Little White Dot And Poor Paint Font

[ma1ic3]

I purchased a flat panel monitor and two weeks later a little white dot appeared on the screen. A few days after that I sent the monitor back and bought a different brand at a different store. But the little white dot was still there. I just recently bought a new graphics card, the previous one was onboard and the little white dot is still there. Strangely, the little white does NOT get captured in screenshots. What's going on?

Also, there is one other thing. MS Paint is acting differently. When I type something in it, the font doesn't blend in with the background. It looks all choppy. I used Arial, so I know it's not the font.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma1ic3/poorFont1.png

[BenK]

I don't know about the dot but when I got my LCD text looked all choppy like you say until I installed the monitor drivers.

[Rat]

I assume the dot is there whatever application you're in (I have to ask)?

Control Panel/Display/Settings/Advanced/General/DPI setting - is this normal?

Have you tried a different cable, or rerouting the existing one? It's unlikely to be this, but it's worth ruling out. Also double-check the onboard graphics are disabled in BIOS.

Are you wearing glasses? If so, clean the speck of white paint off them.


Cheers,
Rat.

[ceptimus]

Sounds like the dot is a faulty pixel on the monitor itself. Coincidence that the other monitor developed a similar fault.

LCD manufacturers expect that there might be one or two dead pixels on a typical display - look at the paperwork that came with it - they always print some kind of clause to this effect and say that such faults may not be covered by their guarantee.

As the dot is an artifact of the monitor, not the motherboard, software or graphics card, then it follows that the computer can know nothing about the dot and therefore it won't be captured by screen grabs.

[Crispy Duck]

I would guess that your fonts are "choppy" because they're not being "anti-aliased", whereas they were with your previous graphics card. Windows uses a less technical phrase for anti-aliasing - there's an option somewhere for "smooth edges of screen fonts". Finding it is left as an exercise for the reader, as I'm off to lunch...

:)

[tkingdoll]

I would guess that your fonts are "choppy" because they're not being "anti-aliased", whereas they were with your previous graphics card. Windows uses a less technical phrase for anti-aliasing - there's an option somewhere for "smooth edges of screen fonts". Finding it is left as an exercise for the reader, as I'm off to lunch...

:)

I hope you brought enough for us all!

In XP, it's in Control Panel> Display> Appearance (a tab at the top) > Effects > Use the following method to smooth the edge of screen fonts (tick box)

[teddygrahams]

Please post a digital photograph of the little white dot. Sitting in the monitor.

[ma1ic3]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I turned on that font thing in the effects and the fonts work now in MSPaint.

Here's the picture. You can see the white dot below Firefox. The red box with the white dot is my replication of it, which is nothing more than a single white pixel that I made in MSPaint. But that is exactly what it looks like on my screen. Maybe just a teeny bit bigger and blockish. But it is pure white all the way, not shady like in the picture. Im at 1280x1024 resolution.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma1ic3/theWhiteDot.jpg

Also... my first monitor had about 3 black pixels. Then got that white one later. Why are some dead ones black and others are white? This new monitor had the white one right when I turned it on. In what looks to be the exact same location. I still need to check to see if my onboard graphics card is disabled.

Heh, what I really should do is stick this monitor on another computer. I'll do that. A few people have mentioned that maybe it was just a coincidence that both monitors had the same white dot in what looks to be the same place, but Im still not sure. That's a big coincidence I would think.

[Beanbag]

A few people have mentioned that maybe it was just a coincidence that both monitors had the same white dot in what looks to be the same place, but Im still not sure. That's a big coincidence I would think.

If your monitor is a TFT (thin-film transistor) monitor, as most LCD's are these days, then there are actual transistors built into the screen by a photolithographic process, using photomasks to pattern the transistors. If there was a defect in the mask, then all other LCD's built using that mask will show the same defect at the same place, i.e. a dead or always-on pixel.

TFT LCD's are basically one very large integrated circuit.

Beanbag

[ma1ic3]

Well... I hooked it up to a different computer and it was still there. So it's definitely the monitor. I guess I did end up buying two LCDs with the same white pixel.

[teddygrahams]

Okay, how about a close-up ?


Is that dot there when no pc is attached ? You should be able to bring up the OSD, move it, without any source attached.

[ma1ic3]

The dot is still there when I disconnect the LCD from the PC and turn the LCD back on. I don't know what OSD is.

Here is a couple close-ups. For some reason it looks green in a close-up. It didn't look like that in the LCD screen on the camera when I took the picture.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma1ic3/whiteDOT_3.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/ma1ic3/whiteDOT_2.jpg

[RSLancastr]

I don't know what OSD is.On Screen Display? Office of the Secretary of Defense? You decide. (http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=OSD)