Internal spot on my HP laptop screen

[UdaySaxena]

Hi folks,

There is appearing a dark spot on the screen of my recently purchased HP laptop(15-bs146tu). The spot is about 1.5 inches in dia and is more visible on light backgrounds and on colors like white, sky blue etc. At first, I thought that it is an external spot on my laptop screen so I tried to wipe it out by cloth but it didn't go and then I realized that it is an internal spot. Although at the spot every color and thing is perfectly visible also spot is visible only when paid attention to.

Is there any way to fix this or at least make it less visible. I've also attached a photo of it, I would also like to know what's the cause of this spot so that I could prevent such spots in future. Is it because of moisture in screen or pressureon screen?Notice the spot just above the G of Google.

You can notice it just above the G of the Google and below the address bar.

Thanks!

[David_J_W · Accepted solution]

Backlight non-uniformity leading to dark spots can be an issue on any flat panel display, especially modern displays that are very thin and light. It is more likely to be an issue on budget laptops like your HP Laptop 15 where there isn't the budget for panels with better engineered backlight diffusers or a housing made of top quality lightweight and rigid material that doesn't put pressure on the screen.

The shape of the blotch and its position closer to the centre of the screen makes me wonder if the housing is putting pressure on the back of the screen in that area. Unfortunately, there is probably very little you can do if that is the case; taking the display housing apart is quite an intricate and potentially risky job that would void your warranty and there is no guarantee that you will improve matters. The problem might be inherent to the display panel in your laptop, which is not a cheap part to replace.

I would contact HP Customer Care to see if they regard this as a warranty issue. If not, it is probably a case of living with it; it is annoying that it is there and that it is noticeable against light backgrounds, but it is unlikely to affect the use of your laptop. As you say, it "is visible only when paid attention to".

I would not poke at screen in that area; you might make any problem worse.

[UdaySaxena]

Thanks David ,your answer is helpful.

I would take care in future as I didn't know earlier that these are low-quality screens in this series of HP laptops.I shall also talk to my dealer whether such faults are covered in warranty or not. The spot is in no way decreasing the usability of laptop and is ignorable.

It is hardly visible on dark backgrounds and while watching videos.hardly visible on dark backgrounds

[David_J_W]

I think it is likely overstating the case to say that your computer has a low quality screen. My suggestion not to poke at the screen was that you risk worsening the backlight non-uniformity in that area and are unlikely to make it any better.

It is hard to tell from a photo, but I am fairly certain I have seen worse backlight non-uniformity on a monitor that I would place in the high-end business / low end graphics professional bracket. There are premium screens out there, such as the one in the device I am using to write this - but this is a premium laptop costing around five times as much as the Notebook 15. This model is used by some graphics professionals for whom screen quality matters but still does not have an entirely uniform backlight.

I doubt the Notebook 15 product range and your specific example are worse than the majority of inexpensive laptops sold today. I found a review of the Notebook 15 that gave some technical parameters for the screen indicating, unsurprisingly, that both the range of available colours (the gamut) was too small and the accuracy was too low (indicated by a high deltaE value on a set of standard colour patches) for colour critical work. None of this is surprising on a budget laptop; the figures were commensurate with a good quality screen in a modern budget laptop. It is only specialist screens sold at premium price that would meet the standards for colour-critical work - and even then periodic calibration is required with specialist hardware. Top end external monitors used for the most demanding colour-critical work cost over US$5000 each. HP's own Z series monitors, which are designed for colour-critical work though to a marginally lower standard than the top end products, cost way more than most other monitors of the same size and resolution, but for very good reason when you take the overall specification into account.

Generally speaking, the quality of screens has improved significantly over time at all price points. All I was indicating is that HP simply cannot afford to fit premium screens to budget computers; the target market will not be looking for that level of performance and will not be willing to pay the substantial extra costs involved.