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Dead pixels resurrect themselves?

L

lockerc18

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 17, 2012
553
209
A friend of mine got an iPhone 6 Plus from Target the other day. The sales person got it all activated on AT&T, and then took it out of the box. It had a circle of dead pixels on the upper portion of the screen, about the size of a thumbprint. He could have exchanged it for a new phone right then, if they'd had one in stock, but they didn't. The sales guy told him that he could bring it to an Apple store and get a replacement that way. It was late in the evening, so he figured he'd do that the next day.

Well... after he'd had the phone turned on for a while, the pixels came back to life. The display seemed OK for the rest of the evening. He turned it off, and the next morning when he turned it back on again, the pixels were still OK.

My question is... how could that many pixels be dead, and then start working again? I didn't ask if there was a temperature kind of thing at work here. But the real question is, are the pixels really OK now, or is there a chance they'll die again sometime in the future?
 
I have seen hot and dead pixels come and go so I guess it is possible yet rare to have multiple pixels that all of a sudden go away. Tell you frined to keep an eye out but I would keep it.
 
In the fashion you mentioned the pixels weren't dead. Dead pixels are turned off and appear black on a white surface and are not visible on a black surface. Also dead pixels don't come back to life, only stuck pixels do. The ones that are stuck on a red, green or blue color.

It may have been just a flaw with iOS8. There has been some reported bugs. What he should do just to be safe is completely restore the phone. Not "reset", but restore as in erasing and reinstalling iOS8. Give it a couple of days and see how the screen reacts. If he sees this happening again then he should take it to the Apple store for a replacement.
 
Dead/hot pixels have been known to "revive" from time to time. There are different methods for doing it. with a flexible display (not iPhone displays though) it's possible (but risky) to "massage" pixels back to life. Another method is to "exercise" them until they start responding.

It's possible that the pixels were "stuck" and later began working again with use. If the pixels are working fine now, there's a good chance they'll stay that way. Fortunately you've got a year to worry about that.

Might want to consider AppleCare+ though.
 
I've had numerous dead/stuck pixels on various devices and never had one fix itself
 
I had 2 individual pixels that weren't operational on my Plus. However, after a week they are now operational. Sometimes I think the screen just needs to get "broken in" for lack of a better term.




:apple:
 
This is so funny.

My friend didn't make it up. He saw what he thought were dead pixels on his display, and they started working again. He's no display engineer, so perhaps he didn't explain this specifically accurately. But there was a large grouping of pixels on his display that didn't work, and then they did.

There seem to be a number of folks here who think that it couldn't have happened, because it never happened to them. Well... it did.

Could it have been an IOS8 bug? Maybe. Could it have been pixels that just got stuck? Well, I don't know. They aren't mechanical like that. I'd think a strong, focused temperature differential might be able to do that, but who knows. These are LCDs, so perhaps the viscosity of the liquid crystals got too thick because they were cold and needed to warm up to work. No idea really.

But that's why I asked here, because there are people here who do have the background that I don't, who might know what happened. And, more importantly, might know if it could happen again, and again, to the point where the display needs replacing.

I got a 6 Plus, too, and the screen is immaculate. Which I believe is the case with almost everyone else who got one. Display issues like the ones my friend saw are exceedingly rare. I couldn't find anything on the web about this particular situation.

My friend is just going to keep the phone and hope this doesn't happen again. After all the nonsense he had to go through to finally get the phone, I can understand why he is just sick and tired of the Apple stupidity with pre-orders and launch day issues and all the rest, and he just doesn't want to get immersed in that again.
 
Dead pixels, no.
Stuck pixels, sometimes.

For the latter, there are also apps/webpages that can help you "bomb" the stuck pixels with constant blacks/whites that might help the stuck pixels to unstuck, but there are no guarantees.
 
antonis said:
Dead pixels, no.
Stuck pixels, sometimes.

For the latter, there are also apps/webpages that can help you "bomb" the stuck pixels with constant blacks/whites that might help the stuck pixels to unstuck, but there are no guarantees.
Click to expand...
Ah, right, I remember something about that. I'll let him know.

Thanks!
 
It CAN happen. It's also exceedingly rare.

I would guess he may have saw some residual pressure point on the screen or something else, as it would be VERY lucky for a large group to all just start working simulataneously. Again, it's possible, just unlikely.

I too have had bad pixels and have never been able to fix them. I've tried the websites, apps, and youtube videos to no avail.

Anything is possible. Your friend is lucky if that's what really happened!
 
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