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I have a double agent pixel!

cooknwitha

cooknwitha

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 5, 2005
562
0
London
Now I know I'm not going crazy. Honest. But when I first got my Powerbook, there was one dead pixel. If not then it was stuck on a dark colour. Now, 4 days later it is stuck as a green pixel.

Is this normal? Does this mean it could be coming "unstuck" or is it just messing with my head?
 
in some other threads people recommended CAREFULLY rubbing around a stuck or dead pixel to get it to work again. somebody said they do that even at apple. luckily i never had to try that. but it indicates that a dead pixel is not dead forever. your's may be one of those.

but they said "carefully" rub around that pixel. you could give it a try.
 
andiwm2003 said:
in some other threads people recommended CAREFULLY rubbing around a stuck or dead pixel to get it to work again. somebody said they do that even at apple. luckily i never had to try that. but it indicates that a dead pixel is not dead forever. your's may be one of those.

but they said "carefully" rub around that pixel. you could give it a try.
Click to expand...

there's dead pixels (no light whatso ever) and then there is "stuck pixels" stuck pixels often times become unstuck, with a gentle rub as suggested above. or they will even work themselves out occasionaly
 
punkbass25 said:
then there is "stuck pixels" stuck pixels often times become unstuck, with a gentle rub as suggested above.
Click to expand...
Has anyone ever actually seen this work? I've heard this suggested a million times but its never worked on any stuck pixels I've tried it out on and I've never spoken to anyone who's actually seen this firsthand. I think that this repair tek should be placed firmly in the 'urban myth' category until someone can come up with direct evidence that this works, or even why.
 
Johnny Rico said:
Has anyone ever actually seen this work? I've heard this suggested a million times but its never worked on any stuck pixels I've tried it out on and I've never spoken to anyone who's actually seen this firsthand. I think that this repair tek should be placed firmly in the 'urban myth' category until someone can come up with direct evidence that this works, or even why.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I've encountered many stuck pixels on both my and other's computers and NEVER have I resolved them using the "rubbing" method. I think this urban myth was started to stall users from trying to return their computers on time.
 
I had a dead pixel on a laptop once. I was turning it into a digital picture frame.

After taking it to pieces, I checked everything still worked, and to my amazement, the dead pixel was back again! I thought it was just luck, but this makes more sense :rolleyes: .

good luck with your screen!
 
Johnny Rico said:
Has anyone ever actually seen this work? I've heard this suggested a million times but its never worked on any stuck pixels I've tried it out on and I've never spoken to anyone who's actually seen this firsthand. I think that this repair tek should be placed firmly in the 'urban myth' category until someone can come up with direct evidence that this works, or even why.
Click to expand...

i have seen this work on a Sony monitor and on my Apple powerbook (pismo 500mhz G3). using a clean eraserhead is the best idea, and you may need to keep at it for a few minutes.
 
Look here. for two apps. found with HypperJeff.net.
PiXel Check and Pixinator are two standalone free/open license applications that duplicate the one found on the hardware test CD. Others exist, but I like these two. At least you will see what gates are stuck and if you have at least fixed one of them, if there are multiple gates stuck per pixel.

I wouldn't recommend using an eraser, I remove pencil marks from the flat screens at work, and erasers always leave residue. Cleaner dosn't always remove the marks, so I have used a soft gum eraser. A good optical grade cleaning cloth should surface. -[EDIT] But seeing as somebody that has done it used an eraser, then I would go with that.

I think that the return threshold is any 7 pixels on a screen that are bad (any but not all gates stuck) or dead on the screen, and 5 in a row. I am looking for the Apple technical article. I know I saw it.
 
Run this overnight over the pixel area. Make sure the screen isn't set to go to sleep!

Worked for me!

http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.MP4 <-control click and save, DON'T CLICK, you'll just get data.
Feel free to eat up all my bandwidth everyone... :rolleyes:
 
ITASOR said:
Run this overnight over the pixel area. Make sure the screen isn't set to go to sleep!

Worked for me!

http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.MP4 <-control click and save, DON'T CLICK, you'll just get data.
Feel free to eat up all my bandwidth everyone... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

And this could possibly fix it? I'm not going to wake up one morning with a square of dead pixels or anything? :)
 
I'm starting to think this pixel is just "confused" about its identity. It's gone from black to green to red. Using that mp4, on Red and Blue it's a Green pixel and when it's on Green, it's a Red pixel.

I'll be a caring parent for it whichever it chooses to be but right now it's having one serious identity crisis.
 
cooknwitha said:
I'm starting to think this pixel is just "confused" about its identity. It's gone from black to green to red. Using that mp4, on Red and Blue it's a Green pixel and when it's on Green, it's a Red pixel.

I'll be a caring parent for it whichever it chooses to be but right now it's having one serious identity crisis.
Click to expand...

Sounds kina bi to me.
 
cooknwitha said:
And this could possibly fix it? I'm not going to wake up one morning with a square of dead pixels or anything? :)
Click to expand...

I've heard like 1 person say it gave them more stuck pixels, but it never has for me. It worked on 3 out of 4 pixels I tried it on.

As for the widescreen version, if you have Photoshop and Imageready, just use Imageready animation to flash the colors with a 0 second delay. You're only supposed to run it in the area of the pixel, not the whole screen...lol

This works because it calls to the pixels really fast and whacks them into shape.

To the OP: Did you try running this thing all night?

Hmm I just opened the video and I don't remember this. Why is there a little black pixel looking thing in the top left...lol I don't remember that being there, oh well. And yes, it's on the video not my screen, look for yourself.

This seriously works though, giveit a try. It's really popular with PSP's as they have a lot of dead pixels. Just tell it to loop in Quicktime.

Goodluck!
 
Johnny Rico said:
Has anyone ever actually seen this work? I've heard this suggested a million times but its never worked on any stuck pixels I've tried it out on and I've never spoken to anyone who's actually seen this firsthand. I think that this repair tek should be placed firmly in the 'urban myth' category until someone can come up with direct evidence that this works, or even why.
Click to expand...
Yep, it worked for me. I had a stuck pixel once. I massaged it gently with the back of my fingernail and it came back to life.
 
I am an AppleCare Certified tech, and I work for a local reseller, and apple explicitly says, "DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN TO FIX A STUCK PIXEL" apple has an exeptable amount of dead/stuck pixels on there products
 
I got my mac about 3 months ago.
And until I found this site I never knew a thing such as dead pixels existed.
Then, horror or horrors I found not 1, not 2, but 3 dead pixels on my shiny new mac. :eek:
I wanted to cry.
(purchased my mac in the US and Apple here apparently get very snotty if you've purchased your hardware overseas - or so I've heard.)

So I read this thread with some interest and downloaded Pixel Check v1.2.
I ran the app it and it cofirmed my worst fear, yup 3 dead pixels.

I used a radtech cloth and rubbed the area gently and Presto!!
Working pixels.
Fabulous!
:big grin:
 
lisius_kent said:
I am an AppleCare Certified tech, and I work for a local reseller, and apple explicitly says, "DO NOT TOUCH THE SCREEN TO FIX A STUCK PIXEL" apple has an exeptable amount of dead/stuck pixels on there products
Click to expand...


Yeah thats what all techs say, but tapping it or rubbing it does sometimes fix the pixels connection. I have never seen damage from a screen from tapping or rubbing gently. Heck I have banged on some and have never damaged them.
 
I just ran that video on a DELL junky laptop and it god rid of a clump of dead pixels. Took a little less than 8 hours.
 
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