Dead pixel or stuck pixel: what is the difference?
Both faults look like a dot that should not be there, and almost everyone calls both of them a dead pixel. They are not the same thing, and the difference is worth thirty seconds of your time: a stuck pixel is still receiving power and is jammed showing one colour, which means it can often be revived. A dead pixel receives nothing and stays black, which means no amount of software will bring it back. Everything below is about telling which one you are looking at, and what each is worth doing about.
On this page
- What is the difference between a dead pixel and a stuck pixel? — the whole difference in one table, if that is all you came for
- What are pixels and sub-pixels made of? — sub-pixels, and why a single failure changes colour rather than just going dark
- What does a stuck pixel look like on screen? — a bright dot that never changes, most obvious against black
- What does a dead pixel look like on screen? — a black dot that never lights, most obvious against white
- How do you tell a dead pixel from a stuck pixel? — a five-step check that also rules out the things that are neither
- Can you fix a dead pixel or a stuck pixel? — try the fixer on stuck, go to warranty on dead
- Do dead and stuck pixels spread over time? — when one dot stays one dot, and when it is the start of something
- How many dead or stuck pixels are acceptable? — manufacturer thresholds, and why one dot rarely clears them
- What else looks like a dead or stuck pixel? — the faults that get misdiagnosed as pixels and need a different fix
What is the difference between a dead pixel and a stuck pixel?
If you only read one thing on this page, read this. A stuck pixel shows a colour. A dead pixel shows nothing at all.
| Feature | Stuck pixel | Dead pixel |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance | Bright coloured dot — red, green, blue, or a mix | Black dot |
| On a black screen | Obvious | Invisible |
| On a white screen | Often invisible | Obvious |
| Behaviour | Stays lit, never changes with screen content | Stays off, never lights up |
| Cause | Sub-pixels jammed in the “on” position | Sub-pixels receiving no power |
| Chance of a fix | Often recoverable with the flashing method | Not repairable in software |
The fastest way to place your own fault: display a full black screen, then a full white one. Visible on black and not on white means stuck. Visible on white and not on black means dead. You can do both right now with our dead pixel test.
What are pixels and sub-pixels made of?
Every pixel on a screen is three separate light sources sitting side by side — one red, one green, one blue. What you perceive as a single coloured dot is your eye blending those three at whatever brightnesses the panel has set them to.
That structure explains the entire difference between the two faults. If one sub-pixel jams on, the pixel still emits light, just the wrong light — a red dot where there should be white. If the pixel loses power altogether, all three go dark and it emits nothing. How LCD screens work covers the transistor layer that fails in each case.
What does a stuck pixel look like on screen?
A stuck pixel is permanently lit. One jammed sub-pixel gives a pure red, green or blue dot; two give a secondary colour such as yellow or cyan; all three give white, which is usually called a hot pixel. Whatever the colour, it does not vary as the image behind it changes.
Against a dark background it is unmistakable. Against a bright one it can vanish entirely — a sub-pixel stuck on green is effectively invisible on a green screen, which is exactly why a proper test cycles through several colours rather than one. What a stuck pixel is goes into the causes and the fixes in full.
What does a dead pixel look like on screen?
A dead pixel produces no light at all, in any colour, ever. It reads as a black speck, and it is at its most visible on a white or light background where everything around it is bright.
The defining characteristic is that it never changes. Not with the image, not with brightness, not after a reboot. If a dot ever shows any colour under any circumstances, it is not dead — and that is good news, because the fixable fault is the other one. What a dead pixel is covers why they occur and what the realistic options are.
How do you tell a dead pixel from a stuck pixel?
Work through this in order. It settles the question and clears the two most common false alarms at the same time.
- Clean the screen. Dust and grease account for a large share of reported pixel faults. Wipe it properly — safely, never with household glass cleaner — and check whether the dot is still there.
- Go full black. A bright dot on black is stuck or hot. Nothing visible means it is not.
- Go full white. A black dot on white is dead. If you saw it on black and not on white, you have your answer already.
- Cycle red, green and blue. A single failed sub-pixel hides on its own colour and shows clearly on the other two. This is what tells you which sub-pixel is involved.
- Reboot and change the cable. Anything that moves or disappears was never a pixel fault. A crashed driver or a failing cable produces artefacts that look convincing until you test them this way.
How to run a dead pixel test covers the preparation in more detail, including the display settings that need turning off first.
Testing a phone, tablet or television
On a phone the pixels are small enough that a single failed sub-pixel can hide at arm’s length. Turn the brightness up, run the colour cycle, and look closely — testing a phone screen has the detail. On a television, where you usually cannot open a browser, our full-screen test videos run the same sequence at the right aspect ratio from a USB stick or a casting app.
On any television, switch off motion smoothing, dynamic contrast and eco modes before you judge anything. All three change what actually reaches the panel, and they can both hide a real fault and manufacture a convincing fake one.
Can you fix a dead pixel or a stuck pixel?
Stuck: attempt the flashing method. Rapidly cycling colours through the pixel can shake a jammed sub-pixel loose, it carries no risk to the panel, and a reasonable share of stuck pixels do come back. Our dead pixel fixer runs the pattern — leave it on the fault for at least an hour, and turn off automatic sleep first. All the methods for reviving a stuck pixel covers the alternatives, including the pressure technique and why it is a last resort.
Dead: there is no software fix, and anything claiming otherwise is describing a stuck-pixel treatment. The question becomes whether it clears your manufacturer’s pixel-defect threshold. Photograph it on both black and white, note its position, and check the policy — premium and professional panels are usually stricter, and some carry a zero-defect guarantee. What to do about a dead pixel walks through the claim.
Either way it is worth knowing how common faults are on your brand before you make the call. We publish the results people send us, broken down by manufacturer.
How long to run a stuck pixel fixer
At least an hour, and several hours is better — some pixels only respond after a full night. Turn off automatic sleep and screen lock first, or the display shuts down ten minutes in and nothing happens. If a full night produces no change, the sub-pixel has almost certainly failed outright rather than jammed, and more time will not help.
What not to try on a dead pixel
Nothing involving pressure, heat or installed software. A dead pixel receives no signal, so there is nothing for any of it to act on, and the pressure method in particular risks turning one dead pixel into a cluster. If the dot never shows any colour under any circumstances, skip straight to the warranty question.
Do dead and stuck pixels spread over time?
Usually not, and the exceptions are worth recognising because they change what you should do.
An isolated pixel that failed through a manufacturing defect generally stays exactly that: one pixel, indefinitely. It does not infect its neighbours, and there is no mechanism by which it would. A stuck pixel that has been sitting there unchanged for a year will most likely still be one stuck pixel next year.
Spreading points at a physical cause instead. Impact damage severs connections in a region rather than at a point, and the surrounding structure can keep giving way for weeks afterwards — which is why damage from a knock often starts as two or three dots and becomes a patch. Liquid damage behaves the same way and does not stop on its own. In both cases the fault is the panel, not the pixel, and what causes dead pixels covers how each kind of damage presents.
So: a single dot that has not changed is not a warning sign. A growing cluster is, and it is worth acting on while the screen is still under warranty rather than waiting to see how far it goes.
How many dead or stuck pixels are acceptable?
This is the question that decides whether you have a claim, and the answer is almost never “one is too many”. Manufacturers publish pixel policies built around a threshold: a number of failed pixels a panel is allowed before it counts as defective.
Those policies vary, but the recurring patterns are consistent:
- Bright counts for more than dark. A stuck or hot pixel lit against black is usually weighted more heavily than a dead one, because it is more visible in normal use.
- Position matters. Faults in the centre of the screen are often treated more seriously than the same fault near a corner.
- Clusters count separately. Several adjacent failures typically trip a policy that scattered single pixels would not.
- Class of panel matters. Consumer screens carry looser thresholds; professional and high-end displays are stricter, and some are sold with an explicit zero-defect guarantee that a single pixel will trigger.
Two practical points. Check your specific model’s policy rather than assuming, since the same manufacturer often applies different terms across its ranges. And check early — a good number of policies only apply within a short window after purchase, which is the strongest argument for testing a new screen the day it arrives. Testing a monitor covers what to document before you make the call, and it is worth checking how common faults are on Samsung, Apple, Dell or HP panels first.
What else looks like a dead or stuck pixel?
Not every blemish is a pixel. A few things are mistaken for one regularly:
- Dust or a mark on the glass — wipes away, and sits slightly out of focus compared with the pixel grid.
- Backlight bleed or corner glow — patches rather than dots, brightest at the edges on a black screen, common on LCD and not repairable in software.
- Clusters and blooms — several adjacent pixels failing together points at impact or liquid damage, which spreads. What causes dead pixels covers how each type of damage presents.
- Banding or a colour cast — a contrast or colour-profile problem, not a pixel one. Our screen contrast test separates the two.
- Burn-in on OLED — a faint ghost of a static image, uneven wear rather than a failed pixel. See dead pixels on OLED.
If you are still unsure after all of this, our LCD screen health guide runs the full set of checks in order.
