Discover Hot Pixels on an LCD Screen with Dead Pixel Buddy

You power up your brand new desktop replacement laptop, and settle down with a smug and contented sigh. You haven’t felt this good since “Savage Garden” announced they were splitting up.

A 100 GB hard drive, top of the range processor, and a gorgeous 17 inch widescreen display, this notebook computer is beautiful, and so it should be – You just shelled out the best part of three grand for this puppy…..But wait…..You see a few black spots on the display! – Are these just harmless specks of dust, or is your laptop screen suffering from infamous “Dead Pixel” syndrome?

A dead pixel (or hot pixel) is a pixel that remains unlit on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen, or black, when they should be displaying a color. Webopedia describe this better:

“…..All pixels on an LCD display are made from three separate subpixels, one red, one green and one blue-that when combined form the colors that the users see on the monitor. A dead pixel occurs when the transistor that activates the amount of light that shows through all three subpixels malfunctions and results in a permanently black pixel…..”

So how do you know whether your notebook screen has dead pixels, or if it simply needs cleaning with water and a soft lint free cloth?

That’s where your friendly “Dead Pixel Buddy” comes in.

The resourceful chaps over at Laptop Showcase, have created free software to test your LCD screen for hot pixels.

This program runs through the red, green and blue colours on your LCD screen in turn and checks for pixels that do not match.

Check out – Dead Pixel Buddy

if you find more than a few, or discover one right in the center of your display, perhaps then it’s time to contact your notebook’s manufacturer and discover their dead pixel policy.

By Todd Gold – Laptopical

Friday, July 15, 2005