Dead pix... erm, actually, zomby lines!

[orcinus]

Didn't post this under Troubleshooting as it appears to have troubleshot itself

Did anyone experience their iLiad screen suddenly develop a dead... ish... line then spontaneously loose it over the course of a few hours?

I had it happen today and it wasn't very pleasant. I had a line about a centimeter and a half from the top that wouldn't display anything right except pure black. All grays came out lighter than the surrounding area, so it was pretty visible, especially in the sun. Oh, and you could see the line clearly all the way through a screen refresh.

Just as i was contemplating my bad luck with dead pixels, random twinkly hyperactive subpixels, sticky pixels, bouncy pixels, pixels with ADD and other screen malaises that seem to keep following me wherever i go, the line started fading away and disappeared completely after another screen refresh.

Never experienced anything like it on Sony Reader. Weird.

[rincewind]

I noticed a misbehaving line quite near the top of my iLiad, which then went away for little while. It's permanent now though. It's not quite dead, but quite visible at most times as a gray line.

[orcinus]

Yeah, that sounds like the same "bug". Kinda reminds me of the old Trinitron CRT's and their grille mounting wires

Anyway, mine just came back, although less visible than the first time.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by orcinus

Anyway, mine just came back, although less visible than the first time.

I told you. You have to turn it upside down and shake to reboot it.

BOb

[orcinus]

But that will make my pixels fall out!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I told you. You have to turn it upside down and shake to reboot it.

BOb

pfff !!

[Onemack]

Originally Posted by orcinus

But that will make my pixels fall out!

What happens to Pixels when they fall out, do they thud when they hit the ground, or do they splash, or are they silent and invisible, and just sneak away into the ether to join all the other unmentionable things out their like radio voices or ET conversations??

Just wondering

John

[orcinus]

Depends where they fall... If they fall on a piece of paper, they turn into letters. If you let the wind blow them away, they turn into magic pixie dust

[Shaggy]

Seriously though, if you have a line of pixels go out I've seen where iRex has repaired that under warranty. I'd take a picture of the screen and contact their tech support.

[HarryT]

Vertical or horizontal lines on the screen are generally the screen controller rather than the screen, and should certainly be a warranty repair.

[orcinus]

They didn't "go out", they are just a different brightness than other pixels (and only when displaying light greys). And it's a bit hard to pin it down, because it comes and goes. Right now, there's no sign of the offending line.

Looks to me like either some sort of internal interference (like the faint lines you used to see on some Palm devices in grayscale mode) or "loose" electrode wiring.

[orcinus]

'eck! My problem just got worse!

Instead of a slightly lighter line, i now have a permanently black horizontal line on the exacty opposite of the screen - at the very top of the icon bar. The pixels stay black even when the iLiad is off, but the brightness of the line changes a bit depending on the surrounding pixels (for example, on a black background, it's a slightly lighter gray instead of black).

Seems, indeed, like a busted controller or wiring.

The good news - the light line on the top disappeared at the same time.
The bad news - the unit was bought from ARINC, not iRex.

Edit: Looks identical to this - https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7358 - except much lower on the screen.

[orcinus]

After doing some testing, it would seem the line isn't premanently black - it's kinda inverted. I.e. black on white background and white (or light grey) on black background. It becomes invisible on 50% gray, but only if i cycle progressively to it from black. If i do it from white, it becomes black instead, at 50%. Pretty weird effect.

[joblack]

damn it ... the display has good image quality, but has no real durability (see my other posting for a screenshot) ...

[orcinus]

Here's mine...



Edit: it's about 50% grey on the shots, but i can make it turn anywhere between 0% (white) and 100% (full black) by cycling the screen with different pages (until the next full refresh cycle, that is).