TFT's and dead pixels

Soldato
Joined
25 Mar 2004
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2,885
Location
Iwade, Kent
Hi Chaps,

Just bought a pair of reject TFT's for my workstation that have a few dead/dodgy pixels (was well aware of before purchase).

Untill now I've always known dead pixels as to be blue specs on the screen however now I have some green specs too which are much more obvious than the blue ones. Are these green specs totaly dead pixels too? Is there anything I can do to make them blue perhaps as apposed to lime green :p

Cheers
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Nov 2005
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Location
Doon the Bay (Newcastle)
Raymond Lin said:
colour pixels are not dead, but "stuck". Dead pixels are usually black, each pixel is made up of 3 sub pixels, red blue and green. So yours is stuck in blue, if its dead it would be black.

Is this where you give them a light massage to get them working again?
 

Dup

Dup

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Posts
11,225
Location
East Lancs
Nice info! This thread should be made a sticky.

I've seen stuck pixels revive themselves on my dads tft, but they're just as likely to come back too.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
12 Jan 2003
Posts
20,564
Location
UK
Dup said:
Nice info! This thread should be made a sticky.

I've seen stuck pixels revive themselves on my dads tft, but they're just as likely to come back too.

no need, there's already a section in the sticky about them ;)

Q. What's the situation with Dead Pixels and can I bring them back to life?

A. 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.

link there to the program to try. You might have some luck massaging / flicking pixels if they are lazy sub pixels (red / blue / green). If they're black or white they are fully dead pixels and you won't have much luck i don't think.
 
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