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The Iconia W510 is a convertible laptop running the Windows 8 operating system. Using Intel Atom processor Z2760, 10.1 in (260 mm) Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD, Bluetooth, Front and Rear-facing Camera, Audio, Video, 64GB storage, Wi-Fi, Touchscreen, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3650, Genuine Windows 8 32-bit

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My LCD is Leaking?

Literally. I don't mean the screen looks like there's liquid in it or something, I mean there is a clear, sticky liquid leaking out of the tablet part of this laptop.

I have two of these; one has been in storage in my unheated garage and the other in a desk drawer for the last several months. Both of them are exhibiting significant degradation of the display, along with this viscous fluid that's coming out of the seam between the rear cover and the frame of the tablet.

Now before anybody jumps to conclusions, no, neither of these laptops have ever been exposed to liquids; I've been all through them both and there's no external explanation for this to be happening.

And the thing is, I'm not the only one who's had this happen to them on this tablet. There's a whole thread over on the Acer forums of people who've had their laptops do the same thing.

Acer Iconia (W510P) Display Issue — Acer Community

I cleaned up the exterior of the laptop before I thought to take pictures, so I don't have photos of liquid that leaked out. It did clean up fairly easily with isopropyl alcohol.

My current working theory is that this is some sort of OCA that has broken down and returned to a liquid state. That's supported by what I see on the screen before powering it up; it looks like there are large air bubbles in the display.

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You can see the bubbles in three corners of the screen. As you'll see from the following pictures, the display degradation is the same as what the people on the Acer forum experienced.

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Once I got the back off of the tablet, I did find, as expected, more of the mystery liquid inside, concentrated in the lower right corner of the display.

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Apparently there are a few older Dell laptops that seem to have the same problem, but in my internet searches I didn't find anyone who has had a definitive answer as to exactly what's going on here. Are there any experts on here who know what this is all about?

Obviously the displays on these tablets are shot, and unfortunately they're old and underpowered and realistically not worth repairing. However, I am going to go ahead and disassemble them and pull the LCDs to see if I can definitively pin the source to them, although I personally don't have any doubts myself.

This is going to be a bit of a slow process because I've decided to create some guides as I work, so it'll take longer than if I just tear into it.

Once I have the LCD out, I figure it can't hurt to see if it can be disassembled; who knows, maybe I can clean it and replace the OCA and effectively refurbish these defective screens.

Update (12/12/23)

Just as an update, I powered up the second W510 today and while it was messing around with updates I grabbed a photo of what its screen is doing.

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Answer this question I have this problem too

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@dadibrokeit can you pull some icons into those areas? If you can, what do those look like?

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It appears that the liquid crystal inside the display is leaking maybe from around the outside edges. Extreme heat and or cold can cause this.

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Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your input. I have considered that heat or cold can cause damage in LCDs, but that would only explain the one in the garage; the one that was kept in my office never got hot or cold at all.

Also, there isn't actually any liquid in a Liquid Crystal Display; rather the term liquid refers to the crystal's ability to twist in order to block or admit light, so it has to be some other kind of chemical used in the manufacturing process and the only one that I'm familiar with is the OCA used to bond the layers of the display such as the digitizer, LCD and backlight.

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@dadibrokeit I do know that some LCDs do actually have some sort of thick clear liquid from tearing some old laptop screens apart. Almost a syurp-like consistency. I won’t pretend that I know what it is but it does seem like an actual thing. I found it in some 2012~2014 era Dell latitude displays and I imagine other displays have the same stuff.

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@thequacker Yes, I believe it's the same thing on this display that you saw. I read reports of the same phenomena happening on Dell XPS systems as well, so it would track that a certain generation/technology that was used at one time proved to be not such a good idea.

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Jerry Wheeler will be eternally grateful.
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