iBook G3 broken LCD ?

[enryfox]

After sitting two years in storage, yesterday I pulled out my iBook G3 snowwhite and sadly discovered the LCD screen looks like that.


Screen is washed out in the central area and it is mostly noticeable with black images, as if the LCD is not blocking enough light.
It was working perfectly in 2020 when last used. Any idea what could have happened ?
This iBook is not worth repairing, it has other issues (speakers are dead, CPU emits a high pitched noise depending on the load, screen latch retainer is broken, it suffered from the logic board failure due to cracked solder joints - fixed now with a shim under the back cover underneath the GPU), but i'm just curious as to what happened.

Thanks
Enrico

 

[galgot]

This is the so called "Vinegar Syndrome". The screen plastic polarizing film (what is glued in front of the screen glass) is deteriorating due to chemical reaction of the adhesive used on the polarizing film after some time. Seems that it would have to do with humidity/temperature of the place where the computer was stored. Could append to all of these period LCDs after some time, due to ageing .
BUT, It can be fixed :

iBook Clamshell Vinegar syndrome LCD repair

I repaired the LCD of the ibook clamshell. I posted it because I thought it was a very interesting hack. See the link blog for details... https://ameblo.jp/keroxiee1016/entry-12730822252.html

tinkerdifferent.com

And :

 

[enryfox]

Thanks for the reply. I have to say the LCD of my iBook looks completely normal when off, I do not see any signs as in other posts of the Vinegar Syndrome. The iBook was stored at home inside a cabinet, I was afraid it might have been the weight of the PowerBook G3 pismo sitting on top of it.
Anyway, the iBook is not worth fixing, that series of laptop had too may issues (logic board first and foremost). For retro computing I'm using the Pismo G3, which with an SSD is dead silent. The lamp is on its wat out and the colours on the LCD are really sad, but it can be easily hooked up to a VGA monitor.

 

[galgot]

Thanks for the reply. I have to say the LCD of my iBook looks completely normal when off, I do not see any signs as in other posts of the Vinegar Syndrome. The iBook was stored at home inside a cabinet, I was afraid it might have been the weight of the PowerBook G3 pismo sitting on top of it.
Anyway, the iBook is not worth fixing, that series of laptop had too may issues (logic board first and foremost). For retro computing I'm using the Pismo G3, which with an SSD is dead silent. The lamp is on its wat out and the colours on the LCD are really sad, but it can be easily hooked up to a VGA monitor.

Well, sorry for that. Yes, it can look different from one computer to another, I suppose depending what level the "diseases" as spread...
One thing tho, be sure to store the computer developing this appart from other ones, as it can causes other computer screens to develop the syndrome too due to the gas it produces. see the video.