Thunderfly removed from monitor - my experience and tips

[dbilsborough]

Had a fly in my monitor for months and it has been doing my head in. It was pretty much in the centre of the screen and when I first spotted it I thought it was on the front and squashed it...

Tip 1 - don't squash thunderflies as they might be in the screen.....

I took the monitor apart when it first happened, a 24" curved Samsung and presumed that the fly had somehow got between the front protector and the LED panel. These seemed to be bonded together so that was strange. I did look behind the panel, but couldn't see anything.

Tip 2 - I have just taken it apart again and this time I put a sticker on the screen to help find the little blighter with the screen off.

This time I had done a bit of research and the fly was indeed behind the LED panel and it was the shadow that I could see.

Tip 3 - use a magnifying glass to see if the fly is in front or behind the LED layer.

Using a torch and the position from the sticker on the front I found the fly and used a Q Tip with some IPA to clean the fly off (I could probably have taken the panel fully out of the frame, but that could run the risk of breaking the connector ribbons.

Tip 4 - check for any dust that you have introduced behind the LED panel before you reassemble...

After taking it apart again and removing the dust (only one small spec, but it would have annoyed me, I reassembled and success, completely clean panel.

Tip 5 - remember to plug in all the connectors - I now have a fourth disassembly to carry out to plug the button bar in aaaarrrgggggggggg

Couple of pics here
https://ibb.co/BCMn8WK
https://ibb.co/4Mc2n4k

 

[dbilsborough]

Nice work. Just a quick question I can't put a tiny phone screen protector on without trapping lots of dust how did you manage to only get one small spec of dust in an entire monitor panel?

I laid the monitor frame on the bed and lifted the panel up at an angle. With a lint free cloth, I wiped across the back of the LCD panel (cloth facing up) and then wiped the diffuser (cloth facing down). Then with a torch, shined at various angles on both surfaces to see any residual dust. The key was keeping as little space between the layers as possible and as they were laid flat, any dust in the air would drop on the outside of the screen rather than between the layers.