Bright Pixel on Light Colored Backgrounds

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Level 1

17 points

Bright Pixel on Light Colored Backgrounds

Hi fellow Mac Friends,

I have a quick question for you all that has been bugging me for over a month. I recently bought a Mac Book Pro and it came with a beautiful LCD screen with no issues. A few weeks after I bought it, it developed the awful whine that everyone was talking about. I took it to the Apple Store and they fixed it within a couple of days.

Great!

However when I got it back, a week later I noticed that now something was wrong with one of my pixels. The pixel is not stuck (Red/Green/Blue) nor is it dead (black or off) as far as I know. The pixel is bright but not all of the time. It is only abnormally bright on light colored surfaces and its brightest against white. Now as you know, most web pages have nice white backgrounds so this is painfully annoying. Emotionaly its hard to swallow after I just dropped so much money but the the impefection is painfully clear.

Despite my feelings on the subject, I was hoping someone else might provide some information on this. Is this a "dead" pixel? Or a "stuck" pixel? Or is this something fixable. I have tried all of the stuck pixel programs out there but I don't believe this is a dead or stuck pixel.

I have heard the term "hot" pixel but then I would assume that this pixel would burn white in all situations including dark backgrounds.

If there is any information out there that someone might know on this subject, I would greatly appreciate it!

Yours Truly,
Rilely

MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.16, Mac OS X (10.4.7), Brand New LapTop

Posted on Sep 3, 2006 1:22 PM

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Answer 1

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Sep 3, 2006 10:46 PM in response to Rilely

It sounds like one of the RGB sub-pixels is missing some or all of it's color filter layer. That is the only way for a "whiter than white" pixel to happen. If that is the defect, there is nothing you can do about it except try and get Apple to replace it under warranty.

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Answer 2

Rilely Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 4, 2006 11:34 AM in response to BSteely

Well, would this mean that the pixel would not be able to utilize RGB colors as well? Because I am able to see nothing in dark backgrounds etc.

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Answer 3

BSteely

Level 5

7,643 points

Sep 4, 2006 7:20 PM in response to Rilely

Right, that particular pixel would not be able to render all the colors. With dark backgrounds, the pixels are shuttered and not passing light. So even the sub-pixel where the color filter material has chipped off will not be illuminated and showing brightly. It will only be for certain colors and white where the brighter-than-bright pixel will show. You should be able to use a test program and determine which sub-pixel, R, G or B, has the missing color. Just put up successively an all red, all green and all blue screen. One of those screens should have a white pixel. If, for instance, the red screen has the white pixel, then it is the red sub-pixel that is missing it's color filter layer for that particular pixel. Here is a link to my favorite freeware program that can provide the required test patterns:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23237

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Answer 4

Rilely Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 5, 2006 3:30 PM in response to BSteely

Thanks for the help.

So I used the program and as I thought the brigher pixel happens with all colors except for black. Perhaps the RGB is dead for every single one? I wish Apple could fix things like this instead of leaving their consumers dead in the water no matter how much warranty they spend good money on.

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