What are the odds these days?

mingeroonie

mingeroonie

mingeroonie

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Of getting a monitor, and it having a few dead pixels on it?

I know that a few dead pixels does not in some cases, warrant a refund/exchange, but it would really bug me if I bought a nice new 22" and there were a few of the little sods in the corner!

Any advice appreciated all :)
 
I would safely say it is more likely to get a monitor without dead pixels than one with dead pixels, although the latter do obviously exist.

One of the best things to do when getting a new monitor is not to look for the dead pixels. If you do, something you may not have noticed will become very annoying and be your point of focus every time you look at it.
 
Some companies have a no dead pixel guarantee, as my hp for example has. Additionally there are certain retailers that offer the same guarantee and will exchange a monitor if it has a pixel fault. Dead pixels and other pixel faults are unfortunately a fact of the manufacturing process and the frequency of pixels: a standard wuxga monitor will have about 2.3million pixels so the likelihood of one or more being faulty is obvious. In my experience I would say its probably 70-75% likelihood you will be all clear but of the 7 monitors in my presence atm I know of 3 that have stuck pixels [one red in each of them :S]
 
If it's of any help, of the 5 LCDs I've owned (including one HDTV, if that counts), here's how it panned out:

Samsung 226BW: None
Hyundai 240D: 1 stuck (red)
HP LP2475W: 1 stuck (red)
HP LP2475W (replacement): None
BenQ FP241W: None
Samsung LE32A558P3: 1 dead.

I bought each of these from a different retailer, if that's of any significance to you. Given my experiences with LCD technology so far, I'd say you're far more likely to end up with stuck pixels than dead ones, and have around a 50% chance of getting away without either.

Hope that helps (if only slightly) to put things into perspective
 
Slogan said:
One of the best things to do when getting a new monitor is not to look for the dead pixels. If you do, something you may not have noticed will become very annoying and be your point of focus every time you look at it.
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I'd say that's absolutely the worst possible advice - the very first thing you should do when you get a new monitor is carefully check for dead/stuck pixels, so that you can return it under the Distance Selling Regulations if need be (regardless of the manufacturer or retailer's dead pixel policy).

If you notice dead pixels after the DSRs 7-working-day deadline has elapsed, you're stuck with it unless you're covered by the manufacturer's guarantee or retailer's T&Cs.
 
CaptainCrash, if it's riddled with dead or stuck pixels I would agree with you. However, if you like the screen and can't see too much wrong with it, then looking for problems is just going to be something of annoyance when you find one.

At least in the case of a small dead pixel in the corner, that you would never otherwise see.

benwoodcock said:
You have to postage when you retrun under the DSR don't you?
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You do.
 
usually yes. the two times i have sent something back to different places i had to pay postage.
 
I lived with an LG 17" LCD for about 2 years with a stuck red pixel smack bang in the middle of the screen. Even there I didn't notice it apart from when Windows was loading up with the black screen.
 
benwoodcock said:
You have to postage when you retrun under the DSR don't you?
Click to expand...
Yes, you do, provided the retailer makes it explicit in the original contract. It should probably cost around £15-£20 for a 24" monitor in the original packing if you use DHL, and some retailers will collect themselves for less than that if you use their online returns procedure.

Slogan said:
CaptainCrash, if it's riddled with dead or stuck pixels I would agree with you. However, if you like the screen and can't see too much wrong with it, then looking for problems is just going to be something of annoyance when you find one.

At least in the case of a small dead pixel in the corner, that you would never otherwise see.
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That's well and good, but all other things being equal, it would still be better to have a screen without any dead or stuck pixels at all, surely?

If it really doesn't worry you that much though, and you can't be bothered to fanny around returning the monitor and re-ordering (which is quite understandable), then fair enough... :)
 
For me when I got the HP LP2475W I did so knowing they had a zero default pixel policy because as far as I was concerned paying that amount of money for a monitor I should be able to expect no faults. That is perhaps based on experience because once I spotted the red stuck pixels [fairly central] then I couldn't help but keep noticing them and personally found it an annoyance - other people might be able to live with it?!
 
Samsung 172x - 1 stuck red and 1 dead pixels - returned under the distance selling act and replaced with one with none.
Samsung 205BW - 1 dead pixel. 7 days had elapsed before I'd got round to opening the damn thing but managed to obtain a working replacement from unnamed major e-retailer.
Dell S2409W - 2 dead and 1 stuck pixel. Again, didn't manage to open it in time to be eligible for the DSA (from OcUK) but called Dell and managed to get a doorstop replacement with no faulty pixels.
Samsung 32" LCD telly. Absolutely loads. Took it straight back to the shop and got a refund. Still don't have an LCD TV as a result. No loss really!

You could say I've been somewhat unlucky... There is nothing worse than unwrapping and connecting your shiny new screen only to be greeted by small yet prominent imperfections in the display.
 
I got my 40 inch Samsung Xmas eve, After a few hours I noticed around 6 little marks on the screen, I took it as dead pixels & just ignored it as I couldn't see them when a pic was on only when it went blank for a sec when I changed sources.
The othe rday I was doing my housework when i had a clean cloth handy, I gave them a little rub & felt the profile of one. With a little gentle pressure I wiped the 6 marks off my screen, It was Dirt :D
My Samsung came/is Perfect :cool:
 
I got my new NEC 24" 2 weeks ago and it had one dead pixel in the top right corner.
Doesn't bother me and i couldn't be bothered with sending it back under the DSR.
 
I received a B-Grade Hazro HZ26Wi last Thursday for just £435 (nearly £100 than "as new").

The screen looked brand new out of the box, the but it did have 2 stuck pixels...both towards the bottom of the screen and mirror each other being about 1/3 of the width from either edge.

The right-hand one is red and the left is a sub-pixel in green, almost invisible.

In both cases they are off centre and nearly impossible to notice except when the screen is pure black.

The screens backlight is very even and a nice deep black without and backlight bleed so that alone is much more of a reason to retain the screen; I'm not going to return this under DSR.

I would say, these days, it is very unlikely to get a completely 'dead' pixel (i.e. always shows up black) but is somewhat likely to get a 'stuck' pixel on the display somewhere (especially with larger screens that are way over 2MP...it's inevitable).

However, the good news is there are several methods and programmes that can bring these stuck pixels back to life and save the day so it's not always permanent.

I'm currently using a programme called UDpixel that flashes tiny boxes over the bright pixels and might coax them back into life....here's hoping!
 
Slogan said:
One of the best things to do when getting a new monitor is not to look for the dead pixels. If you do, something you may not have noticed will become very annoying and be your point of focus every time you look at it.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that, the first 19" TFT I got I loved until after about 2hrs gaming my wife pointed to a dead pixel right in the centre of the screen!

I hadnt noticed it at all, but once I knew it was there I couldnt "not" see it!

Saying that when I get my BenQ 24" tomorrow, I am going to search it all over for deaduns, just to make sure. The supplier is quite a good guy and will prob swap it out if it comes to it.

As for the likeliness, at work we have ordered around 200 over the past year or so, and I can honestly say I have only seen 2 bad ones. And they were all cheapo ones.
 
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