Dead Pixel vs Stuck Pixel (and Hot Pixel)

One pixel, drawn larger than life

These are diagrams, not photographs. A real fault is a tiny sharp point. On a typical LCD the pixel is three stripes, red, green and blue. Phone OLED layouts are sometimes not a simple stripe, so a stuck element can look slightly uneven. It is still a fault.

Dead. All three stay off.

Stuck red. Only red stays on.

Hot. It fails to switch off.

Healthy white. All three lit.

A single stuck or dead subpixel is about a third of a pixel wide, so it can look like a short sliver rather than a square. Lean in before you decide.

Check the colours in this order

Wipe the screen with a dry microfibre cloth first. Then use the test. Sit square to the panel. A steep angle hides dots and, on an IPS monitor, adds a glow that is not a pixel.

Clean the screen first. Wipe with a dry microfibre cloth and look again. A speck that moves or vanishes was on the surface.
Show white, then black. On white, look for a sharp dark dot. On black, in a dim room, look for a coloured or bright dot. A dead pixel hides on black. A stuck or hot pixel shows up there.
Step through red, green and blue. A subpixel stuck on one primary colour disappears on that colour and shows on the other two. A dead pixel stays dark on all three. A hot pixel stays bright on all three.
Check grey. Grey is none of the primaries, so a stuck red, green or blue subpixel all show as a tinted dot. A dead pixel is dark. Dust still looks softer than a pixel.
Only then decide on the fixer. Use the stuck-pixel fixer only if the dot is a stuck subpixel on an LCD. Dead pixels, hot pixels, dust, pressure bruises and OLED burn-in are not what the fixer is for.

What each colour shows

What you should see on each test colour
Colour on screen	Dead pixel	Stuck pixel	Hot pixel	Dust or a smear
White	Sharp dark dot, or a thin dark sliver if only one subpixel is dead.	Easy to miss. The other colours are already lit, so a stuck subpixel is only a slight tint.	Hard to see. The field is already bright.	Soft mark, often with a faint shadow. It wipes off.
Black	Hidden. A dark dot on a dark screen does not show. Dim the room anyway, for the other faults.	A red, green or blue point with hard edges.	A bright or white point. This is the colour that finds it.	Usually hidden, unless the speck catches the room light.
Red	Stays dark. The red that should be there is missing.	A red stuck subpixel disappears. Green or blue still shows as a speck that is not red.	Brighter than the red around it.	Still there, and softer than a pixel.
Green	Stays dark.	A green stuck subpixel disappears. Red or blue still shows.	Brighter than the green around it.	Still there.
Blue	Stays dark.	A blue stuck subpixel disappears. Red or green still shows.	Brighter than the blue around it.	Still there.
Grey	A dark dot. Grey should light every subpixel a little, so a dead one has contrast.	A tinted dot. Grey is none of the primaries, so stuck red, green and blue all show.	A brighter dot than the grey around it.	Softer than the tinted dot of a stuck subpixel.

The grey screen is the custom colour on the test. It is set to a mid grey until you change it. Set it before you start, or change it while that screen is up.

Which subpixel is stuck

Look at the dot on black. Its colour names the subpixel. Then confirm it vanishes on that primary and shows on the other two.

The colour of the dot on a black screen
Dot on black	What it is	Hidden on
Red	Red subpixel stuck on.	The red test colour.
Green	Green subpixel stuck on.	The green test colour.
Blue	Blue subpixel stuck on.	The blue test colour.
White or bright	A hot pixel. It is failing to switch off, not one jammed colour.	None of the primaries fully hide it. White makes it hard to see.
No dot, but white shows a dark one	A dead pixel or a dead subpixel.	Black. It was never going to light.

What people mistake for a pixel

Dust, a hair, or a fingerprint. Softer edges. One wipe with a dry cloth settles it. Do not spray liquid onto a screen.
IPS glow. A soft brightness in the corners of some LCD monitors. It shifts as you move your head. A hot pixel stays a point when you lean in.
Pressure bruise. A cloudy patch, larger than a pixel, often from a finger, a pen or a closed laptop with something on the keyboard. The fixer will not clear it. More pressure makes it worse.
Image retention on OLED. A ghost of a static icon that fades after the picture changes. That is not a dead pixel healing, and it is not a stuck crystal.
A whole pixelated image. Blocky text across the screen is resolution, scaling or a cable. A dead pixel is one dot. The home page answers that separately.

On a laptop or a phone or iPad the same colour rules apply. The fixer rules do not: use it only for a stuck LCD pixel, after the warning, and stop if a couple of minutes change nothing.

Common questions

How do I know if a speck is dust rather than a dead pixel?

Dust and smears look softer than a pixel, often with a slight shadow, and they move or disappear when you wipe with a dry microfibre cloth. A dead pixel is a sharp dot that stays in the same place on every colour that should light it. If you are unsure, wipe once and run the white screen again before you call it a fault.

What is a hot pixel?

A hot pixel stays bright. It is easiest to see on black, as a white or very bright point with hard edges when you lean in. It does not switch off when the screen is black, red, green or blue. That is an electrical fault, not a jammed liquid crystal, so the flashing fixer will not repair it. On an IPS monitor, a soft glow in the corners that shifts as you move your head is backlight glow, not a hot pixel.

Which fault can the fixer help?

Only a stuck pixel on an LCD, and only sometimes. The liquid crystal can be jammed on one colour. Cycling a small box through red, green, blue, black and white can free it, and often does nothing. A dead pixel, a hot pixel, a cracked panel, a pressure bruise and OLED burn-in will not respond. Nothing flashes until you read the epilepsy warning and press I understand, start.

Why does the dot vanish on one colour?

Each pixel is a red, a green and a blue subpixel. A subpixel stuck on red is invisible against a red screen and shows as a red point on green, blue, white, black and grey. That pattern is a stuck subpixel. A dead subpixel does the opposite: it is dark where that colour should be, and it never lights up on black.