A new cost-effective driving method that can drive plasma-display panel cells without applying any driving waveform to the common electrode is proposed based on a V/sub t/ close-curve analysis. In this driving method, it is very important to prevent a misfiring discharge due to the inversion of the polarity of the wall charges accumulated between the scan and address electrodes. The measured V/sub t/ close-curve showed that a misfiring discharge caused by the polarity inversion phenomenon of the wall charges on the scan and address electrode could be prevented by minimizing the potential difference between the scan and address electrodes by applying a positive auxiliary pulse to the address electrode, especially while applying the positive sustain pulse during a sustain period. As a result, the proposed cost-effective driving method can reduce the driving cost by about 20% through eliminating the common driving board and successfully display various image patterns, such as the white, red, green, and blue patterns, on a 42-in plasma television without any misfiring discharge.