Playbook screen gone mad

Today something really odd happened,
I was surfing the web when all of sudden the screen started to fade into a black screen, it started from the corners to the center. I turned it off quickly and on again, to my surprise it was ok...
But 5 minutes later it started to fade again but now quicker, I tried again turning it on and off but this time it didn't work, the screen flashed in gray colors...
I already tried the three finger reset but all it did was flash in gray again...

Tried a screen capture but it came out ok...

Do you have any ideas how I could solve this issue??? I'm already out of warranty (bought it in the first fire sale,2011) and as a poor student I can't really afford another one :( (even with the super discounts around the web)

Any help would be very much appreciated!!! I'm really eager to try BB10 on it!!!

Ok this is odd! after connecting it via usb the screen works again! now I'm afraid this will happen again... any ideas what's going on?

I would call RIM. They have been known to fix PlayBooks outside of the one year warranty. Getting the incident documented with them can't hurt.
Sounds like a hardware failure of some sort. These things don't usually correct themselves.

I agree with Chaddface.

The PB has a one year warranty to the original purchaser. It also has 90 free Tech support. I do not know how Rim deals with "quasi-tech support v. warranty"

Rim Support
Tel:
Canada Toll Free: 1-877-644-8405
United States Toll Free: 1-877-644-8410
Puerto Rico Toll Free: 1-855-651-4936
Email: [email protected] (this route generally does not work and a call is necessary)

(UK Support) 0800 096 2805

Playbook French Support
http://fr.blackberry.com/playbook-ta...ok-support.jsp
Phone : 0800 914 533 (within 90 days from activation)

mine started acting up lately as well.
sometimes i wake it up from stand-by to find the colours are messed up like a photo negative. i re-start and all is fine.
once, i woke it up to a bunch of vertical grey lines on a black screen.
i turned it off and when i turned it back on, it stayed with those lines for most of the bootup before returning to normal.
i had never had any problems with my playbook until xmas.

So I've been experimenting a bit, if I let it rest for a while it returns back to normal but the issue comes back after 5 mintues of use...
the thing is that right now I'm in Mexico and I don't know if I'm going to be able to get support for it here... specially because I bought it in the american amazon...
Do you have any other idea?

ANYONE got a support number for Mexico? Or a non-800 free number to call support? The email address generally does NOT work.

So after finding the toll free number for Mexico and telling them my PB's serial number they kindly informed me that I was 3 days out of warranty and that if it has to go to service I have to pay something :(. We tried the de-bricking method and it didn't work. Now I'm thinking about sending it to them (the guy on the phone told me it could be around 200 USD if they had to replace the screen!!!!!!), trying to repair it myself (there's some videos on youtube) or take it to some pc repair shop here in my city...
what would you do???
Here's a video with the exact same problem I have...
Blackberry Playbook - screen problem - YouTube

Try to do the security wipe and reinstall the latest OS... if symptom persist, balance now everything... if it will cost you around $200 for the repair, better to buy new PB... your last resort is to find a local skilled technician (someone that is knowledgeable in tablet repair) and let him check and repair your PB... if it is not purely hardware problem e.g. LCD screen problem or some integrated electronic components malfunctioning, it is probably a loose wire problem since it is intermittent... anyway let that technician troubleshoot the problem and fix it (if it is still possible)...

I`m having the negative and lines problem as well. I really have problem with a solid state device suddenly not working for no apparent reason but for now I am willing to reboot as necessary. If I need to replace it I will wait to see if there is going to be a Playbook OS10, but the thought of having to rebuild my entire mobile life (everything except phonecalls is done on my PB) scares me. If I had paid full retail I would be really pissed right now. Still I love my PB and I find all the other tablet UIs clunky so unless I have no choice I am a PBer (?) for life.

Michael Grant

Don't buy another Blackberry. You will just get the same problems over again. Besides there is no support for Blackberry any more. Buy something else. When my Blackberry finally goes to the Tablet Heaven in the sky, I will get a new tablet and never a product made by Blackberry.

Thanks for bumping a 2 year old thread guy. I can edit my 2 year old post to fix a grammatical error.

On topic. Both my Playbooks are chugging along. Slowly by todays standards for sure, but going just fine. My daughter loves it. I don't even know how old they are at this point but I guess I got my moneys worth. Boot time is June 2014. Can't say it isn't stable.