Stuck or Dead? Engadget Explains How to Tell Two Common Screen Defects Apart

The two look alike in shape, appearing as a single dot or, worse, a cluster of dots, but Engadget reports that the clearest visual difference is light. A stuck pixel is permanently on, showing a constant blue, red, green or otherwise bright point. A dead pixel, as the name suggests, has stopped functioning and is always black. That difference is the first thing a user can check before deciding what to do next.

The second difference is repairability. According to Engadget, a stuck pixel has a long list of troubleshooting routes and can often be returned to normal, while a dead pixel cannot be salvaged at all. Owners of a dead pixel will have to seek a replacement panel or learn to live with it. Engadget notes one consolation: a dead pixel is generally a less obtrusive visual problem than something like screen burn-in.

Not every mark on a display is a pixel fault. Engadget advises users to rule out other causes first, since source or cable problems can produce similar artifacts and are not cause for alarm. The recommended steps are to clean the display thoroughly, check whether the problem persists across different applications, and, if possible, try both a new cable and a different input device.

Once those possibilities are excluded, Engadget suggests running a test designed to pinpoint pixel problems. Several websites and applications serve this purpose, including Dead Pixel Buddy, and others claim to fix the issue as well, such as JScreenFix and Dead Pixels Test and Fix. Engadget cautions that stuck pixels can be harder to diagnose than dead ones, because cases rooted in power or heat problems may appear only intermittently. When that happens, the advice is to pull up one of these tests as soon as the fault returns.

Engadget also notes that even the best monitors are not immune to pixel defects, and that the wave of alarm users feel when a smudge will not wipe away is sometimes justified and sometimes not.