white spot on new monitor that shows up in screenshots... ?

[cutcopypaste]

I just got a samsung syncmaster 2343 23" 2048x1152 monitor.. and when it's plugged in to my mac there is one pixel near the bottom left corner that shows up as white.. however, when i zoom in with control+scroll, it gets bigger and when i take a screenshot, it shows up in the screenshot. it appears on all resolutions, but when i change the resolution it moves, always appearing the same distance in pixels away from the edge of the screen. It appears when using the DVI cable directly and when using the D-Sub connected to a D-Sub->DVI converter cable I have with my macbook pro 17" (mid 2008). the pixel does not show up white when hooked up to a pc.
very confused by this.. just wondering if anyone has suggestion on how to fix it possibly.. I'm guessing it's a video card issue bc I can't think of what else (i'm on snow leopard.. btw)

addendum: the white dot does not show up on my bootcamped windows 7. it doesn't actually show up on the mac login screen either. it turns on as the mac is logging on. not immediately, but at some point after it's logged in and is loading programs. it is NOT there if i mirror the displays rather than extending them.

 

[blodwyn]

Have you tried changing the wallpaper? Sounds like it's part of the image you're using if it shows up on screenshots and moves about when you're changing resolutions..

 

[The Valeyard]

Could I see one of those screenshots?

 

[cutcopypaste]

yeah sure i'll upload one in a bit... it is definitely independant of the wallpaper.. it shows up on top of windows etc.. on top of everything except the cursor covers it up.

 

[cutcopypaste]

alright some further testing has revealed some more characteristics about this peculiar dot.
it appears in a position relative to my main display; it is always 50 pixels up and 50 pixels to the left of the top left corner of my macbook's screen. so if i reposition the arrangement so that my new monitor is beside my main screen-no dot. or if i move it horizontally but keep it on top, the dot moves. so if i position it in more of a straight line above my main display, i can push it off the side.. so that's basically a pretty good quick fix.. though I'm still pretty curious about what it is and would rather be able to arrange my monitor however i like.
Another factoid is that it DOES follow me from space to space.. and it does appear in all versions of expose.. which would indicate it's more OS-related, than tied to some whacky application.
I've provided a close up screenshot of the dot, 2 demonstrating how it moves around, and one showing it in expose.

 

[The Valeyard]

Is this a problem out of curiosity or is it causing real hassles? I, personally, wouldn't worry about it but if it's kept directly in the left-hand corner on your most normal resolution, then it shouldn't really bother you. And if you wanted to get rid of it at least from your desktop, choose a wallpaper with a bit of white around the edges. But reply back if it's actually causing problems.

 

[cutcopypaste]

well you gotta admit it's pretty flippin weird, right? I can arrange my monitors in such a way that that particular pixel is not showing up without too much trouble (and have done so). But I'd still like to know what's up with that pixel in case a situation arises where it is causing noticeable problems.

 

[Revelation78]

Do you have Geektools running?

 

[cutcopypaste]

i don't know what that is! (will shortly..) but no, don't have it running...it still shows up with most background processes killed. i will try in safe mode and see what that does when i get a chance. not top priority since i have it out of sight, but still quite curious as to what's causing it!

 

[karurosu]

I have the same problem with my 15in MBP Santa Rosa, I noticed after upgrading to snow leopard, it only appears on the second monitor (located at the top of the main one) and its always on top EXCEPT for the mouse (I can put the pointer over it) here is an screenshot over a video in VLC.
You'll see a white pixel on the bottom left corner.

Any ideas?

 

[mfb52]

Same problem here. I panicked a bit at first: oh no, my company-bought, (way too) expensive, brand-new macbook pro had a dead pixel!! After my initial reaction I quickly found out that it seems to be a software problem. Pfew. Well, maybe too early for a 'pfew,' because there seems to be no way to fix this, and this forum is the first place I found that acknowledges this problem.

It seems this pixel does not appear on every window. It won't appear on always-on-top vlc video windows, for one thing. It will, however, appear when playing full-screen video. That's when it gets extremely distracting and annoying. Anyone have any clue how to fix this thing?

 

[karurosu]

Seems the only solution is rearranging monitors, I just switched to a single monitor only setup (a 24 inch LCD) and its no longer there...
Of course its not really a solution, but I guess there is not much we can do.

 

[mfb52]

Well, I have a 24" display at work, but so far I've only seen it with a single-display setup. Isn't the two-display setup just moving the pixel? It might be hard to find on a big display without a dark background...

 

[mfb52]

software issue

Anyway, seeing as this is a hardware forum, maybe this isn't the right place for this issue?

 

[mfb52]

Sorry for the posting spree (this must really bother me). But is anyone else with this problem also running ted (the torrent episode downloader)? The pixel seems to disappear when I quit ted. Or maybe it is triggered by 'dockless,' which I used to run ted without a dock icon?

 

[mfb52]

Yep, looks like ted is causing this.

 

[cyfer]

I can confirm that as well. My white dot disappears too as soon as i quit TED.
I will file a bug report to the TED crew!