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flat screen deposits

G

gregz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Was stalking a stink bug on tv, then noticed the back of the set. Got spots
around the plastic, as if bugs left muddy looking patches, or something
growing. I don't think the the bugs did it, and I don't have moisture
problems. Can't figure. ??

Greg
 
C

Cydrome Leader

Jan 1, 1970
0
gregz said:
Was stalking a stink bug on tv, then noticed the back of the set. Got spots
around the plastic, as if bugs left muddy looking patches, or something
growing. I don't think the the bugs did it, and I don't have moisture
problems. Can't figure. ??

Greg

poop?

does it wipe off with a moist rag?
 
C

Cydrome Leader

Jan 1, 1970
0
Klaatu said:
Back in the day many moons ago, when crt sets like this came into the shop
showing "spots", we put them in plastic garbage bags, then sprayed bug
killer in and let them sit for a couple days. They were usually full of
dead cockroaches when the back was removed.

I prefered knock off blu-shower on roaches. You could tell by looking a
customer if you had to lay out newspaper on the bench before opening stuff
up.

They stopped accepting cable decoder box returns at the HQ of a cable
company here as it lit up the office. They put the boxes under a tarp and
roach bombed them over at the warehouse or something like that.

Anyways, that stuff doesn't look like cockroach poop at all. It looks like
the crud you get when moving ceiling tiles around, but that would not make
splotches or coat the back of a TV set.
 
G

gregz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Cydrome Leader said:
I prefered knock off blu-shower on roaches. You could tell by looking a
customer if you had to lay out newspaper on the bench before opening stuff
up.

They stopped accepting cable decoder box returns at the HQ of a cable
company here as it lit up the office. They put the boxes under a tarp and
roach bombed them over at the warehouse or something like that.

Anyways, that stuff doesn't look like cockroach poop at all. It looks like
the crud you get when moving ceiling tiles around, but that would not make
splotches or coat the back of a TV set.

I had another smaller visio in same position, no spots. Current is coby.

Greg
 
C

Cydrome Leader

Jan 1, 1970
0
gregz said:
I had another smaller visio in same position, no spots. Current is coby.

maybe it's melamine and asbestos leaching out of the chinese plastic?
 
C

Cydrome Leader

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jeff Liebermann said:
Seems water soluble. They come off by scraping, or crushes into dust. I
don't see this anywhere else.
http://zekfrivolous.com/spots/page_01.htm
Greg

[Begin Sherlock Holmes mode]

Since your removal methods did not affect the underlying plastic, and
since plastic is not water soluble, I'll assume that it's not
something originating from inside the plastic. I'll also assume that
there was no spots on the front of the TV, or you would have mentioned
and photographed it.

Mold growth tends to be flat, while your spots have considerable
depth. The irregular shape and consistent color eliminates food
splatter. The lack of any deposits on the metal mounting bracket
indicate that it wasn't delivered by any airborne means (such as
plaster, Fix-all, cooking flour, ceiling tile patch, etc). The
partial photo of the bracket suggests that it's a wall mount bracket.
I would normally guess(tm) a spider infestation, but spider droppings
are usually black or brown, not white. The also land on horizontal
surfaces, not vertical.

So, what likes to stick to vertical plastic surfaces, doesn't stick to
painted metal, is white, powdery, and has to be scraped off. Bingo.
Packing material. The TV was probably stuffed back into its shipping
box without the usual plastic bag. While styrofoam is not water
soluble, some of the recycled paper fake peanuts can be cleaned off.
Same with the packing made from pop corn, soy, agricultural waste. To
sterilize it, the stuff is sometimes bleached. The metal mounting
bracket was added later, which explains why there's no packing
material stuck to it. The person that installed the TV on the wall
cleaned the visible front of the TV, but left the back a mess.
Humidity cycling eventually hardened the packing material. Nobody
noticed until the TV was removed from the wall.

"When you eliminate all other possibilities, what remains, no matter
how improbable, is the answer." (Sherlock Holmes).

Incidentally, I have a rather nice Olympus microscope in the office
that I occasionally use for such computer forensics.

I'd buy this explanation.
 
C

Cydrome Leader

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jeff Liebermann said:
I'll send you an invoice.

I was wondering how to verify my guess. If there's enough of the
white stuff available, try setting fire to it. If it's a paper or soy
derived product, it will char, burn, and crumble to ash. If it's
styrofoam, it will melt, burn, and then harden into something that
feels like a lump of hard plastic. If it's spider droppings, it will
stink like manure. If it's drywall, fix-all, or texturing, nothing
will happen.

Incidentally, you can also use this method to distinguish between
natural fibers and synthetic fibers.
<http://www.fullercommercial.com/training/carpetcare/fiber_identification.asp>

I never though about burning nylon smelling like "Boiling green vegetables
(string beans or celery)".

strange.
 
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