Just say NO to Nakamichi plasma vu50

[cgates]

Another thread in this forum from back in November 2004 talks about the Nakamichi vu50P plasma monitors, and speculates on what the down side might be to these monitors... Well, now I know!

After owning one for 8 months (when it worked it did have a beautiful picture) the top half of the display has gone dead.

I placed a call to Nakamichi repair department and talked to a "Danny", who took all my info and said someone would call me back that was 8 days ago... after repeated phones calls to them (they are very hard to get a hold of) and many unreturned voice mails being left (including to their supervisor "Lynn"), I finally got a hold of Danny once again today. He was pretty pissed to hear from me, seems they don’t like customers to call them back!
What he told me today was that Nak doesn’t do it's own servicing, and they are looking for some local independent service tech to work on my expensive monitor!!!! Now bear in mind I live about 45 minutes away from their office in Santa Monica, California.

Seems there is nothing I can do to get this serviced, he wouldn’t give me any idea "when" or "if" it would get repaired! He wouldn’t give me a name of anyone else who can make that decision. He said there was the possibility that they would replace it when “they” felt they couldn’t find anyone to service it. But there is no defined time period when they would make that decision, and since it has already been over a week with no action, it doesn’t look promising.

While any company can have a product fail, how they treat their customers after that failure is what is important. Nak is horrible at it.
So I am trying to spread the word that if you are considering buying one of their beautiful monitors, think again. I wish I had.

[cgates]

Well, I still have not gotten any word on "when" or "if" this monitor will be serviced, but I have found out more about how Nak handles its service calls.

Seems that the 50 inch models of the plasma monitors (vu50P and vu50hd) are serviced only by Nak, where the sub-50 inch models are serviced by 3rd party video repair places. So to get this vu50P serviced the local service call center has to send an email to someone in Nak that authorizes a Nak service center in Buena Park, CA to come out and service it. Just this first step of getting this authorized takes 2 to 3 weeks! Then of course the repair center will have a delay, etc.

Interestingly, this Nak call center is about 15 minutes away from me, but they have no replacement monitors on site, so all they can do is to take my service call, place an email to Nak, and then totally ignore me!
I did find one very nice and helpful employee there, if they where all like this employee I wouldn’t be as mad as I am.

So the bottom line is that you still shouldn’t buy anything from Nak, but especially their 50 inch plasma monitors, as repair is something that will take months (if at all…).

Now I have to figure out what is a good replacement plasma to buy… Panasonic?

[cgates]

It is coming up on three months now that Nak has done nothing to service my VU50P. So I finally decided to fix the problem myself, which turned out to be quite easy!
Oh BTW this voids your warranty, which in the case of Nakamichi means nothing because they wont live up to their warranty anyway!

First gain access to the back of the set, remove the 40 screws (no kidding!) on the back, they are all Phillips, but of varying size. Remove the aluminum back and place in a safe place.

Now in my case I had a good idea where the bad connection was, as when I hit the upper right corner of the unit (when standing in front of the display), the top half of the display would come back to life for a few minutes, before dying again. So I figured that this was the place to start.

Ok, there are many connections from the electronics to the plasma display all located around the edge of the display. Each of these connections represents a row or a column of the display. These connections are via flexible PCBs that plug into special mating connectors. If you are experiencing an individual line of row of column, then most likely it is one of these connectors, and you should disconnect each connector (there are a lot of them 11 across the top, another 11 on the bottom and 8 down both sides) and clean it and put it back into its connector.
But in my case the whole upper half of the display was dying, so I knew (actually “hoped”) it wasn’t one of those connectors. Instead I focused on a rigid PCBA in the upper right hand corner (“left” with the unit turned around.
This PCBA was two double sided edge connectors on it that mated to another rigid PCBA.
I removed the 3 screws holding this PCBA in place slipped the edge connectors out, used a pencil eraser to burnish the edge connector. I reassembled all the pieces back together again.
And the unit is working perfectly again!

This is a simple fix, which just about anyone could do. Should you find yourself in a similar situation I would recommend it.

Remember friends don’t let friends buy Nakamichi!

[cgates]

more pics of the insides

[cgates]

the rigid PCB in question

[E-Bass Man]

Nakamichi WAS a reputable audio equipment manufacturer. Seems they should stick with audio and leave the video equipment to those manufacturers who have the infrastructure and customer service system to back their equipment.............

[Ben Madden]

They don't answer phones at their own extensions -voicemail only, and never a return call - and their main switchboard is an endless loop with no way to get a body.

They will process payments, however, and accept repairs by mail.
Now I'm out the $1,000 amp I sent them as well as the repair bill.
Every attempt to reach them, from the web to phone to email, is a
dead end. Does anyone know more?

[E-Bass Man]

Ben,

If you still have not heard from Nakamichi by now, contact both the California Department of Consumer Affairs and the Attorney General's Office (since you live here in CA and have done business from or in this state). Also, it's been many years so I don't know if Nak is still based in CA, but they used to be. If they have your equipment AND your money, there is definitely something amiss here. Also, contact the U. S. Department of Consumer Affairs. File a written complaint with each entity. Perhaps one of the three will get Nak's attention........

Good Luck!

[Ktrek]

That's awesome that you were able to make the repair yourself and I will remember this, although I have had no problem with mine. I am curious if the fans looked easy to replace? I suspect that the fans will be one of the first things to go.

Kevin

[mdpatter]

I just bought a VU50P at an auction for 800. It has not been used but there are no user manuels and no remote. I saw your forum after the fact,or I may have saved myself some misery. If you can help I would appreciate it.

[cgates]

Wow, it has been almost a year since I have been to this site, mainly because the Nak plasma monitor has been working fine since that fix that I performed (see previous posts).

So for all those who have posted msgs during that time, I can only say that the display is a good display, just dont do business with that company.
To the guy who paid $800 for a new VU50, you got a good deal!

Good luck trying to find a remote for it tho, if you are still looking for the manual (hopefully not after all this time) post on here and I will send you a scanned copy.

[dvelin]

We, too, have had a terrible experience with Nakamichi. There is no customer service/repair help whatsoever.

C Gates: If you can scan and email the manual for the Plasma VU50, we cannot locate ours. If anyone else has a copy, we would appreciate your help. Send to dsvelin@yahoo.com

Thanks.

[SPlocar]

Wow, it has been almost a year since I have been to this site, mainly because the Nak plasma monitor has been working fine since that fix that I performed (see previous posts).

So for all those who have posted msgs during that time, I can only say that the display is a good display, just dont do business with that company.
To the guy who paid $800 for a new VU50, you got a good deal!

Good luck trying to find a remote for it tho, if you are still looking for the manual (hopefully not after all this time) post on here and I will send you a scanned copy.
CGates can you please send me a copy of the VU50P manual? methos.watcher@usa.net Thank you.