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Dead pixels in LCD monitor

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dderolph

Senior member
I've never owned an LCD monitor but have been looking at some. I'm aware that they may have "dead pixels" when new and I'm under the impression that's something I should be looking for if I buy one. But, what does this look like on the screen? A tiny dot that does not change color?
 
I got a new 15in LCD today at work and tried to google for some "LCD dead pixel testing software" but couldn't find any...

Ended up turning off all desktop icons , then changed the background color to various colors such as black, white, blue, red, green etc. and trying to spot the dead pixels that way.
 
... turning off all desktop icons , then changed the background color to various colors such as black, white, blue, red, green etc. and trying to spot the dead pixels that way.
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Good idea. Thanks for mentioning that. I was thinking that these dead pixels might not be so obvious; your technique makes sense.
 
Download Nokia's monitor tester; one of the buttons here has red, green, and blue on it, and the tooltip for it will say Colors. Click that, and click to cycle through the colors (right click to go backward in the sequence), and look for any pixels that don't change colors, or that display the wrong color.
 
my hercules 720 came with good dead pixel detection software, but it does tha same as your technique, changest fields of colors, and ones not changing or displaying wrong color are defect.
 
Originally posted by: dderolph
... turning off all desktop icons , then changed the background color to various colors such as black, white, blue, red, green etc. and trying to spot the dead pixels that way.
Click to expand...
Good idea. Thanks for mentioning that. I was thinking that these dead pixels might not be so obvious; your technique makes sense.
Click to expand...


That works well for me; it's how i found a stuck one on my first LCD.
I returned it, & got another with zero dead/stuck 🙂
 
That works well for me; it's how i found a stuck one on my first LCD.
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What is the difference between "dead" and "stuck"? I understand a stuck pixel can sometimes be unstuck. Does dead simply mean a pixel that could not be unstuck?
 
Originally posted by: Bolvangar
are dead pixels expected on lcd's? i just got a new one and i can see 3 so far........
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I hope you return that lcd as soon as you can. The screen should be blemish free.
As far as dead pixels in general, it depends where they are at on the screen. If they are in the corners of the screen it may not be noticable, but remember that the dead pixel will be there forever and if you decide you want to buy, make sure you get a good deal.
 
I got it from sams, and they will take anything back for 6 months for any reason, which is why I bought from them 🙂

I wonder if they would let me open the box and plug it in to take a look before taking it home? I'd hate to open a box there and find dead pixels and say nope, open another.
 
Originally posted by: Bolvangar
I got it from sams, and they will take anything back for 6 months for any reason, which is why I bought from them 🙂

I wonder if they would let me open the box and plug it in to take a look before taking it home? I'd hate to open a box there and find dead pixels and say nope, open another.
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I'd rather go through the trouble of doing that at the store, rather than go home and plug the LCD in, only to find that there are dead pixels!

Find out what their "dead pixel policy" is though... the salesman hould state how many dead pixels must be present on the LCD before they are liable to give you another.

In any case, don't pay for it before you test it out 😛 A friend and I made this mistake --we paid for a 17in LCD first, THEN took it out to test it... needless to say they gave us a bunch of #BS# saying because it "only" had 3 dead pixels, they would not give us another one. We said fvck it and just paid a lil more and got a better brand 😉
 
Well, from what I've heard sams will take anything back for pretty much any reason, and i doubt the people there would even know what a dead pixel was. It wouldn't really bother me at all, except there are 2 Right next to each other and it really makes it noticeable.
 
Originally posted by: Bolvangar
Well, from what I've heard sams will take anything back for pretty much any reason, and i doubt the people there would even know what a dead pixel was. It wouldn't really bother me at all, except there are 2 Right next to each other and it really makes it noticeable.
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Doesn't surprise me about Sams return policy given that the parent company is Walmart. I've seen people 'return' items to Walmart that were not even bought from Walmart. Obviously they had no recipt so they got store credit. But cmon... its ridiculous when someone drags a household item that is six months out of a mangled packaging box, computer or otherwise, and gets to cash it in for new stuff basically. As long as the UPC is in their system they will take it. Only exception I've seen is Music, DVDs, and software.
 
Originally posted by: freazer
Originally posted by: Bolvangar
are dead pixels expected on lcd's? i just got a new one and i can see 3 so far........
Click to expand...


I hope you return that lcd as soon as you can. The screen should be blemish free.
As far as dead pixels in general, it depends where they are at on the screen. If they are in the corners of the screen it may not be noticable, but remember that the dead pixel will be there forever and if you decide you want to buy, make sure you get a good deal.
Click to expand...

I recently purchased a Dell 2001FP and had 2 whacked pixels. Both were blue or white, I?m really not sure which. One was almost dead middle. After the first few hours of operation and some mournful prodding it went away. The other is in the right bottom corner almost on the edge of the screen. I can live with this one since it took me a week to notice it in the first place.
 
The only reason why I'm a bit wary about buying an lcd. I know I"ll get 3 stuck red pixels right in the middle of the screen. And generally you can't take it back unless it's something like over 5.
 
everman, try buying from samsclub.
I will post in this thread tommarow and let you know how my return went. The monitor I got there was about 200 cheaper then anywhere online too.
 
FYI: Took my monitor back today to sams, told them it had dead pixels on it, they said okay go grab another we'll do an exchange. No questions asked.

New one still has a few but none are right next to eachother so it's much better now.
 
Am I just uncannily lucky? I was googling for an LCD test utility for my new VP201S LCD (the "gaming" LCD) and amazingly enough I FOUND NO DEAD PIXELS!!

And this is a 20" 1600x1200 monitor (lots more transistors than normal!).
 
Originally posted by: dderolph
That works well for me; it's how i found a stuck one on my first LCD.
Click to expand...
What is the difference between "dead" and "stuck"? I understand a stuck pixel can sometimes be unstuck. Does dead simply mean a pixel that could not be unstuck?
Click to expand...

If i understand correctly, dead pixels will be black or white, & cannot be restored.
Stuck ones are usually red or green i believe.
Some people say you can "rub" stuck pixels back to life, but i wouldn't count on it.
 
Here's what I think about dead and stuck pixels. Most monitors are going to have some, so basically you're trying to go for a relatively clean one (doesn't have to be fully clean).

When I was at Circuit City, I was looking at a generic 17" LCD with really good specs. The display model had 2 that were towards the lower middle of the screen. I knew that buying from CC was good since they have a 30 day no-hassle return policy. My LCD also had a 1 year warranty if anything else came up.

At home I searched around for dead and stuck pixels, and I found one red and one green near the bottom right (about an inch away from the systray). I'm cool with that since that's the same number the display model had, they're in a very unimportant location, and with the color combination, only one will be obvious at at a time (green barely shows up on white, for example). So I kept the LCD 🙂

Oh, and don't look too hard 😛 If you try looking too hard, you may start finding dozens of messed-up pixels that actually turn out to be dust causing diffraction on the screen!
 
I bought a Philips 170S4 from NewEgg. It has one stuck blue pixel about 4 inches away from center. The manual says you need to have 8 for a retrun. Anyone wanna place bets as to whether or not I can bully them into something? I bet they stick to their guns and don't give me didly.
 
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