Removing Thunderflies from your monitor screen

D3K · 17 Jul 2015 at 17:36

Had a dead one stuck in the top right hand corner of my rog swift. Spent today feeling sadface.

Did a quick search and came across the novel idea of attaching a suction cup to the screen, pulling it gently, and tapping the side of the monitor til it fell away.

It worked. Happyface!

Hope this helps others in this bug infested season!

D3K · 17 Jul 2015 at 18:56

Nothing that I couldn't wipe off.

FWIW, my suction cup is about 5cm in diameter.

D3K · 17 Jul 2015 at 23:02

This is the umpteenth one I've seen this week. I must have a blooming nest in there

D3K · 19 Jul 2015 at 01:43

slipd said:
@OP, can I ask where you got said suction cup from? Thinking that might be worth a shot, I can't put up with this, it's staring me in the face

You don't wanna know where I got mine from, but you can get them in pound shops with items for hanging stuff on bath room or kitchen tiles

Armadillo said:
What are they getting inbetween anyway? I thought what faces you is the front of the display. I thought it was only the glass fronted monitors that had something over the lcd panel? Looking on youtube, most disassembly videos on youtube seems like there is nothing in front either?

Do they get inbetween the panel and backlight?

I think you're right. Part of reason I couldn't tell if it was a bug or not at fist, was that it looked pixellated at different angles. So it must have been behind the panel and in front of the back light.

D3K · 19 Jul 2015 at 19:54

slipd said:
There's some risk involved in using this suction method, surely? What worries me is that I'll actually damage the monitor... If I was to flog it now I'd probably get a fairly good price for it with just the one fly resident but if I damage it in the process it's worthless

So annoying.

Zero damage to mine. I oriented the monitor so that the bug was closest to the bottom, then very gently pulled the suction cup while tapping the side of the bezel.

They crawl around so freely that there's plenty space for them, they just need a tiny bit more if they die.

For me it was worth the risk. I'd feel a little depressed every time I turned the screen on and saw the dirty black streak it was making. If I broke it I'd be forced to buy a new one.

D3K · 9 Aug 2015 at 11:32

Bump for the new threads getting made

D3K · 17 Jul 2017 at 21:22

f3rr3t said:
I had one in a Dell monitor (less than a year old) a while ago. I had bought it from Amazon and they agreed that insects should not be able to get in there and shipped me a new one out! Worth trying if your monitor is still under warranty.

Good job by Amazon staff. I agree, and it's why I'll claim dead pixels if I ever can't get rid of them.

D3K · 8 Oct 2018 at 21:37

cadmunkey said:
No one who has suffered this problem thinks you are insane. I was lucky enough to get a swap out done under warranty for mine but the new panel developed dead pixels so I went from one extreme to another

IMO it's a design defect and if I get another that I can't remove I will be returning it as if they are dead pixels.