I see dead pixels

[kingy666]

Hi, just a quick question for you. a couple of months ago i bought the Hanns-g HW191D from OCUK and when i plugged it all in it was fine. I checked for dead pixels and there was not one. A couple of days later i tried some different resolutions to see if it made a difference and on one setting i tried the screen kind of flashed bright white. When i put the screen back to native res (1400x900) one dead pixel appeared (constantly green). This dead pixel remained for about 1 week and then disapeared. I always thought that a dead pixel would appear the first time you used an lcd screen and if you had one you where stuck with it for ever or was the pixel just stuck in green for a while?

 

[WotDa]

A dead pixel will always be either white or black, depending if its stuck on or off. (I think)

What you had was a lazy pixel that will be stuck red green or blue, this can come and go, some say a poke helps (Me included).

Theres some more info in the sticky somewhere, but as I have a rather bad headache, thus causing me to be here instead of sleeping, I cba to copy some useful stuff over.

Edit: Meh.

Unfortunately dead pixels are common on TFT screens as they are often developed during the manufacturing stage. For retail costs to be kept low the companies cannot afford to make all screens defect-free and check for dead pixels all the time. Pixels can either be described as dead (permanently black) or lazy (stuck on a specific colour). They very rarely develop during use, unless you have a habit of poking the screen. If you are careful with the screen, hopefully you shouldn't develop any further pixel problems.

To test for dead pixels, there is "Dead Pixel Buddy" available program. You can manually cycle through 5 full screen colours (black/white/red/green/blue) to check for dead or lazy pixels (use UP key) or rapidly cycle through all of the colours automatically to try and coax lazy sub-pixels back to life. Leave it running for half an hour, if you're lucky it can work! (SPACE key). ESC key ot exit.

If you want to ensure that you receive a pixel perfect screen (and who wouldn't at the kind of prices you are paying for the TFT!?!) then you can often pay for pixel checks from some online retailers. Beware though! Never buy a TFT from retailers who offer the pixel check without having the check done as you can be sure the screens they find to be non-perfect will be winging their way to the customers who don't have the check! The only other option to insure you get a pixel perfect screen is to check out the panel in a shop in person, then you can see for yourself.

If you find you have a dead pixel there is not a lot you can do unfortunately. If you have a certain number of dead pixels (usually at least 3 or a certain number centrally on the panel) then the manufacturer will replace the TFT for you, but the number of dead pixels needed before this happens varies between each manufacturer, so check with them before you order if you're concerned.

Some lazy pixels can be bought back to life occasionally. Playing some fast paced games for a while, and massaging the pixel area with a lint free cloth can sometimes help revive the lazy pixel, but not in all cases. Also a light flicking with the finger has helped revive lazy pixels for some people, so certainly worth a try.

If you still have a dead pixel problem, can't bring it back to life and can't RMA it under warranty then you can sometimes return it to the stockist if you purchased it online. If you bought online you can take advantage of the "Distance Selling Act" which entitles you to return any item within 7 days as you were not present at the time of purchase. If you are not happy with your TFT you can return it at your cost of postage and often claim a refund or exchange. However, be aware that a lot of places will try and charge you restocking fees and they will almost certainly specify the goods must be packaged and in the same condition as when you received it, so be careful to package it back up nicely. Legally, if the stocker accepts the TFT back as a return governed by the Distance Selling Act, then they are NOT allowed to charge you a restocking fee as covered in the Governement Regulations (page 11 in particular). This selling act is not qidely known by retailers, but does exist if you really need to use it. You should only have to pay for postage to send it back to them.

For some good info on various manufacturers policies, and a good read about dead pixels, check here on BeHardware (updated March 2005)

Previous links are dead, but I hope it gives you a better idea of what was up that what I said.

 

[wizardmaxx]

I have the Hanz G HC194d. Dont know how much different that is from yours, but i had 'pixelization' where certain areas of the screen, particularly black, came up with green or red instead. The lcd is connected directly to a dvi port on my graphics card and found a tip on the net to change the input on the lcd menu from digital to analogue and back again. Problem solved. If its only one or two pixels then probably a different issue, but i can agree that the poking trick also works. Had a couple of lazy pixels on my CMV 17" and found that if u run your finger across the pixel it would spring back to life.

 

[shine]

Some lazy pixels can be bought back to life occasionally. Playing some fast paced games for a while, and massaging the pixel area with a lint free cloth can sometimes help revive the lazy pixel, but not in all cases. Also a light flicking with the finger has helped revive lazy pixels for some people, so certainly worth a try.

I had a lazy pixel on my 17" tft and I used this method to bring it back to life. Every few months is does return but a quick massage and it starts working again.