Another design glitch in Windows 8?

[andrewbares]

So I noticed a dead pixel on my screen today. Wait no, it's not a dead pixel! It's simply the Metro Internet Explorer!

The dead white pixel appears wherever you are in metro Internet Explorer. It doesn't appear anywhere else in Windows 8.

More info: Sometimes it appears in that position, and sometimes it appears 20px or so lower, so it's not physically a dead pixel. Appears on southparkstudios.com too and other sites with a dark background. Doesn't appear in any other apps so far though. And yes this is Windows 8 RTM downloaded from TechNet.

Even more info: I tried closing IE and opening it again (right clicking it from the side window switcher page and clicking close) and the dead pixel went away. So it definitely seems to be caused by IE. I have two GPU's that I can switch between on my laptop so if it is one of those, I'd be able to switch to another and prove it's not a graphics card driver issue.

It appears to simply be something very random, which is why none of you probably haven't seen it. After closing and opening, it's not appearing right now.

[~Johnny]

Nope, I think that's just your machine :p

[Zac Bowden]

I don't see this white pixel on my PC, have you tried restarting your PC?

[majortom1981]

So I noticed a dead pixel on my screen today. Wait no, it's not a dead pixel! It's simply the Metro Internet Explorer!

The dead white pixel appears wherever you are in metro Internet Explorer. It doesn't appear anywhere else in Windows 8. That's a pretty big fail lol.

I do not have it on my windows 8 machine either

[Shane Nokes]

I'm not seeing that on my particular setup. I'd be willing to bet though if you could select it you'd find it actually is something coded on the site.

I remember seeing a similar single white dot like that a while back (not in Metro IE) on a website and it turned out to actually be some sort of code for an ad control or something.

[zeta_immersion]

so , you have a dead pixel that simply cannot render a specific color (white/red/blue/green) and Metro, simply just had to actually put a white pixel right there ...

man, you made my day .... my cam (sony w200 has the same issue ... it has some dead pixels and in black it shows red, but in all other colors work fine) .. damn you science

[andrewbares]

so , you have a dead pixel that simply cannot render a specific color (white/red/blue/green) and Metro, simply just had to actually put a white pixel right there ...

man, you made my day .... my cam (sony w200 has the same issue ... it has some dead pixels and in black it shows red, but in all other colors work fine) .. damn you science

The pixel shifts position (sometimes it's lower sometimes it's 20px higher). It's NOT a dead pixel. It's something with Internet Explorer, and appears on other sites (You can see in in southparkstudios).

[Azusa]

So wait GFX cards can have dead pixels too?

[Shane Nokes]

The pixel shifts position (sometimes it's lower sometimes it's 20px higher). It's NOT a dead pixel. It's something with Internet Explorer, and appears on other sites (You can see in in southparkstudios).

What resolution is your screen? I have a feeling this is an ad control (as I mentioned earlier) that you're spotting, but because of the Modern UI behavior you can't right click to verify.

[~Johnny]

The pixel shifts position (sometimes it's lower sometimes it's 20px higher). It's NOT a dead pixel. It's something with Internet Explorer, and appears on other sites (You can see in in southparkstudios).

Most likely an issue with your graphics card driver.

[andrewbares]

Most likely an issue with your graphics card driver.

Nope it's not a graphics card driver issue. Fully closing IE and opening it again made it disappear. It's definitely caused by IE, seems to be extremely random that's all.

What resolution is your screen? I have a feeling this is an ad control (as I mentioned earlier) that you're spotting, but because of the Modern UI behavior you can't right click to verify.

1280 x 800. Could be an ad control but I don't think southparkstudios has many third-party advertisements.

[~Johnny]

Nope it's not a graphics card driver issue. Fully closing IE and opening it again made it disappear. It's definitely caused by IE, seems to be extremely random that's all.

... and IE's display surface is fully GPU accelerated. You can't rule out GPU drivers that easily :p

[Stoyan Dimitrov]

I dont see it either ... :p

[vcfan]

I have the dead pixel issue too on one of my laptops. this laptop has an intel 4 series chipset,and the drivers are the ones loaded by windows 8. using windows 8 rtm

update: closed ie with task manager,and opened it again,and now its gone. I haven't shut down this computer in awhile,just putting it in sleep mode. maybe its a bug,maybe its a driver issue,who knows.

[aviator189]

dude, did you even think that it might be just your machine that's experiencing this?

I don't see any such thing on mine.

[JaredFrost]

so , you have a dead pixel that simply cannot render a specific color (white/red/blue/green) and Metro, simply just had to actually put a white pixel right there ...

man, you made my day .... my cam (sony w200 has the same issue ... it has some dead pixels and in black it shows red, but in all other colors work fine) .. damn you science

It can't be a dead pixel, you can't screenshot a screen defect, and that looks like a screenshot to me.

Man, you made my day....../s

My guess would be some type of GPU rendering issue, whether thats because of Windows 8, drivers or GPU fault, unknown

at this point.

Seems rather specific for a GPU fault though, those generally show more signs, other artifacts in other places, random colours, etc.

Maybe it's a secret link on Neowin put there by the Illuminati, the true masterminds behind Metro, part of their master plan at dumbing

down the world so they're easier to control.

[DClark]

This reminds me of the people who were looking for plot holes in The Dark Knight Rises to somehow make the film illegitimate. Yet, the same flaws existed in the "popular" predecessors. Now Windows 8 is The Dark Knight Rises as Windows 7 was The Dark Knight.

Fools.

[simplezz]

Could be your ram. Memory errors can cause that kind of screen corruption. When it happened to me once I thought it was the GFX card, but then I ran memtest x86 and lo and behold it was my ram :/ Might be something else in your case, but it's worth testing just to be sure.

[yakumo]

I've had this problem caused by software before, it really made me panic until I'd taken a screenshot and knew it wasn't my nice new screen.

I seem to remember it was the jawbone icon (bluetooth headset) software, which was pretty much entirely a systray and right click menu only thing, it really shouldn't have been touching the rest of screen at all, but I terminate the process and the pixel was gone, only to return when it was started again.

[nub]

so , you have a dead pixel that simply cannot render a specific color (white/red/blue/green) and Metro, simply just had to actually put a white pixel right there ...

I don't fully understand what you're trying to say, but I don't think you understand what a dead pixel is. A dead pixel is a physical pixel on a monitor that is no longer working (a pixel stuck a certain color is a stuck pixel). Dead/Stuck pixels will not show up on a screenshot since the problem is with your monitor.

Could be your ram. Memory errors can cause that kind of screen corruption. When it happened to me once I thought it was the GFX card, but then I ran memtest x86 and lo and behold it was my ram :/ Might be something else in your case, but it's worth testing just to be sure.

If his ram/video card were bad, there would most likely be other artifacts as well.

[andrewbares]

Well guys, this is actually a problem with Windows 8. I just noticed that my mom's PC also has the "dead pixel"

It doesn't always show up. After completely closing IE and then opening it again, it doesn't appear for a while. And then it starts to appear again.

Microsoft needed to slow down and actually finish Win8 before releasing it!

[Shane Nokes]

Well guys, this is actually a problem with Windows 8. I just noticed that my mom's PC also has the "dead pixel"

It doesn't always show up. After completely closing IE and then opening it again, it doesn't appear for a while. And then it starts to appear again.

Microsoft needed to slow down and actually finish Win8 before releasing it!

That shows us that it's happening in MetroIE. That could mean it's still an issue related to graphics drivers. Are you both using the type of card (nVidia or AMD based)?

[andrewbares]

That shows us that it's happening in MetroIE. That could mean it's still an issue related to graphics drivers. Are you both using the type of card (nVidia or AMD based)?

My laptop has a switchable integrated Intel HD graphics card and an AMD Radeon, while my mom's desktop has a NVidia GeForce 9800.

That would make me think it's a problem with Windows for sure, not the graphics drivers. Nevertheless, it seems to ONLY ever appear in Metro IE, which re-enforces my belief that it's Windows.

[Nothing Here]

Stop using IE then. /s

[Shane Nokes]

My laptop has a switchable integrated Intel HD graphics card and an AMD Radeon, while my mom's desktop has a NVidia GeForce 9800.

That would make me think it's a problem with Windows for sure, not the graphics drivers. Nevertheless, it seems to ONLY ever appear in Metro IE, which re-enforces my belief that it's Windows.

Hmm. I wonder why it's not being seen more often then if it's purely a Metro IE problem. I'm not saying you're wrong, but one would think if it's a Windows or Metro IE specific issue we'd see more reports here. I think we've had only one repro so far in this thread.