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How common are dead/stuck pixels in MacBook Pros?

Do you have any dead/stuck pixels on your MBP?

  • My MBP DOES NOT have any dead/stuck pixels.

    Votes: 105 81.4%

  • My MBP has dead/stuck pixel(s).

    Votes: 24 18.6%
  • Total voters
    129
pcguru83

pcguru83

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 13, 2006
583
0
Charlotte, NC
Well, it's that time again for me--time to get a new laptop! I'll be going this afternoon to pick up a new MBP. While generally a good experience, I hate buying new laptops or displays because of the pixel issue. I CAN NOT handle dead/stuck pixels--I'm just too much of a perfectionist. They drive me crazy.

So, the question is easy. Did you have any stuck pixels on your MBP?
 
I have owned at least 5 Apple laptops in the past and none had dead or stuck pixels. The only time I have seen an Apple product with it is when I went to a buddies house and he had picked up the new 30" ACD when it first came out, that had one small stuck pixel in the bottom left corner.

Other than that, not even the ones at the store that I have seen had one. Lately with the newer laptops, Apple or Windows, stuck pixels seem to be far and between from what I have seen at my repair shop.
 
First batch MBP, no dead pixels.

In my four 'modern' LCD Macs, I have had zero dead pixels. A Lombard G3, an original iBook, a first rev 12" PowerBook G4, and a first batch MacBook Pro. No dead pixels, all are still in use.

In my collection of older Macs, among the notebooks, the only ones with even one dead pixel have serious problems. My PowerBook 100 has a batch of dead pixels just off center, apparently from being hit; and a PowerBook 5300cs has a nearly dead LCD (the top 1/4 doesn't work at all, and the bottom 3/4 works only sporadically.)
 
Wow, results sound promising. I'm glad this is something I shouldn't have to worry about.

As for waiting, I'm unfortunately well aware that a new revision is just around the corner. I'm not one to generally wait for these types of things. Not to mention I've been without a second computer for too long now as it is. I can't really afford to go much longer at this point.
 
pcguru83 said:
Wow, results sound promising. I'm glad this is something I shouldn't have to worry about.

As for waiting, I'm unfortunately well aware that a new revision is just around the corner. I'm not one to generally wait for these types of things. Not to mention I've been without a second computer for too long now as it is. I can't really afford to go much longer at this point.
Click to expand...

I hate to be the one to burst the positivity bubble on this one... But I had two macbooks (white) with stuck pixels. One had three in the top left, the other had one dead center. It's luck of the draw with these things. But there are more panels without them than with them, so luck is on your side. Oh, btw, I have a new MBP C2D (about 4 months old), and it has one stuck on red just left of center. The first month, i obsessed over it...now, i never even notice it. I love my MBP!
 
island said:
I have owned at least 5 Apple laptops in the past and none had dead or stuck pixels.
Click to expand...
Same here. I've gone through 5 15" Apple laptops in the last year-and-a-half (granted, 3 were returned reasonably quick for other issues) and haven't run into any with stuck pixels.
 
Anthony8720 said:
I hate to be the one to burst the positivity bubble on this one... But I had two macbooks (white) with stuck pixels. One had three in the top left, the other had one dead center. It's luck of the draw with these things. But there are more panels without them than with them, so luck is on your side. Oh, btw, I have a new MBP C2D (about 4 months old), and it has one stuck on red just left of center. The first month, i obsessed over it...now, i never even notice it. I love my MBP!
Click to expand...

Sounds like bad luck.
 
I have no dead or stuck pixels on my MacBook Pro and I have never had a dead or stuck pixel on an Apple laptop in the past either. You shouldn't have anything to worry about as far as that goes.
 
Anthony8720 said:
It's luck of the draw with these things. But there are more panels without them than with them, so luck is on your side.
Click to expand...
I think you're right on.

Stuck/dead pixels do happen on MBPs -- there's more than one thread about that. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often. :)
 
Occasional annoyance, but increasingly rare these days I'd say, regardless of brand.

My 1st-gen 17" MBP has none, my older 20" ACD has none, nor do either of the Intel iMacs at work, or the G5 iMacs at work either. For that matter, I just installed 5 19" ViewSonic monitors, none of which had any bad pixels.

In fact, I can only think of three LCDs with bad pixels out of the roughly 40 I've set up for people over the past three or four years. One was a cheap older Dell 15", one was a G3 PowerBook that developed a small stripe in one corner after several years of rough use, and the third was my DS, if that even counts.
 
i voted no, i dont have them.

my 2.16 mbp had about 40 stuck/dead pixels upon getting home. it was hilarious. i went to the genius bar (after calling applecare same day as purchase, getting case number...) the first genuis just "couldnt see it".

the 2nd genius asked if he was blind. i could not believe the first guy said he didnt see it. I was so close to smacking him. he was being an ass.
 
One of my previous mbp SR that I had there was no dead/stuck pixels but I swear I checked it throughly and there was no dead/stuck pixels but after a few hours later I rechecked and to my surprise that there was one dead pixel on the left side of the screen clearly visible... This is why even though I dont see any dead/stuck pixels after you first boot up the laptop.. I make sure its a full 24 hours of no dead/stuck pixel and I'm in the clear..

So far this mbp I had for a few days has no dead/stuck pixel.. just checked it again a couple hours ago for the final test..

But then it has 1 problem where the green led on the magsafe doesnt turn on sometimes even though the mbp is charging fine.. the dead/stuck pixel, vertical banding light problems are the reason why I dont want to get it exchanged.
 
I have to say, despite issues with illumination, yellowing, bruising, etc. I have yet to see ANY macbook/macbook pro lcd with any dead pixels.

I'm not talking about vertical lines, etc. i'm talking black or stuck pixels in the picture that do not change color.
 
e12a said:
I have to say, despite issues with illumination, yellowing, bruising, etc. I have yet to see ANY macbook/macbook pro lcd with any dead pixels.

I'm not talking about vertical lines, etc. i'm talking black or stuck pixels in the picture that do not change color.
Click to expand...

well do you know if you can help me I mean mine aren't dead a sixth of my screen is blue. Like little parts near the left corners. What should I do, since I'm a giant perfectionist.
 
You could try posting up a picture of the screen so i could get a better idea of what your problem is.
 
I don't think mine has any. But then again I don’t really notice those kinds of things. So, I guess I’m not going to help much. Is it really easy to tell if you have one? I’m not really concerned about it but for the sake of the poll I will check.
 
LeahM said:
I don't think mine has any. But then again I don’t really notice those kinds of things. So, I guess I’m not going to help much. Is it really easy to tell if you have one? I’m not really concerned about it but for the sake of the poll I will check.
Click to expand...

It depends on whether it's a dead pixel or stuck pixel and if it's a stuck pixel it can be stuck on a different color so you may only see it with certain colored backgrounds. Personally I don't obsess any more with looking for dead/stuck pixels when I buy my laptop. I focus more on testing the screen for other issues like with the MBP you would look for the yellowing tint problem or something else like that. Dead/stuck pixels can always happen later on down the road so unless you've got some you actually notice on your own there's really not a lot of point in going crazy spending time looking to see if you can possibly find one somewhere.
 
My MBP does not have any stuck/dead pixels...but a the first 15" 1.67 Powerbook I bought 2.5 years ago did and I had it replaced immediately.
 
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