[Guide] How to remove the anti-glare(AG) coating from a Dell U2312HM LCD

Welcome to the glossy screen owners :) Where the whites are bright and the blacks are dark ;)

OT: +1 on the guide
 
Would this work on an Asus vs229h-p or a Samsung 2233sw? The Asus has a terrible AG coating on it and I know a guy with a Samsung that has a scratch in its AG coat I could buy, but I don't know if either is removable. If I can't get this Asus one off, I'll probably have send it back to buy.com. I find glare much easier to tune out than AG grain. This grain destroys the fine texture detail of 1080p and diminishes the point of having it.
 
Anyone know a good way to get rid of the glue residue from the ag coating?

I tried microfiber cloth but it just smears it across the screen...


Reticuli said:
Would this work on an Asus vs229h-p or a Samsung 2233sw? The Asus has a terrible AG coating on it and I know a guy with a Samsung that has a scratch in its AG coat I could buy, but I don't know if either is removable. If I can't get this Asus one off, I'll probably have send it back to buy.com. I find glare much easier to tune out than AG grain. This grain destroys the fine texture detail of 1080p and diminishes the point of having it.
Click to expand...

Itll work with all monitors because as far as im aware all monitors have some sort of flim protecting the polarizer.
 
Reticuli said:
Glue residue?
Click to expand...

Some people who have done this mod end up with some glue left behind when they peel the film off. Whether this is a result of different temperatures, different length of soaking, peel method or whatever else, I am not sure. Of all the posts I've gone through, most people tend to mess up their panel when trying to remove the glue after the fact. I would honestly only try warm water but even then, you're having to apply force using even the softest rag which can damage the now exposed polarizer. Mine had absolutely no residue left over so in good conscience I can't really recommend any particular method of dealing with the issue.
 
Ive had good luck with monster cable screenclean or chemical guys glassworkz. its just a water soluble glue, hell 60c hot water might be best.
 
I went ahed and did this mod over the weekend, I soaked the screen for 3 hrs and the AG coating peeled off without any problem at all, the screen looks amazing now...BUT...when I switched the monitor on surprise surprise....a white virtical line from top to bottom on the left half of the screen.... :-( dunno how to fix that...I guess is the T-COM ...
 
Just wanted to chime in and say that this works AMAZINGLY well!

I got a hold of an Alpine car 7" DVD/Nav head unit with a busted touch screen for absolutely nothing because it was being tossed in the trash. Powered it up and it works and the LCD itself was good, and a new touch panel is only about $30. Opened it up and found that the LCD had an AG layer on it and the busted touch panel had scratched it all up. After find this I figured what the heck do I have to loose.

I used a couple napkins from a fast-food place that I had laying around :D let it sit on the LCD for about 4-5 hours wet, came back it the layer peeled right off and left a BEAUTIFUL LCD behind it!

Unsure of how well the non AG LCD is going to do in a screen in a car that is going to be exposed to sunlight all the time, but it may be fine in the end because the touch panel has a sort of AG layer on it as well, so we will see. If anything I'll just get a universal screen protector kit and cut a new layer to fit over the LCD or touch panel.

Thank you so much for this write up; saved me $70 in a new LCD!!!
 
Panzaman said:
I went ahed and did this mod over the weekend, I soaked the screen for 3 hrs and the AG coating peeled off without any problem at all, the screen looks amazing now...BUT...when I switched the monitor on surprise surprise....a white virtical line from top to bottom on the left half of the screen.... :-( dunno how to fix that...I guess is the T-COM ...
Click to expand...
Sounds like the polarizer has been shifted out of alignment. The polarizer is the layer below the anti-glare coating, and it's mostly secured by the metal frame. There are plastic edges that the polarizer sits in between, holding it in place from the top, bottom, and the sides. The polarizer must be secured in all directions. Good luck!
 
I'm looking at these cheap Dell U2412s and am so near buying one. My issue is the AG coating. I think it's ridiculous that I'm having to consider modding the monitor out of box, but I'm tempted to order anyway.

I have a very, very old panel from before the time of widescreens. It's a matte panel. I'm willing to practice on it. I'm not certain I've ever been in the presence of an AG coating (and I'm certain I don't want to be). Do all monitors have these coatings to some extent?
 
There are only 3 types of monitors in this world
the ones with rib feeling in the front
the ones with AG film on the front
the shiny ones with no AG film

There are no weird spray on ag ones. its either a film held on by water based glue, or not there at all.
 
Any updates on safe precautions to take before doing this? I will probably attempt this summer. :p
 
Frameless said:
Any updates on safe precautions to take before doing this? I will probably attempt this summer. :p
Click to expand...

Soak as long as possible (24/36 hours if you can), and keep the paper towels very damp but not dripping. I would soak it face down if you could find a bin/pan big enough.

Mine's still going good well over a year later.
 
This is good to know. I always thought the "coating" was sprayed on at the LCD panel factory.
 
nightanole said:
Soak as long as possible (24/36 hours if you can), and keep the paper towels very damp but not dripping. I would soak it face down if you could find a bin/pan big enough.

Mine's still going good well over a year later.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. 24/36 hours seems like a long time though. You sure 5 hours is not enough if i apply wet paper towels every hour or so? Also, should i wet them in very hot distilled water?
 
8 hours was really tough for me and required a lot of cleanup. I would have rather soaked a day or at least over night. Tap water is fine for the soaking part(but hey distilled is only a buck a gallon). Temp doesnt matter since it will take hours. I would use a good screen cleaner afterwards like monster screen clean or chemical guys window cleaner.
 
I'm considering doing my Dell 3007WPF-HC like this, the AG coating is lighter than newer models but it is still quite annoying to me.

Since there is no protection on the screen, has anyone tried putting some kind of clear coating over the top? Like the 3M wrap used for laptop screen protectors and such?
 
WOW and thanks for this great thread! I just finished this process on my Dell U2412M and couldn't be happier:).I personally think it looks twice as good as it did before. A shame how much this material takes away from picture quality.
 
RedEyeBuckeye said:
WOW and thanks for this great thread! I just finished this process on my Dell U2412M and couldn't be happier:).I personally think it looks twice as good as it did before. A shame how much this material takes away from picture quality.
Click to expand...

Would you be kind and post some pictures of how it looks?
Dell U2412M owner as well.
 
Hi Cre3d, really nice guide! Gongrats!
I got some to ask!

Is HOT water better that cold?
I got the same monitor and I see diagonial grey lines mostly in white background! Is this the AGC effect?
Will this vanish if I remove the AG film?
Where can I find the yellow plastic tools u use, or what can I use instead!
And finally... is this a specific towel? Can I use thick cusine paper towel?
 
Dont use hot water, it wont help. if you want you can add a drop of dawn dish soap to help with surface tension.

diagonal/vertical stripes are a flaw in the panel from the factory, there is nothing you can do.
look up "vertical banding" on google.

yellow pry tools are given away free with phone lcd replacement kits. You should be able to get the tool from china for 99 cents shipped.

Towel doesnt matter, the towel is only there to keep the screen moist so it will absorb water and reactivate the glue. In theory you could just place screen face down in 1mm of water with no towel, but thats really hard to do.
 
Ok now those lines might go away since they are not part of the lcd. Im talking about these lines:
http://cdn.avsforum.com/8/82/600x448px-LL-8266f3a2_2012-07-15_20-45-00_HDR.jpeg

http://cdn.avsforum.com/b/b9/350x700px-LL-b92bdbe1_P2192885.jpeg

I got no clue what those 45 degree angle bands are, but they are not from the liquid crystal part. That is some kind of lamination problem, either the AG or the rear defuser. If you are not happy with it, take it back, once you remove the ag your warranty is void.
 
hard decision my friend!!
I already got it replaced and they said to me if I am not happy I can ask for refund or buy an other monitor! The thing is that when u look the screen from 40cm and more the grey lines disapear!
I am satisfied with the colors though that's why I am having hard time to decide keeping it or go to TN panel! My screen has not the problem you mentioned in your photos!

If I remove the AG will I get better colors?
 
And something more....theese lines disapear also if u changle the angle u look the screen..I mean if u look it from top left or botom right angle they still disapear...they are only visible in straight looking
 
liquid_ said:
And something more....theese lines disapear also if u changle the angle u look the screen..I mean if u look it from top left or botom right angle they still disapear...they are only visible in straight looking
Click to expand...

Your polarizer is not aligned perfectly. The polarizer is inbetween the lcd and the AG coating. If you read the complete thread you will see several people who man handled the ag off and damaged the polarizer in the process.

I dont know what to tell you. Its extremely hard to get a perfect screen. You will always have alittle banding, or alittle miss alignment or alittle backlight bleed. You just have to decide if its good from your normal working angle/distance, and not 1" away at a 45 degree angle.
 
If it's not alligned perfectly then I 'm gona return the monitor and get an other one!
Should I pick IPS again or TN?
 
That depends on what flavor you like. There are tons of articles on the pros and cons of each.

Personally, if the monitor was 22" or smaller, and i was a meter a way or farther, and i was mostly gaming or watching high speed material, would get a tn. zero blurring or lag.

If i was looking into a huge 24-27 monitor for watching media or reading, i would get an ips 8 bit due to the colors and wider vertical field of view (head above or below the monitor) before the colors and blacks invert. oranges and reds will look orange and red, not tn where you cant tell if its orange or red unless both are on the screen at the same time.

I just switched to a nice 8bit 27" ips ( no ag) from my tried and true 8 year old MVA 8 bit with the ag removed. I loved that MVA, the reds/oranges were dead on, and the blacks didnt turn purple at odd angles like ips (tn blacks invert which is even more annoying). However my new ips has truer colors, and half the blurring since i knocked like 4ms off the speed compaired to the MVA.
 
The latest version of this monitor uses an ah.IPS panel with semi-matte coating: it has some cross hatching but no graininess at all. Very similar to 2713hm.
 
I'm really tempted to try this on my U2412m. I had been ready to purchase two new U2414's but if I could get rid of the anti glare on the 12 I could be persuaded to keep it and get another 12.

To recap, the over ridding advice seems to be to soak for as long as you possibly can and if there's any resistance at all, soak some more.

What about wiping the panel down after you remove the AG coating to prevent this glue from still being on the screen? Is there a recommendation for this and what to use etc?
 
You need something that removes water based glue.

I used monster cable screen clean, or a car window cleaner meant to be safe for window tint.

Rubbing alcohol isnt going to do squat.
 
Okay I have plenty of car glass cleaner. Just need to make my mind up if I want to take the risk.
 
Hmm, seems the only car glass cleaner I have left is a solvent based spray. I'm concerned that this might be too harsh. The GF must have used my other stuff.
 
Okay, I took the chance and did this tonight. Worked a treat!

I used super absorbency kitchen roll as I knew it would hold together even with a heavy water content, laid 6 sheets across the screen and sprayed them with an atomiser full of water until they were wet and then gently pressed on them to get them to be in contact with the screen coating. I then proceeded to respray the towels every 30 minutes for 5 hours to keep them damp. AG coating came away in one piece and didnt damage the polarizer underneath.

This has saved me about £250 as I'm now going to get another 2412m and do the same again rather than buying two new monitors. The only concern I have is about cleaning. I read earlier in the thread that it should be deionised water and microfibre cloth only but would car glass cleaner that is suitable for window tints be acceptable or better?
 
So everything was going smoothly up until the AG removal. I let the wet paper towels soak for a little less than 5 hours admittedly, and I managed to rip the polarizer as I was taking off the AG layer. So now I want to know if I can replace the polarizer film with one from a local photography shop, as the one originally there is ripped.
 
Well... it seems no one knows anything about this topic. 99% of local shops do not sell film polarizers. The only places that sell these are mostly selling them in stock (10 pieces minimum) and in sizes rarely up to 27" like I need. To help out anyone else who might have this problem, go to lcdparts.net
That's the only place WORLDWIDE that I found where I could buy one single polarizer film at a decent price for a 27" LCD screen. I bought a glossy film, non adhesive, 0 degree angle film.
 
Hi.

Please consider my story as a sort of warning that NOT all screens can be modded THAT easily (or even at all) with the OP's method.

I was modding this way 2 identical screens lately. The panels they came from are labelled MT170EN01 V.7. I took them from old LG 1718s monitors I had laying around in the garage.

The reason I attempted to do this mod was firstly, to try if it realy works. Secondly, both screens were heavily scratched. If the AG removal worked I could find another purpose to these otherweise perfectly working devices.

Okay, so I did this thing one at a time. The first attempt was 100% succesfull. Really! After wetting the first screen for about 4 and a half hours, the AG coating went off excatly as shown in the video leaving absolutely NO adhesive residue behind.

I was shocked how good the image looked when I turned this screen on again and was hyped as hell.
Too bad that seconds after I decided to put that monitor back together I accidently dropped a big screwdriver on it and cracked the LCD matrix.
No biggie, I had the other one, right?

So I wetted the other one following exactly the same steps and using exactly the same materials (same kitchen paper roll and room-temp. tap water), and...

After 5 hours the coating was not going off. Not even a bit. I even tried to force it with a blade, but that didn't worked. I could clearly see polarizer getting ripped. I could not peel the AG layer off of it.

Ok, I thought I'll give it another hour or two. In the end I let it wet over the same night, plus a couple of hours in the morning, resulting in a total of 15 or so hours of holding the screen under the wet paper. Guess what....

The effing coating or the adhesive below it didn't react to the water AT ALL! It was still as hard as if I didn't do anything with it!

I was planning to throw both monitors away anyway, so I didn't think too much before I started to be really "motivated" to rip this one stubborn thing off. The result was obvious. I damaged the polarizer by ripping parts of it in frustration.

The conclusion. Even if you have 2 identical (by model) LCD panels and even if you perform this mod in the exact same way using the exact same materials, there is still a serious chance you will fail miserably at one point.

I certainly don't want to be smart ass or anything, because I KNOW this method actually works, and that the only reason I ended up destroying the first monitor (the one I modded succesfully) was that I'm an idiot :D

The only reason I messed up so hard the second time I can think of, is that the adhesives used to manufacture the screens could be different or maybe different were the processes of assembly altogether. I don't know.

Nevertheless, that's the story. I hope it adds somehow to the topic.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top