Dead pixels and (heat)spot?

The spot could be a "mura spot" (LCD defect that develops over time), however with the patch of defective pixels nearby it suggests a common factor, but what? Mechanical (swollen battery, lose item due to a drop) or thermal (defective battery or component). Or just two unrelated issues. Does the watch get hot while charging?

@Data thanks for thinking along :) "mura spot", never knew of the term, nice

The watch does have a rattle when it vibrates for alerts (it's more noise than it should make, but I never investigated what it was), but that's been going on for 2 years or so. I doubt that would manifest itself as an issue just now. It doesn't get hot while charging, luckily. I also checked the schematics if it could be the battery, that was my first guess, but it looks like the battery occupies the better part of the whole watch. So if that swells, I doubt it would cause issues near the edge of the screen where my issue concentrates.

It also seems that the pixels / spot grow / change in a short time, this is a comparison over the last 12 hours:

Unfortunately it looks like the LCD is going bad. Maybe if you call Garmin product support, thetly have an option for paid replacement if you cab agree with the price. Or just wait it out, maybe it just stops.

So, an update.

Having a pretty bad back and forth with (the Dutch branch of) Garmin support resulted in the conclusion that I could spend 208 euro to get a replacement (refurbished) Fenix 6. With the Fenix 7 currently dropping to just about double that price, I was not content with spending 200 euro's on a device that should have survived at least 5 years in my opinion.

However, before I would roll over for a new device, I wanted to see if I could just replace the battery of my device. For 10-20 euro I was able to purchase a replacement battery with the same mAh and connector (though listed as a Fenix 5 battery, it was fine for my Fenix 6). I have just replaced the battery and... it seems to be working. At least it can come off the charger without immediately dying. I am going to leave it on charge overnight and see what mileage I can get out of it.

Also, for some reason this fixed my dead pixels as well, which really stumped me... I did not expect that to happen.

I'll test the new battery and see if I remember to report back here for anyone who is running into the same issues.

Thanks for reporting back. Congrats on the good result you have! I had not expected that the dead pixels were related to the bad battery either. Hope your Fenix will last many years.

It looks like the battery is good for now, and the dead pixels are gone. Though I am not sure if the pixel revival is related to the battery replacement, or just something that happend during (disassembly).

However, Now I am in more problematic situation because my Fenix won't pair to my phone anymore. It does send out a bluetooth signal that my phone can see, but when I try to pair, Garmin connect just fails. Sometimes there is a quick notification showing that the passcode or password is incorrect. I tried several bluetooth resetting steps for my phone, even tried on another phone, but no luck yet.

So, 2 steps forward, 2 steps back it seems.

I am no expert at this, I struggled with this with all of my Fenix'es at some point, and what may be overkill, but worked for me: turn Fenix off, sign out of Connect app, deinstall Connect app, remove watch from Bluetooth devices on the phone, reboot phone, reinstall the app, sign in again, turn watch on and set it in Pair phone mode.

Hello. I am sorry to hear you are having this issue. If you are seeing the failed pixels, I would recommend contacting Garmin Product Support, as the device will likely need to be replaced.