Avoiding Laptop dead pixels?

Question

Got a new laptop and i want to take good care of it, i had a 2nd hand laptop before and it has around 5 dead pixels and it was very annoying. Can some tell me how to prevent my new one from having dead pixels.

Answer 1

Each pixel on a solid state screen is turned on and off by a transistor. Whether the pixel works or not, is determined by whether or not the transistor works ok. If a pixel works in the first place ( when you bought the laptop ), then all the wiring and transistors on the display were tested - there is a minimum dead pixel quality control - it is getting to ZERO now, but not long ago, there could be bad pixels on new devices if only 1, 2, 3 of them etc, to cut manufacturing costs.
Since you are dealing with transistors, you are dealing with the same problems that you deal with in the millions of transistors in the CPU chip - POWER, and Heat. If the transistors are subjected to spikes in power, they can die. If the transistors are overheated, they will burn out.
Running the laptop in a temperate area - avoiding extremes in hot/cold cycling, will help the screen transistors to stay cool. Using a small AVR ( Automatic Voltage Regulation ) power battery backup would help to prevent spikes and transients in the line supplies that you might be plugged into. Note that you do not need a huge power pack - the AVR and spike protection in the unit are the most important. There are many small battery packs the size of an ordinary power bar. The AVR however is very important - non AVR units have a window of power feed - say 93 volts to 126 volts, and any power in that range just hits your laptop ( ouch ). With AVR, the same range might be in place, however, the voltage is CONTINUOUSLY regulated on the OUTPUT so that your laptop only sees 110 volts. When the power drops below 93 or goes above 126, then the backup battery kicks in - supplying -- you guessed it - 110 volts.
The non- AVR battery backups feed garbage within the 93 to 126 volts straight thru, and if the power exceeds the limits, THEN, the battery kicks in with 110, so that the only time your laptop sees the correct voltage is when it is running on the battery....

I do not think mechanical impact results in damage to the transistors - as someone states, you can crack the screen, and do physical damage to the laptop, but the individual pixels you see can't be normally " bumped" out. You are more likely to loose the pixels with extremes in temperature - like freezing the unit, then turning it on in a hot environvent - etc., which would affect the expansion and contraction of the silicon chips that hold the thousands of transistors that activate the pixels...
There are many questions about " what do I do to cool my laptop that gets hot after I use it for a while ".... but remeber that the transistors on the chips that run the display also get hot - you just do not normally notice.
Overheating will probably show itself in problems with the CPU failing, and poor battery useage, etc. long before the screen chips show failures. Just try to keep the power and temperature even,
and you will have better luck in maintaining the laptop...

hope this helps

robin

Answer 2

I wouldnt suggest dropping it. I have accidently dropped or laptop fell off the bed about half a dozen times. I dont have a single dead pixel but the plastic LCD trim is cracked to hell.

Answer 3

Mac OS X has an attractive and entertaining selection of screen saver programs that you can access and enable using Desktops & Screen Savers in System Preferences.

Answer 4

Don't ever touch the screen, except to wipe dust off of it.