Is it dangerous to open up an LCD monitor?

[mrred]

How about if I leave it unplugged for a while first?

 

[Tarrant64]

I don't think it should be 'lethal', so if you get shocked just consider it a new experience.

What exactly are you trying to do?

 

[tooltime]

i've googled that before and i believe there are some dangerous chemicals inside an lcd

 

[PhoenixOrion]

Only one way to find out................

Let us know if you live through it.

 

[corkyg]

Is cellulose triacetate hazardous or toxic?

LCD

 

[PowerYoga]

from what I've read, the one thing you need to be careful with is the backlight tube. The cold cathode tube usually has mercury vapor in it so if you crack it, it can be bad.

 

[jackschmittusa]

There are no big transformers or large capacitors in an lcd, so no real shock hazard.

PowerYoga

Mercury is a liquid at room temp. If there is any in the backlight tube, it is a minuscule amount. The temporary exposure to small amounts of liquid mercury is a vastly overblown danger in my opinion anyway as I and many other kids I knew in the '50s had a pound or two of it that we played with a lot.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

LCDs are safe compared to CRTs. Page through this forum and I'm sure there will be a thread or two that will grab your attention. LCDs suffer from bad caps too.
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=30
You must register to view attachments, if you do, please give the referral to Galvanized.

Mark this site, they are good-guys, http://www.lcdrepair.us/

 

[yh125d]

As long as you're careful and know your way around, you'll be fine.


Question though, why are you wanting to open one up anyway?

 

[mrred]

Thanks for the help people!

Basically I've got a 5yr old POS LCD that's starting to show some sort of distortion so I don't care about it any more. I want to see if I can mount it on my piano somehow so that I can display PDFs of music and whatnot. I think it'd be a good teaching tool for my students. In the end, I don't care if I destroy it because I really don't have a need for a messed up monitor. At the very least, I think it can be fun!

I hate the way there's so much plastic on the sides of this monitor. There's about 1.5inches of plastic border around the screen.

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Mercury is a liquid at room temp. If there is any in the backlight tube, it is a minuscule amount. The temporary exposure to small amounts of liquid mercury is a vastly overblown danger in my opinion anyway as I and many other kids I knew in the '50s had a pound or two of it that we played with a lot.

Liquid mercury left in the open air will gradually evaporate, which will put a little bit of it in the air. But as you say, the amount in a light will not present any significant health danger provided there is even moderate ventilation.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
LCDs are safe compared to CRTs. Page through this forum and I'm sure there will be a thread or two that will grab your attention. LCDs suffer from bad caps too.
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=30
You must register to view attachments, if you do, please give the referral to Galvanized.

Mark this site, they are good-guys, http://www.lcdrepair.us/

Is it just me, or are there a lot of Dell and BenQ LCDs in that list of topics?

 

[xtknight]

Everything except the backlights is perfectly safe, to my knowledge.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Watch out for the backlight inverter

 

[mrred]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
Is it just me, or are there a lot of Dell and BenQ LCDs in that list of topics?

hah! mine is a DELL too, but it's a really old model so I'm not pissed or anything... I think it'll just be pretty helpful on the piano

Thx again for all the replies. I think I'll turn it off and leave it for a few days just to be sure... then it's time for some cutting! (well, cracking the plastic is more like it)

 

[V00D00]

LCDs have high voltage components to drive the backlight. They can be very dangerous. The flourescent backlights have dangeroud chemicals in them if you break them.

I took one apart this weekend, it's not dangerous if you're not an idiot about it. Obviously you don't just grab the circuit boards anywhere, you should hold them by the edges without touching any components.