The Reality Of Dead Pixels, Soft Or Inconsistently Registering Buttons

[Butterman]

The whole dead pixel issue was a huge topic for manufacturers back when the PSP was launched. Sony's problem was relying on the class of part they ordered from the LCD maker to determine their failure rate. They chose to go for the cheap route to lower costs thinking that the faulty units would not be significant (afterall even Nintendo's godlike GBAs weren't immune as I had two SPs with a small number of stuck pixels) when the class of LCDs were found to be more of a problem then they expected, they switched classes for a lower failure rate. I think it's unrealistic to expect there to not be a single dead pixel in the whole bunch but assuming they picked a decent class of screen the number of instances should be fair.

And supposedly it's the same screen that Archos uses so the number of faulty screens shouldnt be any worse than what they've experienced (I'd say a check of consumer reports for Dead pixels on archose units with the same screen would give a early indicator of whether or not there's a problem with them.)

I had one or two dead pixels in my PSP-1000 didn't bother me a bit and I have no idea how many hours I spent playing SNES Harvest Moon on that baby.

 

[Alpha2]

Yeah my 1000 was similar I had like 3 in a corner, no big deal. It seemingly appeared out of no where too, the first time I turned it on I specifically looked for them, saw none, went to tell people on a forum my was fine, turned it on again before I sent the message and saw 3. Later I went to look at my GBA and it had 2 slightly more distressing because it seems like i never saw them until I looked for them but at the same time once I realized it wasnt that big a deal I wondered why people were so freaked by a couple of them. I mean if you had a dozen I'd say it's a problem but less than 5? ridiculous to complain.

 

[GreenDream]

I have one dead centered on my PSP 1000 screen. I'll notice it in the menu, but during gameplay I really don't realise it's there.

 

[WizardStan]

My one really old CRT monitor has more dead pixels than any LCD screen I've ever owned.

 

[SiegfriedCroes]

Had one dead pixel on my first DS (original one from launch) but never saw one on any of my or my families devices (2 DSi's, 2 Archos', 2 Dell Laptops, 4 monitors,...) I hope I'm as lucky with the Pandora as with those devices.

 

[TrashyMG]

Every board is completely tested and given a 24-48 hour burn in test before being shipped to Craig.

Wow, 24h per Board, thats are 4000 Days for 4000 Boards :lol: I really hope they test more than one Board per time.

If it's like the the Burn In tests I know, they are done in big batches. I've never seen it done at the board level only with individual chip modules.. but I assume it's fairly the same. Tested at elevated temperatures over several hours of time. With Chip modules they run test patterns through the chips while under the heat stress any sign of failure results in rejecting the device.

So sum things up.. they're not doing it one at a time, would be a waste of money and they prob have many other customers to deal with.

 

[pelrun]

A stuck pixel on the Pandora won't be as big a problem as you might expect; the screen has a much higher DPI than most LCD's you get on laptops or desktops (or handhelds) and so each pixel is surprisingly tiny. My zaurus has a stuck-on blue subpixel and it's almost impossible to detect unless I'm looking for it (and even then I need the screen to be all-black). My previous zaurus had a similar stuck subpixel but red, and I didn't notice it for years!

Of course, it depends on what kind of pixel defect it is and where it is, and the brain has an annoying tendency to keep seeing something once you notice it for the first time - so you may get a fault which is extremely noticeable even if it is tiny.

 

[Fishbong]

I don't worry about possibly getting one or two dead pixels. The Pandora's DPI is so high that the pixels are much smaller and it won't be easy to spot a dead pixel in the first place.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

 

[BackAssward]

Of course, it depends on what kind of pixel defect it is and where it is, and the brain has an annoying tendency to keep seeing something once you notice it for the first time - so you may get a fault which is extremely noticeable even if it is tiny.

Especially for those of us who are a bit OCD. I wear glasses and can be fine with a spot on them... until I notice it. Then once I noticed it, I *have* to take care of it.

Great qualities for being an analyst... poor qualities elsewhere.

 

[maplesugarlover]

I had a ds lite that survived years of abuse, wear and even an accidental water spill. It only had 1 stuck red pixel. Other than that it worked like a charm. It only stopped working after I went crazy and snapped the hinge on purpose. I really wasn't thinking clearly. Hopefully the pandora will be durable also. I also hope that it doesn't have mushy buttons like the ds lite .

 

[Poem58]

Of course, it depends on what kind of pixel defect it is and where it is, and the brain has an annoying tendency to keep seeing something once you notice it for the first time - so you may get a fault which is extremely noticeable even if it is tiny.

Especially for those of us who are a bit OCD. I wear glasses and can be fine with a spot on them... until I notice it. Then once I noticed it, I *have* to take care of it.

Great qualities for being an analyst... poor qualities elsewhere.

Me too, I think the thing that will really be the complication here is the wait. Since we all have waited so long, some longer than others, we will undoubtedly be a bit more taken with a flaw than than if we had just gone to a store and picked one up. Pixel issues are a fact of life, but this whole project is different than anything we have ever experienced before. Which is going to cause an unnaturally high expectation level. Especially with the OPT always touting striving to make it "perfect" I think they have subconsciously created a expectation level of perfection that goes above and beyond due to delays. Not saying it's something they should have to meet, a level of absolute perfection, but they have set that bar REALLY high in people's minds while striving to keep people on board. So it's good to see in this thread that so many people do have the realization that this is still a potential issue.

 

[mvickers03]

My one really old CRT monitor has more dead pixels than any LCD screen I've ever owned.

Is that a joke? you know CRT's don't suffer from stuck pixels right?

 

[WizardStan]

Is that a joke? you know CRT's don't suffer from stuck pixels right?

Tell that to my monitor.

 

[Poem58]

My one really old CRT monitor has more dead pixels than any LCD screen I've ever owned.

Is that a joke? you know CRT's don't suffer from stuck pixels right?

Stuck pixels no, but I googled around and saw a few mentions of dead pixels which were referred to as bad phosphor spots. If they are black spots, then that is what it would be. No phosphor, no glow. One person mentioned how this might be bad as the electron beam would go right through the screen if the phosphor wasn't there to interact with it. Although I don't know enough about such things to know if it's actually any real concern. I guess like any other thing, it's just rare enough not to be a big deal. Unless of course you are the one who has the problem.

 

[Aninhumer]

My DS lite has one stuck (green) pixel in the corner, and a kind of dark spot in the middle of the screen.
The pixels still all work there, but somehow that area is much dimmer than the rest.

EDIT: As I said before, assuming there are low failure rates, it's probably not worth running very time consuming tests for the first batch.

 

[Monk]

My one really old CRT monitor has more dead pixels than any LCD screen I've ever owned.

Is that a joke? you know CRT's don't suffer from stuck pixels right?

Stuck pixels no, but I googled around and saw a few mentions of dead pixels which were referred to as bad phosphor spots. If they are black spots, then that is what it would be. No phosphor, no glow. One person mentioned how this might be bad as the electron beam would go right through the screen if the phosphor wasn't there to interact with it. Although I don't know enough about such things to know if it's actually any real concern. I guess like any other thing, it's just rare enough not to be a big deal. Unless of course you are the one who has the problem.

Although I haven't seen it in absolutely ages, it's also possible for bad RAM on a video card to result in a pixel that misbehaves. Or several, even.

 

[Nupfi]

My DS lite has one stuck (green) pixel in the corner, and a kind of dark spot in the middle of the screen.
The pixels still all work there, but somehow that area is much dimmer than the rest.

EDIT: As I said before, assuming there are low failure rates, it's probably not worth running very time consuming tests for the first batch.

Nintendo replaces units with bad pixels... at least in my country.

 

[Alpha2]

A reaction to Sony's assertion that the PSP was within reasonable standards (at least until they saw the worse cases that looked like they were blasted with buckshot which caused them to switch up their LCDs) when the issue was at it's worst they saw it as a chance to improve their customer relations.

I'm sure they probably still will replace units with DPs, but now that the issue has died down I doubt they're asked to replace as many as they did then.

 

[Nintendo]

It only stopped working after I went crazy and snapped the hinge on purpose. I really wasn't thinking clearly.

Had a bad day?

 

[kingoddball]

My iPhone has a dead pixel or two.
Piece of crap.

My N900 has a weird splat type spot which is twice as bright as anywhere else.
Another piece of crap.