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

You can, not sure that the water method would work to do it but I know you definitely can take polarizers off. I read an article not too long ago that actually explained how removing the polarizer is a cool way to hack your monitor for privacy. To the naked eye your screen will be completely white, but throw on some polarized glasses and voila... Something to try with an old throwaway imo :)
 
cre3d said:
You can, not sure that the water method would work to do it but I know you definitely can take polarizers off. I read an article not too long ago that actually explained how removing the polarizer is a cool way to hack your monitor for privacy. To the naked eye your screen will be completely white, but throw on some polarized glasses and voila... Something to try with an old throwaway imo :)
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I've tried soaking the polarizer with water for about 2 hours, but it didn't do anything. The polarizer have a different type of glue which are different than AG and much thicker. With an x-acto blade, I had to go under the polarizer and cut it out little by little, but it leave a lot of glue residue. The glue is very hard to take off, which I tried alcohol, water, grease removal and heat gun, but all of them fail. What I end up doing is using one of those glass stove top cleaner/polisher and scrubbed the glue away, but even that take a lot of time.
 
sprak74 said:
I've tried soaking the polarizer with water for about 2 hours, but it didn't do anything. The polarizer have a different type of glue which are different than AG and much thicker. With an x-acto blade, I had to go under the polarizer and cut it out little by little, but it leave a lot of glue residue. The glue is very hard to take off, which I tried alcohol, water, grease removal and heat gun, but all of them fail. What I end up doing is using one of those glass stove top cleaner/polisher and scrubbed the glue away, but even that take a lot of time.
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And how did it look after all that??? :D
 
Liggywuh said:
And how did it look after all that??? :D
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I used an old lcd that was laying around and experiment with it. Other than small scratches on the glass everything else is fine. Just want to see how easy it is to replace the polarizer.
 
Hmm, wonder if maybe using a heat gun to melt the glue as you pull up the polarizer would work?
 
nice work, I read that you need to use another coating or film to reduce the chance of ruining the polizer though, not true?

Also for u2412, disassembling the monitor is the same for those wondering.
 
How can you guys tolerate the reflections on glossy screens? Unless you use the monitor in a very dark room, I don't see the point in doing this.
 
exenter said:
How can you guys tolerate the reflections on glossy screens? Unless you use the monitor in a very dark room, I don't see the point in doing this.
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1. A lot of us can control our light sources, making this a non issue.
2. It's the lesser of two evils between the grainy look of AG and the reflections of a glossy screen.

With that said, if reflections bother you that much then my 2nd point is essentially reversed and your lesser evil is the AG, in which case this mod is not for you. Personal preference plays a major role here.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
nice work, I read that you need to use another coating or film to reduce the chance of ruining the polizer though, not true?

Also for u2412, disassembling the monitor is the same for those wondering.
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I have U2412M modded AG and i don't feel this polarizer needs anything it like having a regular coating very strong , i had extra money to throw away so i beat on this as a experiment , it turns out it'll be my main screen now. But if i did find something useful i would do it ,
 
exenter said:
How can you guys tolerate the reflections on glossy screens? Unless you use the monitor in a very dark room, I don't see the point in doing this.
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i just don't have my monitor in direct light , if i had a windows the ag coating would stay on , but it a bright room the ag coating looks better , cause lcd black looker deep in lighted environments , but once the room get darker that ag coating is a contrast killer
 
I decided to do this with my Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor. The AG coating had really been bugging me for a while now, had lot of noticeable noise and sparkle effects in it. While I'm not a fan of gloss displays, I figured it' be a big improvement. Also I had some weird darkening streaks on the right side of the screen, which I hoped was the AG film.

So I followed a guide that recommended 1 to 4 hours of soak time. I left mine for 4 hours. The guide also didn't warn me about cleaning the adhesive (my fault for not reading the entire thread).

At first it looked great, but then I noticed the adhesive and tried wiping it off. Sadly this is when I noticed I was damaging the polarizing film. I have horizontal streaks.

I've contacted these guys...
http://www.moniserv.com/doc/panelrepair.html

The price is a bit confusing. One page lists $125, another page shows $270 + cost of polarizing film. So I'm waiting for details. Anyone happen to use these guys? I sent them an email asking if replacing the polarizing film would also include a protective layer that prevent it from being damaged cleaning again.

Really happy with how great the monitor looks without the AG film. Kinda kicking myself I damaged the polarizing layer. :)
 
Ravynmagi said:
I decided to do this with my Dell 3007WFP-HC monitor. The AG coating had really been bugging me for a while now, had lot of noticeable noise and sparkle effects in it. While I'm not a fan of gloss displays, I figured it' be a big improvement. Also I had some weird darkening streaks on the right side of the screen, which I hoped was the AG film.

So I followed a guide that recommended 1 to 4 hours of soak time. I left mine for 4 hours. The guide also didn't warn me about cleaning the adhesive (my fault for not reading the entire thread).

At first it looked great, but then I noticed the adhesive and tried wiping it off. Sadly this is when I noticed I was damaging the polarizing film. I have horizontal streaks.

I've contacted these guys...
http://www.moniserv.com/doc/panelrepair.html

The price is a bit confusing. One page lists $125, another page shows $270 + cost of polarizing film. So I'm waiting for details. Anyone happen to use these guys? I sent them an email asking if replacing the polarizing film would also include a protective layer that prevent it from being damaged cleaning again.

Really happy with how great the monitor looks without the AG film. Kinda kicking myself I damaged the polarizing layer. :)
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I too took off the AG coating off of my 3007 and also has graining issue. The graining isn't that bad once you get uses to it and sitting at the right height. I'm also planning to replace the polarizer myself and buy a 40"x24" polarizer with adhesive from polarization.com for $120+shipping. I've bought a 10"x4" polarizer to see what's it's like and to my surprise the polarizer is really robust which it doesn't cause graining when I twist and bend it, but you do have to be careful with the scratches though.
 
sprak74 said:
I too took off the AG coating off of my 3007 and also has graining issue. The graining isn't that bad once you get uses to it and sitting at the right height. I'm also planning to replace the polarizer myself and buy a 40"x24" polarizer with adhesive from polarization.com for $120+shipping. I've bought a 10"x4" polarizer to see what's it's like and to my surprise the polarizer is really robust which it doesn't cause graining when I twist and bend it, but you do have to be careful with the scratches though.
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Looks like an option. I'll wait and see how much those monitor repair guys will charge for the service. If they are too expensive I may give it a try. Sounds like it's a pain in the ass to get the polarizer film off. But I have a guinea pig LCD I can practice with.
 
exenter said:
How can you guys tolerate the reflections on glossy screens? Unless you use the monitor in a very dark room, I don't see the point in doing this.
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This is subjective. Some people prefer the glossy look and some people prefer the AG look.

I prefer glossy. I have a 27" iMac and several Dell monitors in the house. For me there is no competition, games look 1000 percent better on the glossy monitor. Yes, you have to be able to control lighting in order to have some control over the reflections.

It's amazing how white, white is on the iMac and colors in general 'pop' on the iMac while looking at the Dell monitors is like looking at a full color world through dirty grey tinted glasses.
 
Wow, that's looks pretty complicated... can't I just use hydrochloric acid to dissolve the AG coating?

:)

Anyway, I prefer a matte finish. I don't like seeing my reflection, it might crack the LCD panel.
 
JaguarSKX said:
Wow, that's looks pretty complicated... can't I just use hydrochloric acid to dissolve the AG coating?

:)

Anyway, I prefer a matte finish. I don't like seeing my reflection, it might crack the LCD panel.
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hydrochloric acid? I do have some at work...hmm...I might have to try this when I take off the polarizer.
 
sprak74 said:
I too took off the AG coating off of my 3007 and also has graining issue. The graining isn't that bad once you get uses to it and sitting at the right height. I'm also planning to replace the polarizer myself and buy a 40"x24" polarizer with adhesive from polarization.com for $120+shipping. I've bought a 10"x4" polarizer to see what's it's like and to my surprise the polarizer is really robust which it doesn't cause graining when I twist and bend it, but you do have to be careful with the scratches though.
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Please let me know if you replace the polarization layer and how it goes. I'm very curious.

Sadly moniserv.com is not even answering my emails, apparently they don't want my money to fix my monitor. So I might need to attempt this myself.
 
Ravynmagi said:
Please let me know if you replace the polarization layer and how it goes. I'm very curious.

Sadly moniserv.com is not even answering my emails, apparently they don't want my money to fix my monitor. So I might need to attempt this myself.
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I've tried emailing them too, but with no response also. I'm not going to replace it anytime soon, because I was thinking of getting one of those 27" IPS Korean monitor with the money instead. Later on, I may replace the polarizer on 3007.
 
Interesting.
Does anyone have any links of pictures/videos that compares side-by-side ?
 
This looked intriguing so I tried it on a 24" Soyo that had died. It went perfectly!!! I have 5 more of the same monitor, the panel is a fast MVA, pretty close in quality to an IPS. Now that I now it can be done I will do it to the others. It was a bit more work because there was a ton of little screws. When I do it again I am going to take pictures and video of each step of the procedure so I can reassemble with out any issues.

I left it on for 4 hours and it just peeled off easily in a single, slow, diagonal pull. No residue was left. I also have a 120Hz monitor I am going to try this on (2265) and a couple of Samsung 206BW monitors, the AG is slightly damaged on one of these, all of this time I thought it was part of the glass structure.

THANKS, I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS!!!
 
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Brilliant, thank you so much for this tutorial. Now I just need to work up the courage for my U2412M. Can't wait to have a glossy screen again.
 
cre3d, can you please tell what was the ambient temperature in the room when you were performing the mod?
 
Another happy soyo customer :)

Wish i would have found this post in 2008....

I soaked mine for 2 hours with car wash soap any water. Any left over residue came of clean with window tint cleaner. You could probably use screen cleaner as well since the glue is water based.
 
Hi, would this help the yellow tinting problem for my U2312HM? the left side is much more yellow and the right side is red. unfortunately the dell support in my country do not allow an exchange, claiming that there is no issue. is the tint caused by the AG coating? if it is I might wanna remove it, else I would sell it.

Thanks.
 
its possible. The ipad has yellow tint due to the glue they used when sticking the touch screen on. In theory your yellow tint may be caused by not fully cured glue thats holding the ag film on.

On of the "tricks" the ipad users had for removing the yellow tint was to lay it face down on a dry towel, at full brightness, over night. The heat helped cure the glue the rest of the way.
 
haze_1986 said:
Hi, would this help the yellow tinting problem for my U2312HM? the left side is much more yellow and the right side is red. unfortunately the dell support in my country do not allow an exchange, claiming that there is no issue. is the tint caused by the AG coating? if it is I might wanna remove it, else I would sell it.

Thanks.
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that is an issue I had with 3/4 of my U2311s ;/
 
Hi can i check if u guys managed to remove all glue layer from the screen? or did u keep it intact? I have heard mixed instructions in the U2711 thread regarding graining due to removing the glue after peeling the AG coat.
 
haze_1986 said:
Hi can i check if u guys managed to remove all glue layer from the screen? or did u keep it intact? I have heard mixed instructions in the U2711 thread regarding graining due to removing the glue after peeling the AG coat.
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It's my understanding the water dissolves the glue/adhesive which is what allows the removal of the film/anti-glare coating. Not allowing a proper soak and then trying to remove the film/anti-glare coating is what causes the glue/adhesive to be left behind as well increasing the risk of part of the polarizer coming off which is what leads to the "graining" along with improper care/cleaning.

You can't keep the glue/adhesive "intact" as it has to dissolve in order for the film/anti-glare coating to come off.

This isn't a fool proof process but, from what I have read, the people that run into problems usually wind up admitting they rushed by not allowing a proper soak or they rushed during the removal process. However, you could still always run into problems for any given reason.
 
The process is very difficult. Way more difficult than it is described by those who made the ag removal. I did it yesterdday. I successfully removed the ag coating from my 27" HP. There was no glue residue left and I didnt damaged the poliriser. This part of the mod went perfectly. I will write my guide to removing ag coating and installing the protective film on the polirizer later this week or the next one - when I get enough of spare time.
But, honestly - if you thinking of doing it - don't do it. The risks of damaging the screen are too high and the endresult will not be night and day. It's rather day-evening difference... The very early evening, I should say.
 
Murzilka said:
...The process is very difficult. Way more difficult than it is described by those who made the ag removal...
..But, honestly - if you thinking of doing it - don't do it. The risks of damaging the screen are too high and the endresult will not be night and day. It's rather day-evening difference... The very early evening, I should say...
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I am going to be on the opposing camp for both of these claims. I was gonna get a re-branded HP2311x for $120 (probably could get a lot better for $50 bucks more, but going through three moves due to military lifestyle so want a beater monitor) and thought the difference between the 2511x and 2311x was night and day because of the anti-glare. I passed because of the haziness the heavy AG caused on the 2311x.

So I got home tonight and pulled out my old, trusty Dell 1908fp that I have used daily for 4 years. it took about 30 minutes of work to disassemble and layer in paper towels, 2 hours of waiting, and 5 minutes for reassembly. It was a VERY easy job with some patience and delicacy and even after getting some components wet/rinsing in alcohol. To me, the difference is completely clear. The internet/word processing screens are much sharper and easier to read and Diablo III is a whole new game when comparing before and afters. The fog in the sewers is much easier to see and crisp due to this little mod.

All in all, since I need a cheap-o monitor to get me through three moves in the next 6 months (Yay military!) I will be heading back to pick up the nice, portable 2311x re-branded for $120 unless there is something way better for not much more. Got a MicroCenter not so far so check out their refurbish monitor deals. Nice to have the no-dead-pixel, no shipping hassle guarantees!
 
Does there exist anything I can replace the ag coating with?
If there would be a totally transparent coating, just for protection, I am thinking to apply it after I clean it completely off glue. I am so gonna do this with my old samsung, since I anyway can't get rid of it. At least I can test out how it works and if is worth doing it with a more expensive monitor.
 
Probably can do this without dismantling the monitor? Turn it up and place wet towels on it and use a strong tape or suction cup to lift the coating film?
 
cerbul said:
Does there exist anything I can replace the ag coating with?
If there would be a totally transparent coating, just for protection, I am thinking to apply it after I clean it completely off glue. I am so gonna do this with my old samsung, since I anyway can't get rid of it. At least I can test out how it works and if is worth doing it with a more expensive monitor.
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I've seen clear protective covers that can be used. Only thing is you have to be very careful with trapping dust.
 
Has anyone tried to remove AG from 2209WA?

I would do it, but I'm concerned about the brightness - at 0% it is already almost too bright to use at night, and if I would tear AG down it would be even brighter....
 
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