CDRLabs.com

i'm about to buy a new LCD screen.
i'm concerned about the dead pixels issue.

1st thing wanted to ask: anyone know of a utility that helps me detect them? some program the shows patterns on the screen or blank screens of various colors to help me find if there are any?

next, i was told that it's often the case that the monitor may have no dead pixels out of the box but they 'develop' during the first few hours or days of usage. thus checking the screen in the store for dead pixels is problematic (=useless?) since they can/do appear later.

any help, info tips etc. very welcome.
TIA

Dead Pixel Tester

If you're that much worried about dead pixels consider only class 1 LCD monitor which shouldn't have any dead pixel + you've got warranty on any visible defects...

Dead Pixel Buddy, Dead Pixel Tester, MonitorTest, all have options to help.

Dead Pixel Tester (IIRC) also allows you to attempt to revive a dead pixel by repeatedly turning the pixels in a section of your screen (a user-selectable square region of a couple inches in size) on and off, in an attempt to un-stick a pixel.

My Dell 2007WFP came with one pixel stuck on blue. I couldn't revive it. It was tiny, but I decided I wanted the 2407WFP anyway and traded up during the 21-day satisfaction period.

It's been said that most dead pixels will be discovered within the first few weeks of the monitor and, beyond that, rarely will a pixel ever go dead/stuck on you during the warranty period. Obviously, everyone's experience will vary, but I've found this to be true for me. None of the other LCD's I've had have suddenly cropped up w/ a dead pixel after years of use. I actually had a single stuck pixel (red) on one of my laptops which eventually went away after about a week.

Over the past 8 years or so, I've owned a 15" Viewsonic LCD, two 19" Samsungs, and four 20" Samsungs. The only dead pixels I had were only on the last 20" Samsung I bought this past October, and I noticed it immediately after setting up.

I literally called them the same day it arrived, and their policy is if you have a defect of any kind, reported within the first 30 days, they will replace it with a brand new one for free. And they cover shipping both ways, so I didn't even have to return it to ZipZoomFly and pay my own shipping. There was a slight fiasco with Samsung about stock and miscommunication that I won't get in to, but it's been sorted out and I'm now waiting for my replacement to arrive. They never asked how many dead pixels there were or anything (presumably because I reported the problem immediately).

I would think if you went with a major LCD manufacturer/vendor (Dell, Viewsonic, Samsung, etc), you'd have the same sort of guarantees available to you. Sure, you'd be paying a bit more, but you'd also be buying that extra bit of customer service/"insurance" when things go wrong.