Bright pixel on Windows 7 Desktop

mlevy said:

QDos, a hardware issue wouldn't show in a screenshot like his is. I agree with the others in that it's an application that's running.

It's an awful lot of fuss for one pixel, and I'm sorry to differ, but Im of the opinion that graphics drivers do not cause a single pixel, out of a few million, to misbehave.

Could be a transistor fault in the TFT that belongs to a neighbouring pixel, but which affects the one that appears dysfunctional. Could be the dysfunctional one has gone bad intermittently.

Tracking down a hardware fault of this nature is quasi-impossible, and worrying to any degree about a single pixel problem isn't really warranted either.

There are certainly far worse things which could have packed up

I'll reiterate, a fault in the panel will NOT show in a screenshot from the OS. A fault in the panel is downstream of where the screenshot is happening unless he's using a camera (he didn't from what I can tell).

Yeah, and screenshots can be edited too...

mlevy said:

QDos, a hardware issue wouldn't show in a screenshot like his is. I agree with the others in that it's an application that's running.

Try this, use msconfig to run a diagnostic startup (basic devices and services only) and then immediately after the reboot go to the screen where you see the pixel. Does it appear? If so, I suspect maybe an updated video driver is needed. If it doesn't, go back to a normal startup, except use the startup tab to enable 4-5 items at a time with reboots after each "group" to test. When you get the pixel, it's one of those 5.

I had already tried to boot with diagnostic startup up, and the pixel didn't appear when I go to the desktop background menu.

I think its the Desktop Window Manager process that caused the bright pixel.. because when I disabled the process, the bright pixel disappeared.

It doesnt really matter right now for me to not having the process running, as its task is to view the AERO effect. and there are no AERO effect on my windows since I am using the home basic version.

But will it still appear when I upgrade to home premium or other version? because i am planning to upgrade my windows.

I do recall, a while back (forgive me i cant remember the exact version)
but ATis catalyst would do something similar, and it drove me nuts

I want to say it was 8.11 - 9.2 somewhere around there.

All would be fine at boot, and once CCC loaded, white pixel in top left corner. it was fixed with next update.

So it isnt unreasonable a driver or software could be the culprit.


Safe mode boot should answer the question however.

I have exactly the same problem with a pixel in the top-left corner and it is not a dead pixel. I am able to 'show or hide' that pixel.

On the desktop do the following:

• Right-click
• "Personalize" (make sure it is not maximized to see the top-left corner of the desktop)
• "Window Color"
• Toggle the "Enable transparency" checkbox

When transparency is not enabled, one can see the pixel in the top-left corner of the desktop. Also, the colour of this pixel is whatever colour you have chosen in "Window Color and Appearance". I hope this helps someone find a solution as it can be annoying.