That Joke Isn't Funny Any More

In the past, I've had a number of conversations regarding the virtues of LCD monitors. I touted their benefits, and relegated their detriments to a slightly higher initial purchase price.

LCDs are less heavy than traditional monitors and hence reduce shipping costs.

LCDs don't degrade over time like CRT monitors can.

They are sharper, use less power and require less desk space. The last item is of extra interest to me. Being a dual-monitor user, bulky monitors crowd my working space all the more.

In response, my critics pointed out the ever-present problem of dead-pixels. In my last decade of experience with LCDs, I'd only seen a certified dead pixel once. That was sometime around 1994 in a Compaq luggable. I laughed at their paranoia. Most of them seemed to be Macintosh laptop users. I refer to this particular demographic as techno-hippies, and generally disregard anything they say.

As the author of a commercial spam email software package, I spend a lot of time developing the application, the website and fulfilling support requests. I spend too much time fulfilling support requests. I had a large, but fuzzy CRT for sometime. It was time to upgrade. I purchased a 19" model from a local retailer about 3 months ago.

Now, as I type, my eye can't help being diverted to a little black spot. It is little, but it's always there. It wasn't there when I got it. It wasn't there when the initial return period expired. Hardly noticeable, except when I look for it. When I'm for instance, tweaking spam buster code, I never see it.

However, now that I've seen it, I look for it at least a few times a day.

That single dead pixel represents a tiny fraction of the totality of my screen. Depending on its nature, it occupies something between .0001% and .00003% of the total viewing area of my display.

I've tried everything. Power-cycling, tapping, rubbing, nothing seems to work. Many users with pixels stuck in the on condition have found they can massage them back to life. This is rarely the case with dead pixels. Things that are dead tend to stay dead.

Unfortunately, most manufacturers don't consider a single dead pixel to be an actual defect. Some require as many as 15 dead pixels in order for a unit to be replaced or serviced.

Still, I love my LCD
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love

Back