NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, November 2011
Should you worry about image retention on an LCD monitor?
By Linda Gonse,
Editor/Webmaster, ORCOPUG (Orange County PCUG), California
July 2011 issue, Nibbles ‘n Bits
December 2010 issue, Horizons, The Official Journal of CUE
http://www.orcopug.org
editor (at) orcopug.org (click to email author)

I just bought a brand new HP ZR22w LCD flat screen monitor. My understanding always has been that burn-in (also called image retention or image persistence) does not occur on LCD screens. But, an HP help file that came with my monitor dispelled that notion.

“Image retention occurs when the monitor is left ON while displaying the same image for an extended period of time, leaving a ‘shadow’ of this image on the screen.”

I researched the burn-in problem further and About.com, http://bit.ly/k05clD, said “Image retention can be corrected in most cases and is easily prevented.” That statement was a relief!

The article went on to list methods that could be used to prevent image retention/persistence.

1.“Set the screen to turn off after a few minutes of screen idle time under the Power functions in Windows. Turning the monitor display off will prevent an image from being displayed on the screen for extended periods of time. Of course, this could be annoying to some people as the screen may go off more than they wish.”

2.“Use a screen saver that either rotates, has moving graphic images or is blank. This also prevents an image for being displayed in screen for too long.”

3.“Rotate any background images on the desktop. Background images are one of the most common causes for image persistence. By switching backgrounds every day or few days, it should reduce the change of persistence.”

4.“Turn off the monitor when the system is not in use. This will prevent any problems where the screen saver or power function fails to turn off the screen and result in an image sitting on the screen for long times.”

The bottom line is not to be too worried about image burn-in, but keep it in mind when using your LCD monitor and you can easily prevent it from happening.

If somehow it does happen, see http://bit.ly/k05clD, for instructions on how to correct existing image retention on LCD monitors.

Finally, the HP text helpfully revealed another problem not known to all LCD monitor users, “the fluorescent lights inside the display have a limited lifetime and will gradually degrade.” This is reason enough not to leave a monitor on 24/7, even with a screensaver enabled. Use the timed Energy/Power setting to automatically turn the monitor off when your system is idle for a while.

Click here to return to top



==================================================================