Fix a Dead Pixel on Your Laptop

Test the laptop panel, then decide

The check is the same full-screen colour test as on a monitor. The laptop-specific part is making sure you are looking at the built-in panel, and not rubbing a fault that flashing cannot repair.

1. Clean the panel and face it straight on. Wipe the laptop screen with a dry microfibre cloth. Open the lid so you are looking square at it, at a normal brightness, with night mode and any blue-light filter off.
2. Run the colour test on the laptop panel. Press Start test on the home page. Step through red, green, blue, white, black and grey. If a monitor is also plugged in, look at the laptop panel itself. A dot that is only on the laptop screen is in that panel.
3. Decide which fault it is. A sharp dark dot on white that stays dark on every colour is dead. A coloured dot on black that vanishes on its own colour is stuck. A bright dot on black is hot. A soft mark that wipes away is dust. A line or a growing patch is not a single pixel.
4. Try the fixer only for a stuck LCD pixel. Open the stuck-pixel fixer, read the epilepsy warning, and press I understand, start. Keep the box small and the time short. Stop if nothing changes after a couple of minutes. Do not press, rub, heat or use suction on the panel.
5. Write down the result. Note which colours show the dot and which hide it, and where it sits. Photograph the panel on the colour where it is easiest to see, with the model number if you can. Use that note if you ask the seller or the maker about a warranty.

Use the panel’s native resolution if the operating system lets you. Scaling does not create a dead pixel, but it can make a photograph of the screen look soft. Lean in. A real pixel fault is sharp. The grid on the test is a locating guide: one square is 16 CSS pixels, not one physical pixel, because browsers scale.

Keys while the test is open: Space, Enter or the right arrow moves forward. The left arrow goes back. Esc closes. G toggles the grid.

Dead, stuck, or something else

Run white first. A dead pixel is a tiny dark dot, sometimes only a third of a pixel wide, and it stays dark on red, green, blue and grey. It vanishes into a black screen, which is why black alone will not find it.

A stuck pixel does the opposite. On black it is a red, green or blue point. It disappears when the test shows that same colour. A hot pixel stays bright on black and does not switch off. Dust looks softer and wipes off with a dry microfibre cloth. The dead pixel versus stuck pixel page is the colour-by-colour version of this.

A vertical or horizontal line, a band, or a block of bad pixels is not one dead pixel. It is usually a row or column driver, or the thin cable between the lid and the base. If the line appears and disappears when you gently change the lid angle, tell the repairer that. It points at the cable. Do not keep flexing the hinge to reseat it. That is how those cables tear.

The fixer, and what not to do instead

On an LCD laptop, a stuck pixel is sometimes a liquid crystal jammed between positions. The stuck-pixel fixer cycles a small box through red, green, blue, black and white. You choose 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes or 5 minutes. Drag the box onto the dot, or use the Left, Right, Up and Down buttons. Keep it small.

Nothing flashes until you read the photosensitive-epilepsy warning and press “I understand, start”. If the device asks for reduced motion, you have to confirm again. Stop stays on screen for the whole run. Flashing light can trigger seizures in some people, including people with no history of epilepsy. Stop at once if you feel unwell.

If the dot is unchanged after a couple of minutes, stop. There is no trustworthy published success rate. A dead pixel and a hot pixel are electrical. Flashing does not reconnect them. An OLED laptop is a poor candidate too: there is no liquid crystal to unstick, and rapid flashing can stress the pixels.

Do not press, rub, or heat the panel. Guides that tell you to massage a pixel, use a suction cup, or aim a hair dryer at the lid can split the layers, crack the glass, or cook the polariser. On many laptops the battery is close to that lid. This tool never asks you to touch the screen. A cloudy bruise larger than one pixel is pressure damage already. More pressure makes it worse.

A video that flashes the entire screen for an hour is the same idea with less control and a larger flash. Use the small timed box, or leave it alone.

Warranty pointers, without invented quotas

Dell, HP, Lenovo, Apple and other laptop makers publish pixel rules that differ by model, by panel and by country, and they change. A number copied from a forum, or from a different laptop, is not your policy. This page does not quote those allowances.

Look the exact model up on the maker’s own support site:

• Dell Support
• HP Support
• Lenovo Support
• Apple Support for Mac if the laptop is a Mac

Those links open a place to search. They are not a statement of how many pixels that maker allows. Have the serial number, the purchase date and your colour notes ready. The warranty guide explains ISO 9241-307 fault classes and, for a UK purchase, how the Consumer Rights Act 2015 sits alongside a manufacturer chart.

A Chromebook is a laptop with ChromeOS in the way of the full-screen step. Dead pixels on a Chromebook covers that, and who actually warrants the panel.

Common questions