So, you just bought a brand new 40-inch LCD TV that you’ve always wanted as your computer monitor, the display for your game consoles and even for your home theater. After installing the system completely, you turn it on and you start watching or playing. After a few hours or days, you notice a dot or a couple of dots on your screen that looks like dirt. But then, you find out that it’s a dead pixel. You then take your TV to your dealer but they declined warranty because you only have 1 or 2 or even 3 dead pixels. You get frustrated but then you realize they are right. How to these companies apply warranty for dead pixel on LCD TVs?
What is dead pixel? As you may know, your monitor displays pixels or dots and each of them can display colors and when these pixels combine together they form an image which is what you see on your screens. If you have a 1024×768 display resolution, it shows 768,432 pixels all in all.
Dead pixels are those that are not functioning normally or not functioning at all. Sometimes you see them as black dots (usually it’s functioning anymore) or it just displays one color. It’s actually alright if you have just 1 since it is not that noticeable. However, if there are more than 10, it will be pretty annoying.
Finding out if your display has a dead pixel is quite easy. Just open up your note pad and keep it blank. If there is a dead pixel, you’ll be able to see it. Make sure that your panel is clean. It may just be dirt. However, if it doesn’t go away after wiping it off, it most likely is a dead pixel. You can actually try different colored backgrounds and the dead pixel will still show up. Check out the image I provided. See the dead pixel at the center?
You probably are asking, what if you buy a branded and a much more expensive monitor? Will it have no or less dead pixel? Well, I can’t say for sure but there’s probably a chance that you’d have better quality hardware with branded ones compared to cheaper ones. We may say so because they use quality parts. However, there may be a possibility you’ll get dead pixels even on very expensive monitors.
Fixing a dead pixel is possible. I’ve had an LCD monitor with one dead pixel and one of the most common ways, after I searched through the internet, is to bombard the pixel with different colors with the hopes of resetting it. It doesn’t work for everyone though since it didn’t work on mine.
Warranty information depends on the brand and sometimes the model. One thing that you shouldn’t forget to ask is how many dead pixels it takes before the monitor can be replaced. Sometimes only 1 dead pixel is enough for a replacement but sometimes they may even require 5 or more.
Other factors should follow suit such as the warranty period, parts and services covered. But if you’ll ask me, shouldn’t it be fair that a single dead pixel is enough for a replacement? It’s still a defect and if it appears within the warranty period, why not replace it? Always be careful in buying monitors. It’s best to ask for feedback about a certain brand or model. But sometimes, it does happen that we get unlucky and get that single dead pixel on our screen. So before you buy it, test it.
Source:
Wikipedia – Liquid Crystal Display
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display