Well, this was a surprise ... especially as I'm referring to my own Dell 2001FP right in front of me.
I have 6 virtual desktops, and tend to keep specific tasks confined to their own desktop. I've had one window open in desktop #2 for nearly a month. I've been developing some software for work, so it's been on display as the active desktop most of the time.
I moved the primary window on that desktop for the first time yesterday. I immediately noticed that, in the top-left area of the screen, there was a very strong "after-image" of the window's titlebar. It didn't disappear immediately. I sat there staring at it for about 10 seconds and it didn't reduce in intensity at all. Uh oh. I started moving differently-shaded windows over the area, switching to the other 5 desktops, etc. No luck. Depending on the brightness of the new image displayed in that area, the "ghost" image was still visible. But over the span of about 20 minutes it did become less noticeable. And today, after having had the monitor off for most of the last 24 hours, and having had my windows arranged differently, the after-image is gone.
I talked with some people at work today who frequently work with huge LCD panels. They said they've experienced the same thing, and that sometimes they find the effect is permanent(!) and sometimes it's just temporary.
After dispatching the last of my disbelief (What is this, 1983? Where'd I put my old, amber-colored, monochrome monitor anyway?) I did some searching to see if I could find anyone else experiencing this. I found a good write-up from someone here. His experience is with Dell 2001FPs also, except in his case he's dealing with two that he uses together as a pair. And that, in fact, allowed him to reach one immediate conclusion:
So, susceptibility varies from unit to unit. I think I can top that though. With my 2001FP, I'm finding that it's only the top-left square of about 7 inches that is vulnerable to "image persistence". So it seems that the LCD pixels themselves on a single monitor can vary in terms of how prone they are to allowing this to happen.
In my case, static images in that upper-left area - positioned there for even a few minutes - leave a visible after-image. How obvious the after-image is depends on how bright subsequent images in the area are.
It's possible my Dell LCD has been prone to this since day one and I just hadn't noticed before.
It's also possible that it's a recent phenomenon. If that's the case, I have to wonder if it's a result of the liquid crystals becoming "fatigued". And if that's the case, then I fear that the currently sensitive 7-square-inch region is going to slowly expand across the whole panel.
Anyway, I just wanted to post my experience here because I believe a number of other SF readers have picked up LCD panels recently, or at least have been looking at them more these days.
I guess the bottom line is that it's still a relatively new technology, especially at the sizes that are available now, and in the volumes that are being produced. And especially compared to how long CRTs have been in production. As a result my advice to you LCD owners is:
1) Don't wait for power management to turn off your LCD panel if you know you won't be back within n-minutes. I hadn't been bothering much with this, instead leaving it up to my computer to suspend the monitor after 30 minutes.
2) Bring back the screensaver! Long live the screensaver! I had ditched screensavers, but now I'd recommend picking one that is light on fixed-elements (preferably nothing fixed at all). I've got the famous "Blaster" screensaver enabled now, configured to start after 5 minutes of activity.
I have 6 virtual desktops, and tend to keep specific tasks confined to their own desktop. I've had one window open in desktop #2 for nearly a month. I've been developing some software for work, so it's been on display as the active desktop most of the time.
I moved the primary window on that desktop for the first time yesterday. I immediately noticed that, in the top-left area of the screen, there was a very strong "after-image" of the window's titlebar. It didn't disappear immediately. I sat there staring at it for about 10 seconds and it didn't reduce in intensity at all. Uh oh. I started moving differently-shaded windows over the area, switching to the other 5 desktops, etc. No luck. Depending on the brightness of the new image displayed in that area, the "ghost" image was still visible. But over the span of about 20 minutes it did become less noticeable. And today, after having had the monitor off for most of the last 24 hours, and having had my windows arranged differently, the after-image is gone.
I talked with some people at work today who frequently work with huge LCD panels. They said they've experienced the same thing, and that sometimes they find the effect is permanent(!) and sometimes it's just temporary.
After dispatching the last of my disbelief (What is this, 1983? Where'd I put my old, amber-colored, monochrome monitor anyway?) I did some searching to see if I could find anyone else experiencing this. I found a good write-up from someone here. His experience is with Dell 2001FPs also, except in his case he's dealing with two that he uses together as a pair. And that, in fact, allowed him to reach one immediate conclusion:
So, susceptibility varies from unit to unit. I think I can top that though. With my 2001FP, I'm finding that it's only the top-left square of about 7 inches that is vulnerable to "image persistence". So it seems that the LCD pixels themselves on a single monitor can vary in terms of how prone they are to allowing this to happen.
In my case, static images in that upper-left area - positioned there for even a few minutes - leave a visible after-image. How obvious the after-image is depends on how bright subsequent images in the area are.
It's possible my Dell LCD has been prone to this since day one and I just hadn't noticed before.
It's also possible that it's a recent phenomenon. If that's the case, I have to wonder if it's a result of the liquid crystals becoming "fatigued". And if that's the case, then I fear that the currently sensitive 7-square-inch region is going to slowly expand across the whole panel.
Anyway, I just wanted to post my experience here because I believe a number of other SF readers have picked up LCD panels recently, or at least have been looking at them more these days.
I guess the bottom line is that it's still a relatively new technology, especially at the sizes that are available now, and in the volumes that are being produced. And especially compared to how long CRTs have been in production. As a result my advice to you LCD owners is:
1) Don't wait for power management to turn off your LCD panel if you know you won't be back within n-minutes. I hadn't been bothering much with this, instead leaving it up to my computer to suspend the monitor after 30 minutes.
2) Bring back the screensaver! Long live the screensaver! I had ditched screensavers, but now I'd recommend picking one that is light on fixed-elements (preferably nothing fixed at all). I've got the famous "Blaster" screensaver enabled now, configured to start after 5 minutes of activity.
