Fake dead pixel

[next]

Hi all, i'd like to comment this with you maybe you have any suggestions:

I suddenly found a dead pixel on my screen which i just realized is fake! How can this be possible?? Let me tell you about it.

I'm the creator of imaclines.blogspot.com. To those who don't know, early 2006 imacs had manufacturing problems on the screen panels on certain iMac models.

Until they agreed to repair my mac, vertical dead pixel lines were multiplying on my screen rendering it useless one at a time. Apple eventually agreed to repair my mac free of charge, but i had already bought a 2nd display. They repaired it by 2008 and it worked great until a couple of months ago when I found a dead pixel on my screen.

My setup is like this:

iMac on the left + 2º monitor on the right acting as the main screen (since it's bigger).

So this is how i realized it's a fake dead pixel!

1) It shines ok during boot.
2) It's definitely not dead on Windows through bootcamp
3) Black filling of the mouse pointer turns it off (however placing a 100% black image behind it doesn't).
4) It shows if I make a screen capture!

What happens if I align different my 2 screens? The dead pixel moves! yes, it changes position.

So i'm having difficulties to fix this. I tried cmd+opt+p+r, i tried OnyX... and none worked.

What's making this pixel show in such an odd position??

Thanx!

 

[Ppq]

I would clone the screen onto 2nd screen an put it in front of iMac. Solved.

 

[next]

yes, and it's even easier to put the mac on the right and the 2nd screen on its left, but that's my last resort if i can't find a solution leaving everything as is.

it doesn't kill me (i was even getting used to the vertical lines 4 years ago) but it could certainly go away

 

[ifraaank]

4) It shows if I make a screen capture!

Please make a screen capture then! Seems odd...

 

[brand]

Perhaps you don't know the definition of dead. It is either a dead pixel or it is not a dead pixel. You just thought that the pixel was playin' possum?

Dead or stuck pixels do not show up on screen captures.

 

[pubjoe]

Er I think that's why he's asking about it and called it a "fake" dead pixel. He said it looks like a dead pixel but it can't be due to those tests.

It does sound strange. I guess the LCD is fine but the graphics card is rendering it for some reason. Where is it? On the desktop or menu item? Perhaps the speck is included on the image file due to file corruption? A screenshot would help. Attach one of your screen capture images that show it.

 

[next]

here are a few attachments

1a my alignment properties
1b screen cap on this alignment

2a changed alignment
2b screencap shows "fake dead pixel" moves

3 how my screens align on my desk

 

[next]

(continue)


4 booting, no dead pixel

5 finished booting, still thinking

6 finished loading, dead pixel appears

7 dead pixel turns to black when arrow is over it (but not when a black image is placed behind)

 

[balamw]

here are a few attachments

1a my alignment properties
1b screen cap on this alignment

2a changed alignment
2b screencap shows "fake dead pixel" moves

3 how my screens align on my desk

Dead or stuck pixels do not show up on screen captures.

As brand said, dead pixels shouldn't show up in your screencaps as the video card thinks it displayed it correctly. Since whatever this is shows up in some screencaps, it must be some oddity of the video driver or other software/firmware.

Can you close all running apps. Does it still appear?

B

 

[next]

Can you close all running apps. Does it still appear?

i know it's not a dead pixel, it just looks like one and it acts like one, only that it isn't... ha! that's why i called it a fake dead pixel.

Once the system fully loaded, it's there forever. Whether I open thousands of apps (which i wouldn't try on an early 2006 mac -- (core duo, 1gb ram) or no apps

 

[hughcanbefound]

Hi OP,

I had this exact same problem, and the Geniuses I spoke to at my local Store weren't much help. I diagnosed it but have completely forgotten the reason behind it or how I fixed in permanently.

The pixel will also disappear when you do Exposé, right?

Try Force Quitting System UI Server and letting it restart. Any change? Try logging into a Guest account. Still there?

Hope that's of some help.

EDIT: Btw, it was in exactly the same position on my external display.

EDIT 2: Also, it was using a MacBook Pro. It's 100% a software issue. Pretty sure it disappeared when I upgraded to 10.8.

 

[balamw]

That's why I'm suspicious of some piece of software that may be creating a stray 1x1 px windows or something like that that looks like a stuck pixel in the grand scheme of things.

My 2006 iMac occasionally does strange stuff with the video card when it is cold booted in the cold, but otherwise is going strong.

B

 

[next]

Hi OP,

I had this exact same problem, and the Geniuses I spoke to at my local Store weren't much help. I diagnosed it but have completely forgotten the reason behind it or how I fixed in permanently.

The pixel will also disappear when you do Exposé, right?

Try Force Quitting System UI Server and letting it restart. Any change? Try logging into a Guest account. Still there?

Hope that's of some help.

EDIT: Btw, it was in exactly the same position on my external display.

I don't have guest accounts active, but the moment i closed my user session and it prompted for my pass, the pixel went off. Now that i'm back it's right there.

It's in some system layer (lower than the pointer) and higher than icons & dragged icons and windows.

 

[hughcanbefound]

I don't have guest accounts active, but the moment i closed my user session and it prompted for my pass, the pixel went off. Now that i'm back it's right there.

It's in some system layer (lower than the pointer) and higher than icons & dragged icons and windows.

What third party menubar items do you have running? And did you try force quitting SystemUIServer as a whole?

 

[next]

EDIT 2: Also, it was using a MacBook Pro. It's 100% a software issue. Pretty sure it disappeared when I upgraded to 10.8.

i'm on snow leopard, that's as many updates as it can deal with. Lion and mountain lion require 64bit processors

----------

What third party menubar items do you have running? And did you try force quitting SystemUIServer as a whole?

only program that boots with my mac is smc fan control to speed my fans. it's noisier but summers in Spain are extremely hot


Force quitted SystemUIServer and nothing changed, sadly

 

[next]

i activated guest accounts and can confirm the dead pixel doesn't appear there... now what?

 

[mchoffa]

i activated guest accounts and can confirm the dead pixel doesn't appear there... now what?

I'd make a new account, make it admin, copy your stuff over there, then remove the first account

 

[SR20DETDOG]

I can't be of much help sorry, but I just thought I would chime in as I had the same problem with a "fake" stuck pixel.

It was a single white pixel on my 2nd display that went away when I put the mouse over it and was also in the exact same position as yours. However, I seem to be lucky and mine fixed itself some how, I don't see it anymore at least.

 

[Lucianrider]

I'd make a new account, make it admin, copy your stuff over there, then remove the first account

Sounds like a plan to me!!! A hell of a lot easier than trying to chase an itinerant pixel around the screen.. LOL!

 

[tuxedobyrd]

The fix

Anyone reading in 2013/2014 running Mavericks (and worth a try with earlier OS), I wrote about the deceptively simple solution here: http://forums.macworld.com/index.php?/topic/153791-dead-pixel-or-something-else/

Basically, in display preferences try moving the menu bar (that small white rectangle on the arrangement screen back and forth...that's it.

 

[myuserid08]

Dead pixel ?

 

[Bentleyonthego]

**My dead pixel was on the primary screen, since i was using a macbook pro**

So I know this response is from a posting a while ago. But I had a similiar issue with my Mac at the time.
Randomly I ended up doing this, cause i had alot of other issues with my devices at the time and came across that the pixel was fake after finding out it was some sort of weird way to disconnect a network connection that was happening to my macbook.

I booted the device into network mode. the network symbol showed up. But I ended up booting to network mode not by the standard method (ctrl n i believe), but by holding P+N+Y keys. (I did this because i booted to recovery, and saw all the weird keyboards that had showed up on my recovery system. And some had letters after them all caps like Portugael/Brazil had BNT2 next to it. Dont ask me why I held those keys when booting, it just felt like something I should try). So when i did that, it booted me to the network boot, or what looked like network boot screen, the difference was between this and the normal screen, I had a mouse control. So I used the mouse, randomly clicked on the dead pixel. Boom it said on screen, Network Disconnected, and the dead pixel disappeared after that. I have no idea why it was happening, and why it disguised itself as a dead pixel, seems like it must be some sort of virus, malware, spyware, etc. I know that Mac didn't design there system like that.
[doublepost=1519938559][/doublepost]This probably already was said, but being able to see a dead pixel on the screenshots you provided proves it wasn't a real dead pixel but something else. A real dead pixel is a hardware issue, and doesn't pass over to the operating system, that is just silly. But since it did show on the screenshot, and a screenshot is a shot of what the operating system actually has, it proves that the dead pixel was hard coded into the operating system. As for why it was done, since it also happened to me, I wonder why and what it could be and how it got there.

Hit me up, even though this happened a while ago, what you ended up doing, what issues you may have noticed, or any other bit of info. (the reason it took me so long to post is partly cause I didn't know how to google a "fake dead pixel" and not come up with a bunch of other dead pixels on random devices response).

Thanks,

Bentley

info@bentleyonthego.com

 

[Bentleyonthego]

Perhaps you don't know the definition of dead. It is either a dead pixel or it is not a dead pixel. You just thought that the pixel was playin' possum?

Dead or stuck pixels do not show up on screen captures.

Ya, thats the thing, I know what the guy is going through. And I have a B.S. in I.T. and spent over ten years in tech support, two of those years being exclusive to Mac OS desktop support, Mac Server support and installation, and iOS systems and apps. I love to help people with computer issues, problem solving someones issue using what they have as known issues and ways the system is acting up. When it comes to understanding the "fake dead pixel" seems like exactly that, you see it and it just seems like it is a single pixel on your screen that is dead, or always white always there, from the boot screen to shutdown it is always there, so it seems totally like a dead pixel. Most basic users wouldn't notice it at all, it was just pure luck even figured it out that it was fake, I had mac issues personally and it just randomly came together for me to find out it was fake. Its weird, and if it didn't happen to me, I would be just like you, its either dead or its not. But thats what the "fake dead pixel" is doing, playing possum. ( i replied earlier on main thread on how i got "rid of it")

 

[kudos212]

.

 

[Bentleyonthego]

.

Lol at least someone saw this, even if there response was just "."