Micro crack in Asus Prime Touchscreen caused by the official dock

[Guest richardmlea]

Hi all,

First off, can I thank all the contributors to this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1530660

I realise I could post this in the thread above but I think it deserves a new thread.

After reading 25 pages of the above thread I thought I should closely inspect my screen for any sign of damage caused by the dock. A lot of the cracks look like they are caused by the dock and mine is only really used in the dock (about 95% of the time used in dock). Inspecting it I have found a micro crack in the tablet screen. It is covered by the dock and even with the dock removed it is very hard to see unless the light catches the crack right and the tablet it at the correct angle. I would have missed this had I not seen the thread above. The first I would have known about it would have been when it inevitably cracks properly. Like this one http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jIpaym8J4kk/T5wAQhFMV2I/AAAAAAAAX4U/AlpDo7CTrQg/s1600/cfp7.jpg (thanks tomanytoys for posting the picture of this one)

Others have claimed that their screens had spontaneously cracked without being dropped or impacted when left in a cold car overnight or after closing and opening the dock/tablet. This is obviously the cause in many case's

A little background on my tablet.

I have owned my tablet since 14/01/2012, pre-ordered from curries website so got it on the first day of release in the UK. I love it.

I (carefully) open and close it regularly, using the dock to protect the screen while its not in use (even if its just for a couple of minutes to make a brew). The tablet has never left my house and I use it docked 95% of the time. It has never been dropped and I have not added rubber tabs to the dock to prevent the screen cracking as some people have.

Here are the pictures of the micro crack.

The next picture is the tablet and dock. The tablet is not fully docked so you can still see the marks (but not the crack) and there position relative to the dock .

The next picture shows the tablet and dock again, this time the tablet is fully docked. Notice the marks are now completely covered by the dock. The small marks you can still see are dust and are in the previous picture as well.

The next picture is taken with a digital microscope (not the greatest resolution) from above the crack. Most of the marks you see to the right of the scratch are grease, You can see from the direction of the streaks how I remove the tablet from the dock (left thumb on the release catch, lifted away with my right hand), however the 2 small marks below the grease, on the corner of the glass are 2 more cracks starting. These 2 marks are too small to be seen with the naked eye.

Next picture, again taken with the microscope was taken from a near horizontal plane. Its show the other 2 marks well and show that the main crack does not go all the way through the glass.

My microscope also does video but I am having problems uploading or converting the weird file format it's outputting but in the video I have made, I move a light source around the crack and it shows up, almost 3d in appearance. I will try to do the video again in another format later.

Everyone that owns a dock should check their touchscreen for these micro cracks. They are very hard to see and much easier to miss, I know exactly where it is but finding it and pointing it out to another person is difficult every time I have done it.

Looking at pictures of other spontaneous cracks they can be on the left side like mine or on the right, near the right dock latch. Most cracks seem to be on the left like it mine. Maybe this is because most people are right handed.

My GPS dongle arrived just after I noticed the crack. The dongle doesn’t fit (or not without forcing it on) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622447

If I had not noticed the crack and I had decided to force the dongle onto the tablet I am sure it would have cracked the touchscreen immediately so be warned.

I have emailed Asus about the problem but I have not received a response but it is the weekend.

It is my intention to only send this back to Asus for repair when I have an independent engineers report about what has caused the crack so there is no argument from Asus about consumer induced damage. Mine could go all the way at any minute or while sending it to Asus for repair/inspection. I have other tablets so I can afford to be without it for a bit, back to Tegra 2 for now.

I will update as soon as I here from Asus about this issue

Anyone with a crack in the same place is welcome to beat Asus over the head with my pictures.

To my mind this is conclusive proof that the design of the dock/hinge is faulty because all the pressure of opening them is placed on a small area of glass. I am not a expert in glass or mechanical engineering but this seems obvious even to a layman what has caused this and other cracks.