LCD Flicker after Shutdown Completes

I've noticed a couple of times now in the last few months that the screen on my 6 y.o. _Sony VAIO Z1A will briefly flicker once right after it completely powers down after a shutdown. The process goes something like this:

1) The ".Windows is shutting down" screen is showing as it completes the shutdown process;

2) I hear the audio system shut down (there's a very brief little *click* as the speakers lose power);

3) I hear the fan shut down;

4) The screen loses power and goes black (I know that it's powered off and not just displaying a black page because there is absolutely no light leakage - during normal ops there is light leakage), and lastly;

5) Maybe a second later, or a tad less than that, a very brief whitish flicker passes across the otherwise black screen, so fast that if you're not actually looking at the screen when it happens, you think that it was just an after-image on your retinas.

I'm guessing that this is probably a sign that the backlight or the inverter, or both, are beginning to show their age, sort of like when one of those flourescent lamps in office ceilings begins to wear out.

At any rate, if anyone's got some knowledge/experience as to the likely cause(s), I'd love to hear them.

 

Residual charge clearing out maybe?

 

That's a possibility, which, if I guess rightly, would indicate wear because, I believe, there is generally a capacitor designed into flourescent lighting systems that is supposed to absorb that type of charge dissipation and prevent it from actually hitting the lighting element.

 

Subliminal messaging.

 

That's ridicu...

yes, master, yes, i hear and obey, i will send all my money to Lord Gates, yes master

...lous, there's no such thing!

 

Freedom is irrelevant.

You have been assimilated.

Resistance is futile.

 

okay is it actually a "flicker" or more of a smear that goes from on side to the other.. know what i mean?

 

Its the little elves opening and then closing the door as they leave from behind the screen to go back into the main case to sleep. Who do you think draws all that stuff on the screen, they are also very fast hence only the brief flash.

Realistically I think its just the LCD powering down.

 

It doesn't really go from one side to the other, either in the sense of something moving, or something that covers the entire screen from side to side. It's more like a very, very faint splotch, that's not evenly lit, and doesn't quite reach the edges of the screen. It does remind me a little of what you would sometimes see when an old, old cathode-ray television set was shut down.

 

Problem is, it didn't used to happen, so them elves must be gettin' a little tired, perhaps nearing retirement, which is what I'm trying to figure out - whether or not I need to start saving up for my elves' retirement program.

 

Hm, is the splotch something like this?

 

No, no, I don't think the Indian was looking to the right.

 

Two ideas...
First it could be the inverter draining as stated before

Second it could be the liquid crystals in the LCD loosing polarization creating a faint witish/green patch over the middle part of the LCD

 

i have checked 5 other 17" panels sitting here and they all exhibit some thing like what you describe and they are new. some worse than others (samsung seemed the worst. lg were better) im going to make a call tomm to ask the guy at sharp i know if he has an idea of what it could be.. im just not positive if what im seeing is the same but it is as you describe like an old tube shutting down.. kinda slowly closing (but not so slow you get the idea)

ill report back what he says tomm..

 

Thanks, I really appreciate the help.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do it all the time, so it would be pointless for me to sit with a camcorder and try to capture it.

It's not so much like on the old TVs where the picture slowing shrinks away, so much as like when the tube would go black, and then there'd be a little additional light playing across the tube's surface (which, I'm guessing, was due to extraneous discharge of electrons as the electron gun cooled down), but it's not as particulate in nature as that - most likely because the lcd doesn't rely on an electron gun.

It does also remind me of the flicker you sometimes get from old flourescent tube lights after the power switch is turned off, although usually you have to be looking right at the end of the tube where the anode comes into the glass cylinder, and you can see a little extra light playing around in that end of the gas that fills the tube.

 

Yes this is very strange...

We should call up the FBI and put it under the X-files.

Like there was this time i turned off my notebook, and i saw a handsome guy in my LCD screen. Turned out it was just my reflection from the extra glossy screen.

har har.

 

It's not so much like on the old TVs where the picture slowing shrinks away, so much as like when the tube would go black, and then there'd be a little additional light playing across the tube's surface (which, I'm guessing, was due to extraneous discharge of electrons as the electron gun cooled down), but it's not as particulate in nature as that - most likely because the lcd doesn't rely on an electron gun.


thats what i was basically reffering to.

he said a lot of times this is normal on slightly older lcd's he doesnt think you have anything to worry about. he said most likely its the "shutters" not closing all at once they are closing (or opening depending on what type of panel it is) when you power down a panel the pixels (shutters if you will) rest a certain way, and they shut down when powered off. he said it just may be not all happening at once.

i have 2 BRAND new lg panels here i did installs with and they show almost the same exact thing you are talking about and they are both brand new. the light kinda travels out in a way when its powered down right??

he said he doesnt think you should worry at this point. he is a sharp head tech

 

Thanks zfactor, as well as to your friend! I'll just consider it to be an interesting quirk rather than something to worry about!