Programs for checking the monitor (how to check the monitor for dead pixels)? How to test an LCD TV for dead pixels. Pre-sale inspection

How to check for stuck pixels?

Let's launch the program. We will be presented with several objects for testing: a PC monitor, a mobile device, an LCD device for TV. Select the one you need (in this case, a PC monitor) and click “Monitor defective pixels.”

A program window will appear. Select the first flicker speed.

By expanding the program window, you can see blind points that do not change. This is a stuck pixel.

In order to restore a dead pixel, you need to register the program, which costs real money. According to user reviews, Bad Crystal 2.5 FINAL restores stuck pixels only on those monitors whose operating life does not exceed 3-4 years.

IsMyLcdOK

The IsMyLcdOK program is a simple and intuitive tool for testing PC monitors for dead pixels. The software is free. Has several useful checking tools. However, it is impossible to cure a “stuck” pixel with its help. You can run from removable media. Downloaded as an archive.

When buying a monitor, laptop or TV, there is an indicator that is not advertised by the seller, and most buyers do not pay attention to it. And only after purchase they may wonder what these colored or black dots are on the screen. As you know, the screen consists of dots - crystals, each of which is capable of changing color depending on the signal applied to it. This is how the picture is formed on the screen. There are situations when a crystal either cannot change color from its original black color, or, having received one color, is not able to change it to another. It's time to figure out what checking for dead pixels is, how to identify them and how to deal with them.

Visual inspection - nothing is easier

The simplest and fastest matrix check for dead pixels monitor screen or TV - this is a visual inspection while turning on the device and playing color, dynamic video. If the screen matrix has a dead pixel, it is easy to detect, just look closely at the screen. Pay attention to the dots that do not change color during video playback. The color of such dots can be white, black, red, blue or green. Many stores whose main focus is the sale of television and audio equipment have special generators whose task is to check for dead pixels. The test consists of submitting a sequence of color fills over a certain period of time, which makes it possible to detect a defect in the matrix.

Built-in testing program - a step towards the buyer

Over the past few years, well-known manufacturers, trying to please the buyer, have added specialized functionality to their TVs. Checking for dead pixels on a TV is done using one button. When the program starts, a certain sequence of colors is displayed on the screen; when each color is changed, you can see the dots on the screen that did not have time to change their color. For TVs that do not have a function for checking the screen for dead pixels, you can use other checking methods. For example, launching a special video from an external storage device or connecting the TV to a personal computer or laptop as a second monitor in order to perform a software test.

Specialized pictures and videos will help

Buying a TV, laptop or monitor is often a pre-planned purchase. Reviews on the Internet and popular publications are studied, a list of necessary technical characteristics is determined - more than one day is spent. Checking for dead pixels of the screen matrix can also be planned by the buyer in advance. When buying such an expensive device, you can always find an hour of time to record a set of special pictures or testing videos on a portable memory module, which are stored in huge volumes on the Internet. For example, a video testing the quality of changes in dynamic scenes, called “Japanese woman on a rope.” If watching a video causes discomfort - the image doubles, the image of trees and the girl’s clothes is blurred, then the TV has failed the test. It is important to remember that testing and checking for dead pixels on a TV, monitor or laptop is not comparable in time to what will be spent on warranty repairs or exchange of goods.

Programs for testing

Checking your monitor for dead pixels can be done using third-party software. Do not forget that thanks to the presence of additional video inputs on the TV, you can connect it as a monitor to a computer or laptop, performing testing that is no different from testing a monitor. There are a lot of such programs today. There is a complex test that detects dynamic video distortion, determines the response time of the matrix, and a regular check for dead pixels. The program for any testing does not take up much space and can fit on any storage medium. Among the applications for testing the screen matrix, TFTTest, DeadPixelTester, Nokia Monitor Test and the popular online test tft.vanity.dk have proven themselves. Testing of any device is carried out only when installing the one recommended by the manufacturer screen resolution.

Pitfalls that few people know about

Checking your monitor for dead pixels is fundamental, but does not address some of the other pitfalls that a user may encounter when purchasing a device. Most LCD screens have factory defects, which the average user is not even aware of, attributing it to poor-quality video recording.

  1. Tint - white balance. To identify this defect, you need to display a static white sheet on the device screen. Stripes, spots of different shapes and shades will indicate the presence of a defect.
  2. Banding - appears on a static background of any color in the form of light and dark stripes.
  3. Lights that are typical only for LED TVs. They are detected in a dark room when either a black picture or white text on a black background is presented on the screen. The light on a black background has white blurs. If the background is black with text, then the text itself blurs.

What about the guarantee?

Yes, you can exchange equipment under warranty, but there are some requirements that you need to know.

  1. If, within fourteen days from the date of purchase of the device, dead pixels are found, you can, without a twinge of conscience, if you have a purchase receipt, return the equipment to the seller, under the guise of the law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights.”
  2. Using the manufacturer's warranty, you can exchange equipment in the store, according to the classification. For first-class devices, such as Pioneer and DreamVison brands, one dead pixel is enough. For Class 2 devices such as Panasonic, Sharp or Hitachi, the dead pixel test should show 5 to 10 defects. The most popular third class with well-known brands LG, Samsung, Philips, Sony requires a minimum of 50 dead pixels.

Don't despair - massage can solve the problem

If you were unable to exchange your device under warranty, you can try “artisanal” methods for eliminating dead pixels. There are two ways to solve the problem.

  1. Having previously determined the location of the broken pixel and disconnected the device from the network, you can try to restore the operation of the crystal using a physical massage of the defective area with a cotton swab. The probability of restoration is low, but sometimes it eliminates manufacturing defects.
  2. Using a special program, if checking for dead pixels shows a defect, you need to connect the monitor or TV to the computer and try to restore the operation of the crystal using a hardware massage. Manufacturers of massage programs claim that there is a high probability of solving problems. As an example: such programs include Bad crystal, JScreenFix, Pixel Repair.

The user consumes information through a monitor or laptop screen, so the presence of defects on it is unacceptable. The monitor itself is a fairly simple device, but at the same time quite fragile. The main trouble that a user may encounter when purchasing a monitor is the presence of dead pixels, that is, screen elements that are not capable of correctly transmitting colors. To avoid such a problem, you need to carefully check it when purchasing a monitor, and in this article we will look at how to do this.

Table of contents:

What is a pixel, what are dead pixels?

First we need to tell you a little theory. A pixel is the smallest part of the display that displays an image. Depending on the display resolution and its diagonal, a pixel may be larger or smaller in terms of physical size.

Please note: Modern monitors can use several million pixels.

If one of the pixels or a group of pixels does not work, the image on this part of the screen will not correspond to the one transmitted to the monitor from the system unit. There are several types of dead pixels:

  • Non-working. These pixels do not convey the image, and they are always black;
  • Stuck pixels. Most often these are pixels that are stuck in blue, red or green. They are not capable of working with RGB colors;
  • Constantly glowing pixels. These are pixels that are constantly lit in white.

Please note: Sometimes not just one pixel fails, but a group of pixels in a horizontal or vertical stripe, or “squares” of pixels, for example, 5 by 5 or 10 by 10 elements, are damaged.

Why is it important to check your monitor for dead pixels when purchasing?

When purchasing a new monitor or laptop, be sure to immediately check for dead pixels in the store. This is due to the fact that if you discover such a defect after purchase, it is far from certain that you can return the monitor under warranty. The fact is that there is a standard ISO13406-2, which determines the permissible number of defective pixels for monitors of various classes.

This standard provides for the release to the market of monitors in 4 quality classes. The best class is first, the worst is fourth.

Please note: Almost all mass-produced monitors are produced according to the second quality class, respectively, according to the standardISO13406-2 implies the presence of dead pixels.

According to standard ISO13406-2, the following number of non-functioning or malfunctioning pixels in monitors of various classes per one million pixels in the panel is allowed:

  • 1st quality class. There should be no defective pixels at all;
  • Quality class 2. No more than 2 permanently lit white pixels, 2 permanently off black pixels, 5 pixels with other defects are allowed;
  • Quality class 3. No more than 5 permanently lit white pixels, 15 permanently non-lit black pixels, 50 pixels with other defects are allowed;
  • Quality class 4. No more than 50 permanently lit white pixels, 150 permanently non-lit black pixels, and 500 pixels with other defects are allowed.

It is worth noting that the acceptable value of defective pixels does not mean that they are necessarily present on a monitor of one class or another. The quality class of a monitor according to accepted standards is determined by the device manufacturer itself. Depending on what class it determines, additional warranty obligations are imposed on it.

How to check your monitor for dead pixels

When purchasing equipment in a store, you always have the opportunity to check it right on the spot, and in a situation with a monitor, this definitely needs to be done. There are special applications that allow you to check your monitor for defective pixels. Programs are available, both standalone and presented on various sites.

The principle of operation of all programs for checking the screen for dead pixels is identical. The entire working area of ​​the display is filled with a single color, a group of colors or a gradient, which allows you to see dead pixels if they are present on the monitor. Let's look at the main programs and sites that can be used for such a check.

Programs for checking your monitor for dead pixels

If you buy a monitor in a store, it is better to first record one of the programs described above on a flash drive in order to perform an on-site test.

Dead Pixel Tester

One of the most famous free applications for checking your monitor for dead pixels. To use Dead Pixel Tester you need to:


Among the program’s capabilities, it should be noted that the function of changing modes can be set to a timer; to do this, you need to check the “Auto Color Cycle” box and set the time in milliseconds. After this, the modes will change automatically.

Another feature of the program is the creation of a limited area on the screen with constantly changing colors. To create it, you need to click on the “Exerciser” button, after which the corresponding square area will be created. It can be dragged with the left mouse button. If there is any doubt that there is a dead pixel in some part of the monitor, this tool helps to verify this.

IsMyLcdOk

IsMyLcdOk is another application that does a good job of diagnosing dead monitor pixels. The program also does not require installation and can be easily downloaded for free on the Internet. The application weighs very little and works extremely simply.

When you first launch the IsMyLcdOk program, information will appear that describes what you should click to perform the test. To return to the instructions after starting the diagnostics, you will need to press F1.

To test, select the mode using the buttonsF2-F5. Among the monitor test modes available in the IsMyLcdOk program:

  • Check BitBlt MB/sec;
  • Painted rectangles;
  • Painted stripes;
  • Durability testing;
  • Vertical lines;
  • Horizontal lines.

In addition to special modes, it is also possible to simply switch colors or gradients.

Sites for checking your monitor for dead pixels

If you don’t want to download a program to your computer to check your monitor, you can use sites with similar functionality. Let's consider a couple of options.

Please note: Sites for checking the screen for dead pixels are convenient to use, for example, when testing tablets or smartphones.

Monteon

A simple and functional service for testing your monitor for dead pixels.

To use the service you must:


To finish testing the monitor with the service, click on the house icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

Please note: ServiceMonteon, unlike the programs discussed above, has a mode in which looped video is shown. In this mode, you can check the pixel color refresh rate.

Vanity Monitor Test

Quite an old, but well-proven service that allows you to test your monitor. To operate this service, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player on your computer, which can be considered a disadvantage. To start testing, you need to click “HTML Windows”.

The choice of operating mode in the Vanity Monitor Test program is carried out through the drop-down menu at the top.

Treatment of dead monitor pixels

Dead pixels on the screen are not always a death sentence. In some cases, you can get rid of them and make them function normally again. There are several ways to do this:


If none of the above methods helped restore the dead pixel, you will have to put up with it or replace the monitor.

Dead pixels are sometimes found even on new screens, especially on Chinese counterparts. In this article, I will explain what pixels are and why they can fail, how you can identify dead pixels on an LCD screen, and what you can do to try to fix the problem yourself.

What is a pixel

A pixel (“picture element”) is the basic unit of programmable color on a computer display or in a computer image. The physical size of a pixel depends on what resolution you have set for your display screen. The specific color that a pixel describes is a mixture of three components of the color spectrum - RGB. Up to three bytes of data are allocated to specify the color of a pixel, one byte for each primary color component. True color, or 24-bit color system, uses all three bytes. However, many color display systems use only one byte (limiting the display to 256 different colors).
Screen clarity is sometimes expressed as dpi (dots per inch). (In this usage, dot means pixel.) Dots per inch are determined by both the physical screen size and the resolution.

The reason pixels fail?

If you've never had to deal with stuck pixels, you should know that these small screen defects are usually caused by faulty transistors or uneven distribution of LCD liquid inside the display. Fortunately, this problem can usually be fixed.

Dark spots are usually caused by dead transistors. Can't be fixed. Pixel ports are the wrong color or are otherwise displayed incorrectly: an incomplete subpixel defect from an RGB film layer that is cut incorrectly cannot be corrected.
Bright spots: This is caused by an unstable transistor that passes light through all or none of the sub-pixels.

Dead pixels

Dead pixels on a liquid crystal display (LCD) that are not working properly appear as dark dots, bright dots, and partial sub-pixel defects. In the picture below you can see examples of dead pixels.

How to check the screen for dead pixels

Video for checking for dead pixels

How to remove dead pixels

Important: None of these methods are guaranteed to work, so you use them at your own risk.

Two methods that will help you get those stuck pixels back into working order.

  • Software method.

There are several software solutions that will attempt to reactivate stuck pixels. Here are some free ones:

1.UDPixel: A free application that quickly changes all the pixels located around the stuck one. Just keep running for a few hours and see if it fixes your problem.
2.JScreenFix: A web application that turns all pixels on and off approximately 60 times per second.

  • Screen massage method.

First, display a completely black image on the screen. The display must be turned on for this to work. Use a small pointed object (you can use an ear stick) with a dull rounded end and gently press on the stuck pixel until it starts working again. Typically, it will take you 10 to 30 minutes to fix this problem. If the pixel stubbornly does not want to work after 30 minutes of massage, you can try a combination of massage with the inclusion of programs for checking dead pixels, described above.

Video for repairing dead pixels

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