VOGONS


First post, by murrayman

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This is new to me.

Victim is a dime-a-dozen 15" Dell E152FPb CCFL-backlit from the early 2000s. It was stored in a humid shed for the better part of four years, and had been stored without use in a climate-controlled environment for six years prior to that (was originally university property, then given away). Got it out recently since I moved to play around with it; after cleaning off the accumulated grime, found the frame, screen, and internals to be in excellent condition and rust- / corrosion-free. When I tested it years ago, the screen was functioning fine, and getting it out recently it seemed like it would still be okay after cleaning it up. But when I did, I found a bunch of blurry black spots on the screen. I immediately recognized it as mold, so I figured I hadn't scrubbed the screen well enough. Tackled that again, and found the spots still remained.

Is there a sublayer of the screen that could accumulate mold? And if so, is there any way I could access it to clean it out? Searching the web turned up very few results, and none here, so I'm flying blind here.

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Reply 1 of 3, by cyclone3d

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I saw that symptom a lot in some of the older Dell laptop screens that were still under warranty.. in Arizona.

So I would guess that it is not really mold, but that some part of the screen has separated.

It could possibly be caused by too many large temperature swings, humidity getting inside the monitor and screwing it up, factory defect that didn't show up right away, etc.

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Reply 3 of 3, by 133MHz

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I've seen both dirt and insects on the inner side of various LCD panels over the years, imperfections like that tend to bother me immensely but fortunately you can disassemble the display panel and get to the inside - I've done it to replace the fluorescent lamps. It's not terribly hard but it requires care, patience and finesse, not to mention cleanliness.

I recommend having the following tools and supplies:

  • A clean towel to put everything on top without risk of scratching delicate parts
  • Microfiber cloth
  • Camera cleaning bulb
  • 50:50 isopropanol/distilled water mixture
  • Latex gloves
  • A work area with the lowest amount of airborne particulates possible

Basically you don't want to get dust specks, fingerprints, etc on the inner layers of the panel/backlight diffuser assembly 'cause you'll be able to see them when the display is on. Take note of how evertyhing goes together and be careful around the flat flex cables connecting the circuit boards to the glass, they tear/rip very easily.

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