Tascam digital recorder with defective display.

This Tascam DR-44WL digital recorder was given to me for repair. I asked how the screen got damaged. The user, a friend of mine, said that it wasn't dropped or mishandled. It was placed on the floor in an out of a way place before his band played and 45 minutes later he went to retrieve it and the screen looked like this:

The rest of the unit looks very clean. There are no scratches anywhere.

A new screen costs around $40 + shipping but I was curious what kind of defect would cause an image like this without some severe impact to the display? If I replace the display, is it likely to happen again? The recorder has only been used a few times and it's about 18 months old.

Thanks for your replies.

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David Farber 
Los Osos, CA 






Hmm, I suspect a severe impact. 


Gareth.

A neighbour gave me their Lenovo laptop to fix that had a cracked screen. Their kid was pretty insistant it wasn't dropped, but I couldn't entertain the warranty company with that statement; I don't have a lie detector that can be plugged into her and ethernet - so we fitted a new display ourselves.

An idea. Extreme heat? Humidity? Electroluminescent panel flashover?

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Adrian C

How close was it to the band's woofer? Some of the bands I've heard can really shake things up. Could the vibration have caused the screen damage?

As an aside, years ago when the movie Earthquake first came out the local theater put large woofers in the rear. So when the earthquake scene came on the whole place really shook. After several weeks they actually discovered structural damage to the building and the place had to close for the repairs.

This is a rather low key band that plays traditional jazz music.

It's amazing a movie could be so loud that it caused structural damage to a building but not cause hearing damage to the moviegoers!

Thanks for your reply.

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David Farber 
Los Osos, CA

It looks to me as if the edge of the LCD panel was compromised, allowing an air leak into the panel.

This might be due to a manufacturing defect, but the radiating pattern of lines, and the thin little hairline I see at the tip of the leftmost radiating spike of blue-ness, suggests that the panel was actually fractured or chipped at its edge... either by impact or by excessive non-impact pressure. The whitish spots/rings near the top of the display area suggest that something has pushed or scraped the protective cover enough to damage the plastic film.

If the recorder was sitting on the floor, is there a possibility that the place wasn't "out of the way" enough, and somebody accidentally stepped on it? That might easily flex the plastic cover and put pressure onto the LCD and crack it. Direct downward pressure by a shoe might not have left scratches, other than perhaps those small scrapes/defects just below the top.

Hi Dave,

Yes, it is possible that someone or something came in contact with it as it was out of view for a while. There were quite a few people milling about the area and who knows what the real story is. Your explanation seems quite plausible.

Thanks for your reply.

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David Farber 
Los Osos, CA

** The sound was all very low frequency so excited standing waves in the room.

The system was developed by speaker maker Cerwin-Vega and called "Sensurround":

Cerwin-Vega also supplied high powered amplifiers for the system, mostly models A3000 and A1800 which later turned up on the second hand market and were bought for use in PA systems for live music in the 1980s.

One of my customers acquired a number of them and they were constantly coming in for repair. They were never built well enough to go touring in the back of a truck.

.... Phil

Before replacing new display, look for grit/swarf etc maybe from manufacture, then stressing of the case caused point stress crack

In 1980 I saw Pink Floyd perform "The Wall"

live at London's Earl's Court. At the end, when the Wall came down, the whole building shook.You couldn't hear it, but you could sure feel it. As Earl's Court could hold an audience of 20,000, that required some serious amplifiers.

Although it's a little hazy now, I believe I remember reading that Pink Floyd used 55kW of amplification for the concert, of which 18kW was used subsonically only at the end when the wall came down. I have no idea what frequency they used or what sort of loudspeakers generated it.

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Jeff

Thanks for the pointers. I'll check it out.

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David Farber 
Los Osos, CA

Looks like air intrusion from a leak in the edge of the LCD. No known cure, except replacement.

I ordered a repalcement dispaly today. Hopefully it will all go back together as easily as it came apart.

Thanks for your reply.

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David Farber 
Los Osos, CA

">In 1980 I saw Pink Floyd perform "The Wall"

You would probably like "Dogs Of War". I have a really good copy of it on V HS Hifi but not the means to put it on the PC or the web. It was always in the Friday night playlist.

Actually I might not still have it, I haven't looked. I looked for a copy o f the same performance on gnutella and youtube and neither has this version , and I DO know how to search. I got shit youtube doesn't got, and I mean p opular shit, not some obscure assholes in their in the garage. But then Bud dy Holly stasrted out on a garage...

Did you mean this:

Can't say I'm really into the later Floyd stuff. The sort of thing I go for is "Set the controls for the heart of the sun", or "Careful With That Axe, Eugene". Nick Mason's drumming on "Live at Pompei" is fabulous. I've got the whole "Live at Pompei" on S-VHS somewhere, I couldn't find it on YouTube either - at least not the version I was after. I eventually found it here: .

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Jeff