LCD life

From: Yowza! <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sun Feb 15 21:52:03 1998

On Sun, 15 Feb 1998 SUPRDAVE_at_aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 2/15/98 1:42:33 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> higginbo_at_netpath.net writes:
>
> <<
> I thought all the pixels that would go bad do so during the assembly
> process. Do they go bad on their own over time?
>
> -John Higginbotham- >>
>
> yes, on lcd displays such as what IBM thinkpads use, individual pixels can go
> bad. usually its not noticeable unless there is a solid colour on the screen
> and then you can usually see it. i had a thinkpad once and had maybe one or
> two burn out while i had it. like anything, they can go bad, but usually not
> very many and almost never several at once.

It sounds like you've got an active matrix (TFT) display. TFTs have one
transistor per pixel, so you can see single points of failure like you've
described. Other types of laptop displays (passive matrix LCD, gas
plasma, and electroluminescent) address pixels by applying voltage at some
(x,y) using a single x control and a single y control (OK, sometimes
there are two or more independent panels to speed up the process). So, a
failure will either result in an entire row of dead pixels, or somethimes
an entire panel.

-- Doug
Received on Sun Feb 15 1998 - 21:52:03 GMT