Portable M5120 with display full of black patches and tears

[awulf]

Hi,

I have a portable that I restored a while ago and been sitting in the closet for a while, stored vertically in its case.
I went to go to use it, opened to the horror that is in the photos. Like tear marks and a splodge.

Is this the so called vinegar syndrome? Has anyone managed to repair an LCD condition like this on the portable?

It's pretty much impossible to find a replacement screen these days. Maybe if it can't be repaired using something like RGB2HMDI with a modern screen might be an option to keep this Mac going.

 

[finkmac]

yup, that's vinegar syndrome.

good news, it's repairable with some effort and care.

 

[awulf]

yup, that's vinegar syndrome.

good news, it's repairable with some effort and care.

Thanks, will have to research and attempt a repair.

 

[Froggy814]

That's horrible! I hope you can fix it. I just got mine up and running, booting from a bluescsi after reflowing solder.

 

[Byrd]

good news, it's repairable with some effort and care.

Only thing is, there is probably a polariser film on both sides of the LCD and there will be some experimentation to find the right film - I'd look into the stuff used to repair DMG Gameboys, a larger sheet of this as a starter.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Gameboy film is designed for passive matrix LCDs, so it won’t work here. I don’t know if these monochrome panels use anything special or not, but I’d try standard TFT film first.

 

[finkmac]

Only thing is, there is probably a polariser film on both sides of the LCD and there will be some experimentation to find the right film

there's always a rear polarizer. that's how they work

getting the old polarizer off and cleaning the bad glue is the first step. playing with polarizer films is a comparatively easy step.

and then you gotta stick new stuff on. that's the hard part.
i should get back to attempting a polarizer application with decal application techniques...