacularly shitty or you're the unluckiest person on the planet.

3/6/2008 11:35:09 AM

its hard to say. my sceptre was dropped carrying it into my room before i ever even used it..although it was still in protective packaging hehe. still works to this day. as do friends of mine who had sceptre monitors before me. my 3rd monitor is an 8 year old viewsonic CRT that still works tho

Ive had 3 total monitors die on me. 1 Dell CRT, and the 2 acer lcds the 2 acers were in warranty though which is good for me yet pathetic. the CRT was about 6 years old and just got completely crazy with the colors.

im not saying that sceptre has a good track record overall. apparently they dont. just saying ive had good luck with mine.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 2:07 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2008 2:06:56 PM

reboot your cable modem



[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 2:41 PM. Reason : i got nothing]

3/6/2008 2:39:45 PM

Quote :

" a screen failing after 1 year must either be spectacularly shitty or you're the unluckiest person on the planet."

my dell 24 inch.

3/6/2008 2:40:17 PM

i found your replacement:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=S197-2402&AffiliateID=Es5Ekr9eEBk-8yhc0du1mb7CLYcn7vwJ7g

a) Sceptre
b) TigerDirect
c) Rebate-Zone TigerDirect Rebate

win-win-win

3/6/2008 7:56:02 PM

^ I lol'd

3/11/2008 11:55:47 PM

Quote :

"my dell 24 inch."

That one can be chalked up purely to Karma

3/12/2008 4:45:59 AM

^I vaguely remember there being one shitty 24" line from them- a non-digital earlier model I think.

3/12/2008 2:59:43 PM

leaving it plugged in produces a random flicker every 20-60 minutes. Sceptre has not responded to my RMA/Repair email.

[Edited on March 16, 2008 at 12:48 AM. Reason : .]

3/16/2008 12:47:29 AM

there's a reason the sceptre line of tv's is only available at costco

3/16/2008 10:08:32 AM

b/c they have a badass return policy?

3/16/2008 5:33:10 PM

the ONLY monitor I have EVER had die on me was a 15 inch KDS trinitron that ran more or less 24/7 form when I bought it in 1997 till mid 2006. god only knows when exactly it died as it was the monitor for a storage box that is normally used only via VNC. LCDs? I bought Acer, I have been happy. I could have gone cheaper, I chose to pay for what I wanted, and thus get what I wanted. You get what you pay for folks.

3/18/2008 5:00:50 PM

I'm pretty sure the actual LCD screen is fine and either the power inverter/board (FSP-050 -2L02) or the input/lcd controller are what's fucked up. Would there be any practical use for the 22" screen (M220EW01)?

http://www.auo.com/auoDEV/products.php?sec=monitor&func=info&product_id=72&items_id=1

pretty funny that the actual panel used in this sceptre has decent reviews and is also used in some dell's and samsungs. So there's no arguing the picture was a good deal for the money. If only the HDMI didn't blow up.

[Edited on March 20, 2008 at 8:48 AM. Reason : .]

3/20/2008 8:44:26 AM

any ideas ?

4/30/2008 4:09:04 AM

no, but Staples has a deal on a 21.6inch Hans-G with HDMI for 210 with free shipping. 3yr warranty if I remember correctly...

4/30/2008 4:30:09 PM

Quote :

"This is akin to the people who claimed Epox motherboards were great deals, or the constant stream of "modders" who buy absolute garbage hardware, spend ridiculous amounts on money "overclocking" it, only to end up fucking something up and paying for it all over again."

hahahahah

epox does suck. ask me how i know

5/3/2008 11:46:55 AM

Good timing:
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/12408/Dell-E228WFP-Digital-22-Widescreen-LCD-W-DVI-200

Just picked one up to complete my new nerdy desktop setup. Matching 24"s was just too hard to justify.

5/4/2008 9:27:04 AM

The 24" soyo's should still be around $250 a piece. They work pretty good so far for me, but I do wish I went with a single 30" dell now.

5/4/2008 10:53:20 AM