New 1.5ghz Powerbook with bad pixel

[Kynan Shook]

I agree, it's probably unlikely that the location of manufacture has 
anything to do with it.  However, a couple bad pixels is certainly 
acceptable on something as complex and bounded by such tight tolerances 
as an LCD panel is.  Most of them are certainly perfect, but it would 
double the cost of an LCD to guarantee a perfect screen.

Here's a quick note on why pixels get stuck; in general, it's because a 
transistor in the screen is broken somehow.  Maybe it's stuck on (dark 
pixel) or off (light pixel) - perhaps one of its connections is just a 
little loose.  No way you'd fix that one transistor though; if you 
reject one pixel, the whole display is trash.  The reason?  The 
location of that transistor: I'll give you a hint as to where it is 
located: you're looking right through it!  There is a transistor for 
every sub-pixel on your screen (there are 3 sub-pixels per pixel, one 
each for red, green, and blue).  There is also at least one capacitor.  
All of these tiny components are so thin (just a few atomic layers 
thin!) that you can see right through them.  So, on a 1024x768 LCD, 
there are 2,359,296 transistors.  On the 23" cinema display, there are 
6,912,000 (1920*1200*3).  Yours (a 15", I presume?) has 3,279,360 
transistors in the surface of the screen.  That would mean that there 
was a manufacturing defect rate of 0.00006%.  I bet most industries 
would LOVE their production techniques to provide such amazing results!

Anyway, it's too bad you have a pixel, but unfortunately, we have to 
wait for technology to slowly progress to get fewer dead pixels; and 
it's probably more likely that consumers will choose more advanced 
displays over ones that are less likely to get dead pixels, so they'll 
probably continue to have dead pixel issues until there is a major 
change in flat panel technology.

On a side note, a few retailers might let you return your computer for 
bad pixels, or inspect a computer's display before you buy it.  I know 
that the reseller at my campus (sorry, university customers only!) does 
this sometimes; many won't, however, because Apple won't repair the 
display for only one or two bad pixels.  So, they just end up selling 
the computer as a customer return (and note the bad pixel, and the 
less-than-1-year warranty) for a few hundred dollars less, and eat the 
difference in price.


Lee Yan Zhan <yzlee at starhub.net.sg> writes:
> Just got my new PB(1.5Ghz, 1GB RAM, 128MB VRAM, 5400rpm 80GB HD) 
> yesterday
> and found 2 bad pixels.  This is the first time in over a decade that 
> I got
> bad pixel LCD from Apple.  Spoke to Apple Care and got the standard 
> reply.
> The help desk person did mentioned that now PB are made in China - they
> expect more of these cases.  Personally, I think its got nothing to do 
> with
> PB being made in China.  Apple should be expected to give us perfect 
> LCD.
> There should be no compromise on quality from Apple...anyway, a very 
> sad
> weekend for me and the rest of my macs(cube, pismo, 550Ti).