Dead Pixel vs. Stuck Pixel vs. Hot Pixel
People use these three terms as if they mean the same thing, but they're really different faults. Which one you have decides whether it can be fixed at all, and whether a warranty claim is likely to work. So it's worth five minutes to identify it properly before you either give up or contact support.
First, how a pixel is built
Everything below comes back to one detail: a pixel isn't a single dot of light. Each one is made of three subpixels, one red, one green and one blue, side by side and too small to see on their own. Your screen mixes them at different strengths to make every color you see. All three at full power make white; all three off make black.
A fault can affect the whole pixel or just one of its three subpixels, and that's exactly what separates a dead pixel from a stuck one.
Dead pixel
A dead pixel gets no power at all. The tiny switch that should drive it has failed, so all three subpixels stay off and the pixel stays black, whatever the screen is showing. With no signal reaching it, there's nothing for software to work on, which is why a dead pixel is not repairable.
Dead pixels hide well on dark content and stand out sharply on white, so people often first spot one on a blank document or a bright web page, not while gaming or watching a film.
Stuck pixel
A stuck pixel still has power, but one or more of its subpixels is frozen instead of responding to the signal. If the red one is stuck on, you see a red dot; if green and blue are stuck on, you see cyan. It shows the same color on every background.
This is the one worth trying to fix. The pixel is alive and still responding, so flashing high-contrast colors over it can sometimes jolt the subpixel loose. That's exactly what the Stuck Pixel Fix does.
Hot pixel
A hot pixel is the opposite of dead: all three subpixels are stuck fully on, so it shows as a bright white dot that never changes. It's really a stuck pixel at full brightness, and you'll hear about it far more in photography than with screens, because it's a well-known camera-sensor fault that shows up as a bright speck in long-exposure photos. On a monitor, a bright white dot is usually just called a stuck pixel, and manufacturers tend to lump both together as "bright" faults in their warranty terms.
Telling them apart at a glance
The Dead & Stuck Pixel Check runs through several colors rather than just one because each fault hides on some backgrounds and stands out on others:
| Fault | On a black screen | On a white screen | Fixable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dead pixel | Invisible — black on black | Obvious black dot | No |
| Stuck pixel | Bright colored dot | Subtle, or a faint colored tint | Sometimes |
| Hot pixel | Bright white dot | Invisible — white on white | Rarely |
So the practical way to check is to look at both extremes and a few colors in between. A dot that's black on every color is dead. A dot that shows the same color throughout is stuck. A dot that's white on black and disappears on white is hot.
Things that aren't pixel faults
Plenty of marks that look like a failed pixel turn out to be something else, so rule these out before assuming the worst:
- Dust or a smudge. It sits on the surface, not in the screen, and it usually moves or disappears after a careful clean.
- A pressure mark. Pressing hard on a screen can leave a bright or discolored patch. Unlike a pixel fault, it's usually bigger than a single dot and has soft edges.
- Problems across a whole area. A glow at the screen's edge is backlight bleed or IPS glow, and stepped or blotchy shading across a gradient is banding or a uniformity issue. Neither is a pixel fault.
- A faint ghost of an old image. That's burn-in or image retention, not a dead pixel.
What to do next
Run the full test to confirm which fault you have and, just as importantly, how many there are and where they are. Some manufacturers take a fault near the middle of the screen more seriously than one near a corner. If it's stuck, try the fix. If it's dead, the manufacturer policy comparison shows how many faulty pixels your brand allows before it will replace the screen, and how much stricter premium models tend to be.
Still deciding whether to buy a second-hand screen? How to check a used laptop or monitor screen walks you through the whole check before you pay.