Dead Pixel Or Something Else?

[trentblase]

About 6 months after I got my Thinkpad (see sig for details), a black spot appeared on my screen. What's strange is it's not your typical dead/stuck pixel (I have seen a million of those). It is bigger, and must cover at least 3 pixels in a group, but maybe more. My initial guess is that there was some kind of dirt between the lcd and the screen. Can this happen? The spot can be seen when the LCD is completely off (not just black -- off) and the spot appears DARKER than the off LCD.

I called Lenovo as my laptop is under a long warranty, but unfortunately could not spare the computer until the summer (school demands). I will probably send it to them in about a month, but am curious if people think this is something that will be under warranty. I've never sent in a laptop before -- will they charge me a fee if they decide it's not covered? The screen also has "light patches" which are visible when viewed at an angle (and are common with Thinkpads in my experience). Are these covered?

[dr_st]

It's probably some dirt. They will disassemble it, clean it, and send it to you.

I don't know about the light patches. It could be uneven backlighting. Whether it's covered or not depends on the degree of abnormality.

[md23128]

And what do you think about my problem:
img]http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1517 ... fz1.th.jpg[/img]

img]http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7127 ... pz3.th.jpg[/img]

Do you think it is a kind of dirt, rather than pixel-problems? Shall I request cleaning in terms of warranty?

My ThinkPad is T43 (1872) with 14,1'' LCD

TIA, rgds, md23128

[dr_st]

It looks like dirt.

You should take it to them and tell them that you have this problem (which is obviously not a dead pixel), then let them sort it out.

[joester]

I agree with the "dirt" diagnosis. One function where I work is to recondition LCD's for a large financial institution. Having stated that and disassembled a "dead" LCD just for curiosities sakes, it looks tro me as though there is someting between the diffuser layers and the LCD. The pixels in the second picture appear to have color, which tells me that the LCD works. That can only mean that the light is not being presented to those pixels.

Joe