I just ordered a new Dell 2209WA. Reviews seem to indicate it doesn't have any known quality control problems, but I read in general about LCD's and how people check for dead pixels, even unsticking them, and use burn-in programs.
So any recommendations or links on what I should do when I first receive the LCD?
Also, could someone please weight in on the idea of burn-in for LCDs?
My notes on checking LCD pixels:
Explain to the sales droid that LCD displays can have dead (or permanently alive) pixels. It probably won't know that knackered pixels are expected, but the vast majority of displays are perfect, so there's no harm in making sure you get a perfect one. Unpack the display and plug it into a PC in the store. Now you need to check both a completely white screen and a completely black screen - because knackered pixels can be knackered either always on or always off. An LCD 'turns on' its pixel so it becomes opaque - that is, black. A pixel is 'turned off' (goes clear) and lets the white backlight through it to display white. This is why LCD's are not as good at displaying black as CRT's. The backlight is always on, and the pixels can have varying degrees of opaqueness when turned on. This makes black more of an uneven very dark gray (well, uneven on my LCD anyway..newer ones might be better at it)
To check always off, fire up Internet Explorer, go to "about:blank" and press F11 (full screen). This will give you a page full of white. Scan the page closely looking for "always off" dead pixels.
Then, to test for always on pixels, right click on the desktop and go to screen saver. Select "Blank" and then "Preview". Again, scan the blank screen and this time look for "always on" pixels - although these are much easier to spot!
Then go to javscript:void(document.bgColor='red'), javscript:void(document.bgColor='green'), and javscript:void(document.bgColor='blue') with Full Screen (F11) after each color.
I knocked these notes together from some slashdot posts a few years ago.
Dead Pixel Tester is also good for checking such things.
It allows you to fill your screen with different colors or patterns, in order to see if there are dead pixels on it.
