Orange spider web on the screen

[NeXT]

He didn't get switched. I stand by my theory that the LCD received some form of rough handling and has cracked the glass in a very specific way.

 

[DeltaDon]

File a claim, why take a loss just because....

In the last 6 months I've ordered two laptops that in the auction photographs appeared to be nearly mint. In both cases when they are arrived I poured the laptops out in hundreds of pieces. Poor packing. I filed a case with both and and received a refund in less than a day. If you buy something in one condition and receive it in some other condition, it's up to the seller to make good. If it is shipping damage then the seller take the issue up with the shipper, not the buyer. The buyer's only responsibility in most cases is to answer any questions the shipping company may have regarding making good on the insurance payment back to the seller. The real crime is that many seller could give a crap about packaging other than reducing the weight and therefore the cost to ship. But getting zero dollars, unless insurance makes good (which in most cases it does not) and not having a product to sell is pure dumb thinking. Read the insurance statements for most shipping companies are realize that they either pay only so much per pound or have other ways to not pay for damaged goods. Bad packing is often not covered.

 

[3lectr1c]

This looks suspiciously like a case of "Vinegar Syndrome" or similar degradation of the bonding between the LCD itself and the polarizer. If that's what it is, well, I suppose it's *hypothetically possible* a change in air pressure could have caused these weird spidery bubbles to just suddenly all pop loose at once, but... yeah, a bait and switch seems a lot more likely.

That is NOT vinegar syndrome and replacing the polarizer film will do nothing to fix it. That screen has "LCD rot" or what is also sometimes called "pixel rot" or pressure damage. It can be caused by mild pressure being put in a spot on the screen for long periods of time (like the trackball pressing against the screen on PowerBook 100s for instance). When it's not clearly the result of pressure it becomes less clear what the cause is. Could be something heavy put on top of the laptop, maybe, or something else.

I doubt the seller had two Eurocom-branded Nan Tan 9200s, one with a bad screen and one with a good, and tried to pull one over on you. My guess is it either somehow developed as a result of shipping or perhaps developed on its own during months in storage if the listing you bought had been up for a while. It's perfectly possible the latter happened, the seller already had it packed in a box, then just shipped it out when you bought it.
Or maybe they scammed you, but I'd honestly doubt it for something as random as this. It just wouldn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Hugo Holden]

It's an urban legend that the luggage compartment in airliners is unpressurized. It's not. Next time you're on a jet if it's not too crowded you can play the game of "find the vent" leading directly to the luggage compartment; the floor of modern jetliners is like swiss cheese in order to make sure that the floor won't collapse if a cargo door were to blow off in flight. (See here and here.)

(Edit: I mean, I guess if you flew back from Japan on a small private jet with wing lockers things might be different, but that's a pretty fancy edge case.)

I think there are sometimes issues with freight compartment pressure on planes. I once had a radio shipped where clearly the outside was depressurized, probably quite rapidly with little time for the internal and external pressure of the radio to equalize. It blew (pushed) the cone out of the speaker and it also ejected the dial. It was definitely a de-pressurization event that did it.

 

[3lectr1c]

Google around and there are plenty of accounts about DIY-ing it. The VERY hard part, of course, is getting the old film off without breaking the glass...

I've always heard the hardest part is getting the new film on properly without any bubbles. That and removing the adhesive the film left behind. I've actually never heard of someone breaking the glass trying to get the film off. Again though, doesn't apply here as that's not polarizer related.

 

[MacGyver]

There is no foil there

 

[Eudimorphodon]

I think there are sometimes issues with freight compartment pressure on planes. I once had a radio shipped where clearly the outside was depressurized, probably quite rapidly with little time for the internal and external pressure of the radio to equalize. It blew (pushed) the cone out of the speaker and it also ejected the dial. It was definitely a de-pressurization event that did it.

Airliners typically have a rate of climb of around 2000 feet per minute; if we worse-case assume that the pressure of the cabin will fall at something close 1 PSI a minute until stabilizing at 11 PSI something like a radio designed with a mostly airtight case with a hole containing the speaker (and maybe a hole for the dial that has a rubber grommet around it to prevent accidental ingestion of water if touched with wet hands) may well turn its speaker inside out. I mean, it is a cone of *paper*. There's a reason why people bring chewing gum on flights to help keep their ears popping. (And why flying with a bad head cold can be the most painful thing ever.)

I've seen mustard blown all over the interior of a car after a bottle brought from sea level was opened at 4,000 feet after a roughly hour drive, pressure differences certainly can cause some interesting behavior. I'm just skeptical anything you'd encounter on an airliner could damage an LCD that didn't already have broken glass.

 

[3lectr1c]

I don't think pixel rot is caused by broken glass.
In fact, in certain Game Boy screens affected by it, it can be possible to improve their condition by massaging the affected areas. A fiddly process, and usually it won't fully resolve it, but if it was an issue with broken glass, I'd imagine that putting more pressure over the area would simply make it worse?
I'd be interesting in hearing what an LCD industry expert would have to say about this condition.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

I don't think pixel rot is caused by broken glass.

I don't think this is broken glass either, unless it's truly microscopic micro-cracks/pinholes; the OP included some very close-up images and this orange corruption, whatever it is, very much looks like it's *in front* of the pixel grid and the pixels themselves look pristine.

The reason I was thinking it was the polarizer is the "washed out" orange places are similar to what you'll see if you take the polarizer off a backlight screen... but the fact that the orange area is so prominent when the screen is turned off, well, genuinely no idea what's going on with that. It still very much looks to me like some kind of contamination between the LCD and the front film, and there's the fact that it's orange, even with the light off, that continues to make me think this might be a different animal than the "screen rot" or "screen cancer" as seen on old Gameboys and whatnot. (In all the examples of that I've seen the "rot" is the same color as the pixels.) But maybe there's just something about this screen (polarizer angle or whatever) that magically makes these corrupted areas a different color.

I'd be interesting in hearing what an LCD industry expert would have to say about this condition.

Not an expert, but this guy's oxidation theory is interesting. It particularly seems like a reasonable explanation for the "tunnel vision" form of screen rot, where you get a creeping darkness around the edges of the screen that works inward. (As mentioned, there's a vacuum degassing phase when building an LCD, if over time the seal around the edges rots out it'd make sense for the medium immediately behind those seals to fail first.) But whether in holds water or not... insert shrug emoji here.

If I had this laptop in my hot little hands and no chance of getting my money back I'd probably at least experiment with some light pressure to see if I could at least move the orange areas around.

 

[3lectr1c]

he fact that it's orange, even with the light off, that continues to make me think this might be a different animal than the "screen rot" or "screen cancer" as seen on old Gameboys and whatnot. (In all the examples of that I've seen the "rot" is the same color as the pixels.)

It is interesting isn't it, the game boy pixel rot just looks exactly the same as that seen in these laptop LCDs - except for the color.
Interestingly enough, on many LCDs made by Sharp, the pixel rot is pink rather than orange, but I think certain Sharp LCDs do develop orange rot.
Perhaps it comes down to the type of LCD. Are the game boy screens FULLY monochrome or could they do some grayscale? Maybe that explains the difference.

I do believe it's in some way caused by a liquid crystal leak. I've seen a few laptops with these STN/DSTN monochrome/grayscale LCDs up for sale that did have proper shattered or cracked screens, and in those images, LARGE areas on the LCD lit up bright orange when the LCD was on. Don't have any photos saved on hand though. But there is a direct correlation between the orange color and cracked LCDs of this type.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

I do believe it's in some way caused by a liquid crystal leak. I've seen a few laptops with these STN/DSTN monochrome/grayscale LCDs up for sale that did have proper shattered or cracked screens, and in those images, LARGE areas on the LCD lit up bright orange when the LCD was on. Don't have any photos saved on hand though. But there is a direct correlation between the orange color and cracked LCDs of this type.

I've seen a picture of an iPhone screen that had a *teeny* little pinhole crack that sprouted a miniature reddish-orange spiderweb around it, maybe this *is* a case of the screen having some incredibly tiny micro-fissures under those spiderwebs and liquid-crystal material has been forced out between the glass and the polarizer in a meandering pattern? But that doesn't really explain the tiny individual speckles that are disconnected from the mainlines.

It's pretty common to see LCDs that have been left outside (sprinkler timers, motorcycle speedometers, things like that) develop orange-ish "sunburns", but those don't look anything like this; they're large "bubbles" where the polarizer and LCD have partially parted ways because of damage to the adhesive. I've also seen old LCDs where the polarizer bonding has failed in fairly fine "mud-crack" patterns, but never anything as fine as this. So... yeah, I dunno. It's pretty fascinating, frankly.

 

[MacGyver]

Hello everyone,

Happy ending

 

[Plasma]

Where did you get the replacement screen?

 

[3lectr1c]

Looks like it came from an AST Bravo laptop

 

[MacGyver]

Where did you get the replacement screen?

I found it in my spare parts

 

[Plasma]

Ah sometimes hoarding pays off