In 2009 I bought myself an N-Vi which performed faultlessly for a couple of years. Divorce saw it placed in storage until about 2013 when I tried to fire it up again. The much discussed ‘dead screen’ issue, so off it went to Salisbury returning as good as new.
2017 arrived and it went back into storage again not re-emerging until last week (a long story). Set it up, turned it on and…….dead screen again.
That said, it powers up, the Naim logo and buttons illuminate, the remote control works and I spent a few hours playing some old CD’s so it all seems to be working apart from the display.
I know that Naim no longer support the N-Vi but note that there have been quite a few threads on the forum relating to it. Is there anyone out there who can help me to find a fix for it?
I’m located midway between Bristol and Gloucester and have now retired so a trip out wouldn’t be a problem. I am completely out of my depth with this, I could plumb a new bathroom or re wire a house, but this is rocket science.
Welcome Jigsy. I would suggest you contact your nearest Naim dealer and see what they can do for you.
Apart from that I have seen some 3rd party OLED screen replacement services being offered on certain auction sites, and I know some here have had success there with the Streamers, Unitis etc… but any discussion there really falls outside of the AUP of this forum.
Richard, it would be very nice if when certain types of repair hit EOS, that Naim relax the user mod discussions or remove them entirely since people are not talking about modding a supported item. I think it would be great in fact if EOS for something triggered Naim publishing some technical docs describing requirements and compatibility. I know other makers do this - Arcam have some great official EOS service manuals.
Thanks for the prompt replies and suggestions. Naim were unable to assist with the repair or spare parts but I think that was to be expected.
I tried several dealers without success but one gave me the number of an electronics repair guy in Cheltenham. I called him earlier and the short story is that if I can find a screen he will be happy to install it.
There is one available from France for about £100 which gets decent reviews and I’ve e-mailed them to see if it will be compatible with my unit. Apparently it comes with installation instructions so that would be good.
If it is suitable I’ll order one and see where we go from there. If not, I’ll go back to the drawing board.
Yep, I’ve fitted the UQ version. Took about 10 minutes , with the help of tiny screwdrivers and illuminated magnifying lenses. Made me look like a mad scientist. Only half of that is actually true.
All sounds very promising although it does make me wonder why so many of them fail. I thought OLED was pretty reliable. I remember seeing it demonstrated by Philips in the 90”s. Hoping these new replacements have a longer life.
It seems that many early OLED displays used in various devices sadly turned out not to last that long before suffering burn-in, fading or failing completely, but I’m told that OLED display life expectancy has improved a lot in recent years. For all that, it’s best to never use an OLED at its brightest setting, and in the case of the OLED displays used in Naim devices, best to have them set so they only display when you operate a function.
Apparently there’s a trick though for reading any OLED display that appears to have failed completely. If you use your Phone camera you can often see the faint trace of what’s on the screen. I’ve not tried this myself (and not needed to yet, as even my oldest OLED displays at 15+ years old are still OK) but worth knowing just in case.
I had heard about the darkroom/phone method but it didn’t work when I tried. Perhaps it wasn’t dark enough.
The new screen I’ve ordered will be the second new one, the first being supplied and fitted by Naim, so I’m hoping that this one will live a bit longer.
Interestingly, rather than overuse or excessive brightness, both screens that have failed did so during a prolonged period of storage. They were working perfectly when I put the N-Vi away (in the original packaging) but non operational when unpacked a couple of years later.
My new screen is in the post so I’ll post an update when it’s up and running. Fingers crossed.
Both my UQ2 and NDX screens died after coming out of storage too.
About half the people I have mentioned the dark room method to found it works and half that it doesn’t. It is certainly still faint on the phone screen but the phone model probably also plays a role.
If you look at an Infrared remote control through the phone camera and can see the IR bulb light up on the screen when you press buttons, then your phone camera should be wide spectrum enough for the darkroom method.
My kids actually learned this at elementary school and taught it to me. I was amazed it worked.
