Display problem with my monitor - what is this?

[Black Panther]

Spoiler

See that smear going up from the mouse pointer?
It isn't a dirty screen.

Sometimes it's there, sometimes it goes away by itself.

It's mostly noticeable on plain light backgrounds like light blue and light grey. It's not visible on white though. And neither on darker colors or when I'm gaming.

Sometimes it's slightly darker and more visible (like when I took the above photo), and at other times it's barely visible on the same background, or simply vanishes.

It seems to make no difference whether I just powered on the monitor or whether it's been powered on for hours.

What is it?

Is it some form of trapped condensation?



Should I rma the monitor while it's still under warranty?

 

[Velvet Wafer]

http://img.techpowerup.org/120614/P6140448.jpg

See that smear going up from the mouse pointer?
It isn't a dirty screen.

Sometimes it's there, sometimes it goes away by itself.

It's mostly noticeable on plain light backgrounds like light blue and light grey. It's not visible on white though. And neither on darker colors or when I'm gaming.

Sometimes it's slightly darker and more visible (like when I took the above photo), and at other times it's barely visible on the same background, or simply vanishes.

It seems to make no difference whether I just powered on the monitor or whether it's been powered on for hours.

What is it?

Is it some form of trapped condensation?



Should I rma the monitor while it's still under warranty?

That doesnt look natural, i would RMA it as long as its still under warranty

 

[Black Panther]

It's darkest when the monitor comes out from standby.

Then right now on the forums background it isn't visible at all even though the background's light gray.

 

[Velvet Wafer]

It's darkest when the monitor comes out from standby.

Then right now on the forums background it isn't visible at all even though the background's light gray.

i still have a screen, which always had the firefox toolbar burn in, much like it looks for you... it only went away completely after i stopped using the screen as primary and only use it from time to time now.
yeah, in my experience the worst color is black, as its very easy to see on that

 

[Black Panther]

There... it just 'vanished' again without any reason.

Spoiler

I don't think it's burn-in since it comes and goes. And I've got nothing which could cause exactly that type of burn-in in that particular place.

 

[cadaveca]

Try using "LCD Conditioning" mode for about 20 minutes to get rid of it. Looks like a flaw in the panel, and pixels aren't fully working in that area. "LCD Conditioning" can sometimes fix issues like that(ie, stuck pixels).

Power button makes that look liek a Dell...it should even do that with the monitor plugged into the power, but with no cables attached(the monitor transitions from fullscreen solid colour to another in "LCD Conditioning" mode).


THis mode is added to monitors to fix stuck pixels, might as well give a try.

 

[Sasqui]

That's interesting. I'm assuming the smear is not where you had moved your mouse from? Looks like a trail of smoke rising up from it.

If it's anything, I suspect something is up with the electronics, not the screen itself. LCD pixels don't interact with eachother AFAIK.

 

[Black Panther]

Try using "LCD Conditioning" mode for about 20 minutes to get rid of it.

Power button makes that look liek a Dell...

I did it for 20 minutes but didn't solve the problem.
Yes it's the U2711.

That's interesting. I'm assuming the smear is not where you had moved your mouse from? Looks like a trail of smoke rising up from it.

If it's anything, I suspect something is up with the electronics, not the screen itself. LCD pixels don't interact with eachother AFAIK.

Yes it precisely looks like a trail of smoke. That's why I'm thinking it's some type of condensation. All the more since it comes with a vengeance when I have the monitor on after standby. The monitor goes on standby after 5 minutes.

I don't know for how long this has been happening, I saw it for the first time yesterday when I put a light-colored desktop.

This was after monitor fired up from standby:

Spoiler

This was 5 minutes later:

Spoiler

 

[cadaveca]

BP, you should still have "perfect pixel" warranty on that panel, you might want to consider an RMA.

If LCD conditioning mode does not fix an issue, it's RMA-able, under pixel perfect plan, at least here in north america. I wouldn't accept that as "pixel perfect" lulz. Just one bad pixel is enough for RMA, that looks like a few thousand pixels, to me.

Premium panel gets top-notch service, here, you shoudl take advantage of your warranty if possible. Here, they have new monitor at your door, a day or less after you call 'em, but i do live in a fairly large(~1.4 mil) city.

 

[Black Panther]

BP, you should still have "perfect pixel" warranty on that panel, you might want to consider an RMA.

Yes I'm considering it seriously. I have 2 years with my local supplier (which expire 3rd week of next October) and then another year where he'd take care of my RMA but I'd have to pay the shipping.

I'm still curious on what this could be though. Googling yielded no results.

 

[cadaveca]

Basically, this is a common issue on LCDs. those pixels are "slow" to "warm-up" from sleep, and that's why the "smoke" will dissappear after some time. That's a panel flaw.


LCD panels are silicon, just like a CPU or GPU, and are prone to the same defects. On a CPU or GPU, that might be an area of higher leakage, or perhaps enough to cause the CPU to be non-functional. ON LCD panel, it's not as drastic of an effect, but obviously it's quite noticible. Just RMA, there is no real fixing...other than trying LCD Conditioning mode for even longer yet.


In my opinion, there is no reason for end user to ever have to run LCD CONditioning mode, except after long long periods of displaying the same static image.

 

[qubit]

That's a great answer cad. I learned something there.

I've seen something similar with LCD panels that have been pushed in with a lot of excess physical pressure and those areas never recover.

 

[cadaveca]

I've seen something similar with LCD panels that have been pushed in with a lot of excess physical pressure and those areas never recover.

That behavior is only something that TN TFT panels do(image distortion and retention when pressure is applied to the surface). Hence IPS panels used on nearly every touchscreen known to man, including smartphone displays.

What it looks like to me is that that was an "edge" panel, and the photo-resist was a little thin there, or perhaps too thick, when the panel was made. IPS pixels are made up of multiple "lines" of each color(RGB), and it seems that some lines there are not fully responding until "warmed up".

In the end, whatever the real issues is, the panel should be RMA'd. THat's unacceptable performance from a Dell "premium" panel. I spend a bit extra on Dell UltraSharp panels to specifically avoid issues like this one. Dell offers RMA for one bad pixel, when most others will only RMA if 6 or more pixels are problematic.

 

[eidairaman1]

That's a great answer cad. I learned something there.

I've seen something similar with LCD panels that have been pushed in with a lot of excess physical pressure and those areas never recover.

ya its a stuck pixel in that area less its a bigger dot- sometimes pushing on the screen gets em to unstick- sometimes not-

Only way a company will replace a LCD is if a large area has stuck/dead pixels or if they are numerous that are all over the place.

if its a bother- sell the unit and get another

 

[de.das.dude]

looks like the liquid between the screen is getting annoyed in that region. looks like a failing monitor.

 

[Sasqui]

All the more since it comes with a vengeance when I have the monitor on after standby.

I have a question... does the trail of "smoke" follow the mouse across the screen when it's happening?

 

[Black Panther]

I have a question... does the trail of "smoke" follow the mouse across the screen when it's happening?

No, it has nothing to do with the mouse.
I've even resized my browser window and dragged it back and forth through that 'trail of smoke' yet nothing happens, the exact trail stays put and fades with time, and that with certain colors it's less visible.

 

[qubit]

That behavior is only something that TN TFT panels do(image distortion and retention when pressure is applied to the surface). Hence IPS panels used on nearly every touchscreen known to man, including smartphone displays.

What it looks like to me is that that was an "edge" panel, and the photo-resist was a little thin there, or perhaps too thick, when the panel was made. IPS pixels are made up of multiple "lines" of each color(RGB), and it seems that some lines there are not fully responding until "warmed up".

In the end, whatever the real issues is, the panel should be RMA'd. THat's unacceptable performance from a Dell "premium" panel. I spend a bit extra on Dell UltraSharp panels to specifically avoid issues like this one. Dell offers RMA for one bad pixel, when most others will only RMA if 6 or more pixels are problematic.

ya its a stuck pixel in that area less its a bigger dot- sometimes pushing on the screen gets em to unstick- sometimes not-

Only way a company will replace a LCD is if a large area has stuck/dead pixels or if they are numerous that are all over the place.

if its a bother- sell the unit and get another

I think my response this evening on another thread is applicable here too.

Ah yes of course, the dead pixels, I'd forgotten about them. Thanks. I'd only ever accept zero dead pixels myself.

Got a little story: my 1920x1200 Iiyama monitor is a great piece of kit with a lovely picture and has no dead/faulty pixels. Then one day I noticed a small, but obvious and annoying black "dash" 75% of the way across and 25% of the way up. I tried to clean it off, but couldn't. Looking more closely at it, I realized that it was actually a scratch! A deep one at that, which I can't remove and can actually be felt with a finger. What gets me, is that I'd only had it less than a year and I'm always so damned careful not to touch the screen. I have no idea how it got there.

It's remains annoying and for this reason alone, I'm considering changing a monitor that I'm otherwise happy with to a new one. Damned shame. :shadedshu

 

[eidairaman1]

I have a NEC Multisync LCD 1700V still going strong, no issues

 

[Sasqui]

No, it has nothing to do with the mouse.
I've even resized my browser window and dragged it back and forth through that 'trail of smoke' yet nothing happens, the exact trail stays put and fades with time, and that with certain colors it's less visible.

Ahhh... then it does sound like the panel or perhaps even the backlight.

 

[Black Panther]

Umm, it seems to be getting worse?

Spoiler

What's weird it doesn't show up at all on the TPU web-page even though it's blue-ish gray.

It's really ugly on certain colors though, especially light-blue and gray.

I contacted my supplier... he told me he was forwarding my email and photos to his technician, who will try to contact with his own supplier's technicians..... I dunno if he bought directly from Dell or through some other third party.

 

[brandonwh64]

Umm, it seems to be getting worse?

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/RZRI5.jpg

What's weird it doesn't show up at all on the TPU web-page even though it's blue-ish gray.

It's really ugly on certain colors though, especially light-blue and gray.

I contacted my supplier... he told me he was forwarding my email and photos to his technician, who will try to contact with his own supplier's technicians..... I dunno if he bought directly from Dell or through some other third party.

WOW that looks worse than my old phone that was dropped in gun oil! Looks like BAD water spots.

 

[Sasqui]

What's weird it doesn't show up at all on the TPU web-page even though it's blue-ish gray.

So you got a monitor that's only compatible with TPU?

I digress... that sucks

 

[cadaveca]

Yikes. You know it would be interesting if it was some sort of humiditiy building up in the panel.

 

[D007]

Yea, Cad said it best me thinks.. Bad panel at this point, I'd RMA for sure..
Just curious, can you change the display mode from say dvi to hdmi then back to dvi?
If you change the mode then change it back, does that image fix it's self?
I've been having a funky problem where the display control panel from nvidia tries to fight with my Tv's
picture settings.
Only way I fix it when it happens, is doing that or notching brightness or contrast up and putting it back where it was.
No idea why..