In my August post, Strange Spot on Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC LCD Monitor, I wrote about a spot of dirt or some kind of contaminant in my monitor’s LCD panel. After receiving a lot of visits from people searching about this topic, I figured I’d ask Dell about it and report back here on my blog. Here’s what Chris M at Dell replied:

“Your seriously considering exchanging a monitor over this minor issue? Your call. Any exchange done outside of the initial 30 days from the invoice date will be for a refurbished monitor.”

Seems he was a bit appalled at my question. Nevertheless, it’s good to know that it is possible to return the monitor if you have a similar spot and don’t like it. Note that he also states that you should do so within 30 days of purchase in order to exchange yours for a new monitor, not a refurbished one.

I’m not returning mine because of the fear that what I get in exchange might have dead pixels. The risk is probably low but Dell’s policy is to not replace a monitor with seven or fewer dead pixels. That’s a lot of potentially dead pixels to stare at.

Since my spot is near the bottom corner of my monitor, I can live with it. Dead pixels would be more annoying–to me, anyway.

My Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC widescreen LCD monitor arrived the other day. Dell currently has it on sale for $569 (regularly $669). That’s a pretty good price considering that this monitor has picture-in-picture (PIP), picture-by-picture (PBP), portrait and landscape orientations, a four-port USB hub, five-format memory card reader, wide-gamut LCD panel and inputs for VGA, DVI, component, S-video and composite video.

The Samsung SyncMaster 245BW, by comparison, is only $100 less but has none of these extra features and only offers VGA and DVI inputs. However, the Samsung included both VGA and DVI cables, whereas Dell only included a VGA cable with their more expensive monitor. Weird.

Anyway, when I got the monitor set up, I checked it out for dead pixels and/or stuck pixels. Near the lower-right corner of the screen, I noticed a dark spot. Upon taking a closer look, it appeared to be larger than a single pixel and gray in color, not black (stuck off), white (stuck on), or any particular color (sub-pixel stuck). Just to be sure, I ran Dead Pixel Buddy to check what kind of dead pixel it might be. Well, it still didn’t seem like a stuck pixel because with any background color I tried, the spot was just a darker shade of it.

One more close-up look at the spot yielded an unusual feeling that the spot wasn’t in the same plane as the LCD pixels. My eyes felt as though they were shifting focus to see the spot. Then, I noticed that if I moved my head to the side, the spot would move relative to the image being displayed. You can see this behavior in the two photos below taken at different angles relative to the front of the screen.

In this first photo, you can see a gray dot above the red arrow and inside the on-screen button. This is taken at about a 45-degree angle to the left of perpendicular. (Note: In real life, the spot is sharper and more apparent than in the photo.)

In this next photo, the camera is about five degrees to the right of perpendicular. Notice how the spot has now moved to the right and appears to be on the right of the on-screen button.

So, what is this mysterious spot? The good news is that it isn’t a dead pixel or cluster of dead pixels. All I can figure at this point is that it’s a speck of dirt or some other contaminant that got caught inside the panel during manufacturing.

A couple of years ago, Moazam blogged that his Dell 2005FPW was collecting dust inside and that he rapped on the side of the screen with his knuckles to dislodge it. I tried that but to no avail. Oh, well. At least it’s near the bottom corner of the screen where it’s not too distracting. If the backlight burns out before I upgrade, I may try removing the spot when installing a new backlight.

As a follow up to my mini-review of the Samsung SyncMaster 245BW, I’d like to point out a very good thread I found on Anandtech’s forum called, what else, “The LCD Thread“. It goes into great detail on everything you’d possibly want to know about LCD monitors. It also has a list of some of the best monitors for specific uses such as office work, hardcore gaming, web design, etc.

The SyncMaster 245BW isn’t in the list but a smaller version, the 20-inch SyncMaster 205BW, is. Not sure if the 245BW and 205BW use the same type of LCD panel or if the 245BW uses the brighter S-PVA panel like the one in the Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC (also made by Samsung). If anyone knows, post a reply here.