Microsoft has announced it is repairing defective Surface Laptop 3 devices whose screens appear to spontaneously crack.

Some Surface customers have been reporting for months that their device screens have been cracking, in some cases without the users doing anything. In at least one case, the crack appeared after spending the night sitting on the desk charging.

It appears that Microsoft is finally addressing the issue, offering to repair the affected devices free of charge, according to a post on the company’s support site:

Hi everyone,

We have investigated claims of screen cracking on Surface Laptop 3 and have determined that, in a very small percentage of cases, a hard foreign particle may cause a hairline fracture in the glass that may seem to appear unexpectedly or without visible cause.

If you believe your Surface Laptop 3 is experiencing this issue, you are encouraged to contact our customer support team to initiate a repair free of charge during the warranty period of the device. If you have previously paid Microsoft for a Surface Laptop 3 repair that you believe experienced this issue, please contact customer support to learn about reimbursement.

Greg

Microsoft Surface Team

support.microsoft.com/surface

This is a big miss for the company, and represents a quality issue that should never have made it through production. Fortunately, impacted users won’t have to pay for the fix.