Advice Needed: Stuck Pixel

[Jza]

I just bought a 17" Samsung LCD from Dell. Everything is excellent except a stuck sub pixel, blue colored, near the middle of my screen. It's pretty damn apparent and annoying when anything dark is being displayed.

What is the best thing to do in this situation? Contact Dell or Samsung? Return or exchange? I am new to this LCD dilemna, plz help! Any help, advice would be appreciated.

 

[Jza]

bump

 

[PrayForDeath]

90% of LCD displays have dead pixels such as the one you've got, I don't know if Dell or Samsung will help you out with this issue, but you could give it a shot, maybe if you replace it the dead pixel will be on an unoticable place on the side in a new monitor.

 

[Killrose]

If it's near the center of the screen don't worry about it!! It makes a perfect gun sight for on-line FPS multi-player games :evil:

 

[Concillian]

It doesn't hurt to contact them.

In all liklihood though that is within the limit of what they deem an 'acceptable' defect on an LCD. There is actually a standardized spec somewhere, and it's something like 3 or 4 dead pixels are acceptable for a screen of that size, unless grouped.

It's always a good idea to verify the manufacturer policy on dead pixels BEFORE purchasing an LCD. This way you know what is the worst to expect.

 

[Keysplayr]

Gently massage the dead pixel with a dry q-tip. Sometimes it brings the pixel back to life.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath
90% of LCD displays have dead pixels such as the one you've got, I don't know if Dell or Samsung will help you out with this issue, but you could give it a shot, maybe if you replace it the dead pixel will be on an unoticable place on the side in a new monitor.

90%? Where'd you get that number? I dont have a single dead pixel.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath
90% of LCD displays have dead pixels such as the one you've got, I don't know if Dell or Samsung will help you out with this issue, but you could give it a shot, maybe if you replace it the dead pixel will be on an unoticable place on the side in a new monitor.

90%? Where'd you get that number? I dont have a single dead pixel.

You're just one person though.

My Compaq laptop has two stuck subpixels in a pixel (the blue subpixel is always on) and one dead pixel. Both are near the extremeties of the screen though.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Gently massage the dead pixel with a dry q-tip. Sometimes it brings the pixel back to life.

That's interesting, what's a q-tip anyway?

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath
90% of LCD displays have dead pixels such as the one you've got, I don't know if Dell or Samsung will help you out with this issue, but you could give it a shot, maybe if you replace it the dead pixel will be on an unoticable place on the side in a new monitor.

90%? Where'd you get that number? I dont have a single dead pixel.

You must've got me wrong, I didn't mean 90% of EVERY LCD screen is dead pixels, I meant 90% out of ALL the LCD screens have a single dead pixel or two.

 

[MemberSince97]

I dont have a dead pixel either 2 yr old VG191b, cookie, TY mmmhh

 

[Jza]

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Gently massage the dead pixel with a dry q-tip. Sometimes it brings the pixel back to life.

That's interesting, what's a q-tip anyway?

Q-tips are the little items people use to clean out their ear with...plastic stick with tufts of cotton on both ends. I tried the massaging technique for several days...no luck.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath
90% of LCD displays have dead pixels such as the one you've got, I don't know if Dell or Samsung will help you out with this issue, but you could give it a shot, maybe if you replace it the dead pixel will be on an unoticable place on the side in a new monitor.

Well I worked for a medium-sized business this summer in IT and we had about 25 LCD screens in the building (mostly we were on CRT's). Of the 25 screens, 3 or 4 of them had a single dead/stuck pixel; none had more than one. That seems like less than 90% to me.

The dead pixels were as follows: 1 screen had a stuck blue one in the top middle of the screen (quite noticeable unfortunately), 1 screen had a red one in the lower left corner, one had a stuck blue one on the lower portion of the screen and I think there was one stuck black one somewhere in there.

Of the 20 laptops we had (and probably 30+ screens I saw after tons of RMA's as those damn things break like nuts after a couple of years), maybe one had a stuck pixel... laptops seem to have better quality control for stuck pixels (plus they generally have much fewer pixels since they run at 1024X768 instead of 1280X1024, like 17" LCD's.

Of the LCD's I've personally owned, both have had a single dead/stuck pixel. One was bought used though.

-------------------------------------


Here's the deal with Dell. Call them up (get ready for 20+ minutes of waiting/being transferred around btw... Dell is the worst company in the business for getting a tech on the phone, IMO). Talk to the rep and tell him that you just bought this new monitor and it has a dead pixel and it is really annoying because it is in the middle of the screen, and that you would like a new one sent to you.

You will either get an RMA right there or he will give you the old blah blah blah about their pixel policy. If he does, then just say 'thank you' and try again a couple more times at a later time... you get surprisingly different results by talking to different reps at Dell, and when you call at different times you get different reps.


What I've found with dead pixels is that you get used to them if they're away in a corner somewhere but if they're in the center area of the screen, they can be pretty annoying.

Worse comes to worse, you will just have to live with it.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
Of the 20 laptops we had (and probably 30+ screens I saw after tons of RMA's as those damn things break like nuts after a couple of years), maybe one had a stuck pixel... laptops seem to have better quality control for stuck pixels (plus they generally have much fewer pixels since they run at 1024X768 instead of 1280X1024, like 17" LCD's.

I'ts more like Dell and other OEMs are the primary customers for screen suppliers and they get better quality parts than what goes out to the retail outlets.

Think about it. A manufacturer supplies to Dell, Compaq and sends to the retail channels you and I can buy from. Said manufacturer has a quality issue where several screens have a couple more stuck pixels than normal. Do you:

A) send to a vendor that if you piss them off they will take a substantial part of your business to a different supplier?

or

B) send them into the retail channel where you may get a few returns and piss off a few individual customers?

or

C) eat them

I guarantee you that this kind of thing happens, sort of a minor quality issue. I also guarrantee that they won't send that stuff to Dell, it will go out to the retail channel and end up on the shelf at Fry's, CompUSA, Newegg, etc...

It's difficult for end users to put together statistics on particular vendors and what kind of track record they have with stuck pixels, etc... But Dell can put together those statistics quite easily. And ALL laptop displays are going to OEMs. They are going to be of higher quality, for the most part.

 

[Kaspian]

u could contact the vendor but with most LCDs u have to have so many dead pixels before u can RMA it.......good luck

 

[Jza]

I am going to try to contact Samsung directly first...I have heard from several people that they would be more likely to replace it than Dell. I figured contacting the manufacturer would be the more difficult of the two but ppl say they are really good about it.

Does dell/samsung pay for S&H for RMAs? If not, would it be better to just return the monitor instead? Price is cheaper now.

 

[Jza]

also, restocking fee with Dell if returned?

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: PrayForDeath

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Gently massage the dead pixel with a dry q-tip. Sometimes it brings the pixel back to life.

That's interesting, what's a q-tip anyway?

Cotton-wool bud. Thats what they are called in the UK. Where the hell they pulled Q-tip from is anyones guess.

 

[TStep]

Q-tip

I have tried the massage technique of reviving a pixel, but have had no luck.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Jza
I just bought a 17" Samsung LCD from Dell. Everything is excellent except a stuck sub pixel, blue colored, near the middle of my screen. It's pretty damn apparent and annoying when anything dark is being displayed.

What is the best thing to do in this situation? Contact Dell or Samsung? Return or exchange? I am new to this LCD dilemna, plz help! Any help, advice would be appreciated.

There's an ISO standard for flat panel displays, including classification of pixel defect numbers.

Class I displays are free of defects; Class II are allowed to have roughly 10 defects per million pixels, Class III and IV are lots worse still. Generally, the "bargain" panels are in the lower classes, since the yield in making class I (perfect) panels is quite low - the larger the panel, the lower.

Figure out what class the display is you got, read up on how many it's allowed to have by this classification, and THEN make a complaint if you actually have one.

 

[Jza]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
Here's the deal with Dell. Call them up (get ready for 20+ minutes of waiting/being transferred around btw... Dell is the worst company in the business for getting a tech on the phone, IMO). Talk to the rep and tell him that you just bought this new monitor and it has a dead pixel and it is really annoying because it is in the middle of the screen, and that you would like a new one sent to you.

You will either get an RMA right there or he will give you the old blah blah blah about their pixel policy. If he does, then just say 'thank you' and try again a couple more times at a later time... you get surprisingly different results by talking to different reps at Dell, and when you call at different times you get different reps.

I first called Samsung directly and the rep gave me the minimum pixel deal. I then called Dell and waited for ~20min as usual. I told the rep I had a pixel problem and that I want an exchange. She was not knowledged in computers and wanted to transfer me to a tech rep...I said NO! I convinced her that I do not need to talk to a tech rep and just simply need an exchange. After more minutes of holding, she said another monitor + return label is on its way ^_^

Hopefully everything will be swell!