What would cause this aberration when monitor displays photos?

[Muse]

One of my systems (desktop) is running a new Acer S231HL bid 23-Inch Widescreen Ultra-Slim LED/LCD monitor via the DVI input.

When I view JPG photos, either on my HD or online, I see several little dots the size of pixels. They are yellow color and some of them flash. It's as though they were stars in the night sky, you know how some twinkle and some don't? That's the way these flashing pixels behave. They aren't supposed to be that color. For instance, I have this photo on a hosting website and when I look at it I see 10-12 of these star-like pixel-sized yellow dots, most with black background, a few with blue background.

What could be causing these. I ran Dead Pixel Buddy and don't see any dead pixels with any of the background colors.

[Throckmorton]

I think it's a video card issue, or it could be a bad cable.


Try viewing with different programs, like the Windows image viewer, another browser, etc.

[Ben90]

Just throwing a shot out in the dark. A lot of 6 bit monitors attempt to emulate 8 bit color depth by changing a pixel color back and forth really fast. Maybe its having problems with this that a strait dead pixel check wouldn't find.

[Muse]

It seems that however I looked at a JPG it had the star-sky effect, some twinkling, some not. I figured it was the monitor, maybe the video card, both ideas were put forth in this thread.

My plan in troubleshooting/identifying the problem was to switch monitors. I bought a different 23" LED/LCD display shortly after I bought the Acer in question, a Samsung S23A350H, which I had connected to my downstairs laptop. This morning, I switched the monitor placements and the Samsung shows no such yellow glowing pixels at random locations, some twinkling. The amazing thing is that with the Acer connected to my Lenovo T60 laptop, the are no aberrant yellow pixels either! So, somehow it was that monitor connected to my desktop with it's nvidia BFG6600 2x DVI video card that does this, don't know why.

In truth, I think the Samsung on the desktop is a better idea anyway, because:

1. It's way way easier to adjust
2. From the time you turn it on until you get a picture is like a second, whereas the Acer takes 12+ seconds
3. I think the Acer looks better on VGA, which is what I get out of the laptop.

It was a hassle making the switch, partly because the Samsung only has VGA and HDMI inputs, whereas the Acer also has a DVI. I bought an HDMI splitter in order to support having the Samsung as my desktop's display. Besides my desktop I have the display set up to view output from my blu-ray players.

So, I have my workaround now, don't know what the problem was...

[C1]

Almost seems that you answered your own question (ie, what could cause this?).
Mainly, you are now using a different port and cable (ie, VGA) for the ACER and a different cable (DVI to HDMI) for the Samsung.

Recommend that you verify proper working of the ACER's DVI port using a DVI cable of known/verified quality. If it is just a cable issue (not likely) then fine, but if it is the ACER's DVI port you might want to consider RMA-ing it.