Apple LCD Display Pixel Anomalies
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I purchased a 15″ MacBook Pro on Tuesday, February 26 when they were updated. Yesterday morning, I noticed a horrific site; a dead pixel. Wonderful! I had been waiting since MacWorld 2008 to purchase a MacBook Pro and decided that I would just wait until they were updated; and now this happens. I guess that good things don’t always come to those who wait.
So I made an appointment at my local Apple Store to have the screen looked at. To my dismay, I found out that I didn’t have enough dead pixels for it to be classified as defective and replaced. I understand that one dead pixel out of millions isn’t enough for a new display, I just wish that a laptop that was owned for eleven days would be replaced; no questions asked. The genius bar referred me to Apple LCD Display Pixel Anomalies on the Apple website. They told me that I could return the MacBook Pro but that I would have to pay a 15% restocking fee. That wasn’t worth it in my mind because I already have Windows Vista setup in my Boot Camp partition and gigabytes of other data and programs on the Mac OS X partition.
With the exception of this 1 dead pixel, I have no problems with the rest of the laptop. The multi-touch trackpad is awesome and I love using it in Safari (I am no longer using Firefox as my primary browser).
Does anyone have a name for the dead pixel since it will be there for the rest of this laptop’s life; unless more appear and I am able to get a new display or laptop?
3 Comments
dabrace1984
March 9th, 2008
at 6:39pm
For your own research in this matter, I found an article at AppleInsider.com that states other details about Apple’s pixel policy.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/04/08/16/apple_document_details_guidelines_for_handling_lcd_pixel_anomalies.html
PABade
June 24th, 2008
at 7:10pm
Occasionally you can revive a dead pixel by applying gentle pressure right on the pixel or by tapping on it. Be very careful that you don’t break the neighboring pixels. Use a flexible pointed object like the corner of a fingernail. Watch the display carefully while you do this - if you see significant distortion, back off.
I did this years ago on another Powerbook that dropped a pixel. Initially I lost several more, but was able to massage all of them back into action. The newer, higher resolution displays may be trickier since the pixels are smaller.
Be aware that if you do permanently mess up more pixels trying to fix the initial bad one, Apple doesn’t have to fix it under warranty. Good luck!
Doug
June 24th, 2008
at 7:43pm
Thank you PABade for the suggestion. I have tried this. I think it is because of the size of the pixels on the new displays. I don’t even really notice it any more.
I hope you keep reading.