We remove dust from under the glass of a thin iMac. Dust under the iMac glass Cleaning the iMac matrix and display

Cleaning the iMac matrix and display. Over time, many iMac owners notice that spots and dust particles appear on the device's monitor. When there are only a few of them, this usually does not interfere with your work, but if you are engaged in design or photography at a professional level, even minor contamination can interfere. Cleaning will help in this case.

Cleaning the matrix and display of your iMac

Most often, dust accumulates under the protective glass.

It is removed using a system of vacuum suction cups and removes dust and dirt. Much more problems arise when you need to directly clean the matrix of the iMac computer. In this situation, you have to dismantle the entire display and disassemble it into its component parts.

As a result, dust and spots may appear on the Aimak display:

The manufacturer claims that the display iMac is hermetically sealed, but in fact this is not entirely true, so it is quite natural that dust penetrates through microscopic gaps or poorly glued tape and settles either on the protective glass or inside the LSD display. The source of contamination is the cooling system, which is located below. Therefore, it is at the bottom of the display that iMac users most often see dirt.

Often, after poor-quality LCD cleaning, a serious problem may appear - fingerprints left on the matrix by a would-be master. Specialists clean the iMac wearing gloves, so after preventative maintenance at the service center, such a defect will not appear. But by asking a friend to help, you risk getting even bigger troubles in the form of damaged components.

What you need to clean the Apple iMac matrix

The most difficult thing when working with an all-in-one iMac is to disassemble them, since all the parts are small in size and very close to each other. The set of special tools, without which it is impossible to carefully detach the screen, is also large - these are suction cups, several special screwdrivers, a spatula or pick and tweezers. To assemble and seal the joints, you will also need adhesive tape.

Filming safety glass, if there is dirt on it, we clean it, then we look at the work done, if dirt and stains remain, we remove the aimag matrix.

Let's get started matrix parsing, after removing the protective glass of the display, the ultra-thin matrix of the iMac is cleaned. This work requires extreme accuracy. First, remove dirt and grime using microfiber and cleaning agent; As soon as the display and films are cleaned, you will need a special device - a roller, to which even the smallest dust and lint sticks. Before use, it is rolled over a special adhesive strip to prevent cross-contamination of the iMac matrix.

Despite the difficulty, the service center specialists will be able to remove dust not only from the protective glass, but also from the matrix, and your iMac will again delight you with image clarity without any defects.

Since 2011, users of (previous generation) iMacs began to observe a very unpleasant picture on their displays: the image was covered with a light “haze” around the perimeter, messages about “dust and soot” under the glass of the iMac began to appear on forums and social networks. But the most offensive thing for owners of apple all-in-one PCs was when they came to service center, find out that the dust did not get under the protective glass and not on the surface of the matrix, but inside: between the active layers of the display, standard cleaning in this case was not enough, many centers suggested replacing the display with a new one, which, however, did not prevent the problem from reoccurring in a few months or a year...

The problem became common, and soon experienced engineers with hands growing in the right direction mastered the technology of completely disassembling and cleaning iMac matrices, which was much cheaper and (subject to additional sealing of the cleaned matrix) more profitable than replacement.

With the release in 2012 of the new line of iMacs in a thin body, everyone was shocked by the unique design and performance of the devices, and experienced users looked at these all-in-one PCs with hope also because the iMac was now equipped with a new generation display module, it did not have a removable protective glass, it glued to the matrix, like in your iPhone.

For a long time, the matrix was considered completely non-separable and impenetrable to dust, but since about mid-2013, the nightmare of all old iMacs has returned: a large amount of dust gets into the lower part of the display (especially around the edges), which spoils all the fun of using one of the best displays in the world.

Our friends from the MacPlus center, after another “dusty” iMac, decided to invite us to visit them, told us in detail and showed that Apple repair is not only a modular replacement, even an officially service-free iMac display from 2012 can be disassembled, all dust removed and prevented her reappearance on screen. Our colleagues shared with readers detailed instructions about how to rid yourself of such problems.

First, of course, you need to remove the display module. It is attached to the body with double-sided tape. The factory uses professional tape produced by 3M, so we do not recommend being amateur and using exactly the same tape for reassembly, because tape is the only thing that keeps your display, which is expensive in every sense, from falling.

The display module is taped around the perimeter with protective fabric tape, which, according to the developers, was supposed to protect weak points of the structure from dust penetration.

Under the tape are hidden the mounting screws that hold the main part of the case and the light-diffusing layers of the backlight system; some of the screws are located under the protective panel of the decoder board (the right side of the illustration below). You should unscrew them very carefully, since damage to the film cable or elements on the board itself will require a much more complex repair or replacement of the display.

After removing the mounting screws and protective elements, you can carefully separate the active layers of the matrix from the main body of the display module.

You can now clearly see the dust that has collected between these components.

Please note: dust gets into the iMac matrix (in the vast majority of cases) under the influence of its own cooling system, in the same places: the photo below clearly shows a gap in Apple’s defenses: Not the thinnest wire easily fits into the technological hole accidentally missed by the engineers, let alone the smallest particles of dust.

When cleaning older generation displays, it was very convenient to use a compressor or as a last resort a special cleaning roller, similar to a clothes cleaning tool, but with a softer surface. Colleagues did not recommend using widely used compressed air cylinders (sold in “computer supermarkets”), since condensation forms in them much more often than in the container of a professional compressor, which can, in the form of small drops of moisture, fall not only onto the active layers, but also on top part backlight layers, from where it will be very difficult to remove them without a trace.

Nowadays, good quality textiles are more suitable for removing dust, as you may have guessed, using microfiber (“microfiber”), the main requirement is ideal cleanliness (it’s better to take a new napkin straight from the package) and a minimum fiber size. Special wipes from Defender cope with this task very well, but there is no fundamental difference.

An engineer from MacPlus, who cleaned the matrix together with us, asked us to take the backlight itself, that is, the light-diffusing layers, especially seriously: by default they are perfectly aligned, but if you accidentally touch them while cleaning, it’s unlikely to achieve such accuracy again, so Before starting the cleaning itself, we additionally secured the layers with ordinary technical clamps (they can be found in “Household Goods”, on radio markets or in the same “Chip-and-Dip”).

After making sure that not a single speck of dust remains, we reassemble the display module and put it in place. Beforehand (even before you have screwed all the screws into the display case), it is recommended to turn on the screen and check whether there are any small specks or dust left on it, since it is much more difficult to replace defects when it is turned off.

After making sure that everything is in order with the display, we finish assembling it.

A few more minutes - and we received a “new” thin iMac with a perfectly clean matrix, without any traces of tampering. As you can see, there was no need to change it. And is it worth buying a new, far from cheap display every 1-1.5 years, on which, most likely, the problem will appear again?.. Of course not, especially considering that our colleagues have learned to assemble matrices “correctly” - this will minimize the possibility of the problem reoccurring. Additional sealing is never superfluous, right?

Of course, it is better to carry out such work with experience, in a pre-prepared place, maintaining the greatest possible cleanliness, otherwise dust particles flying in the air will negate all your efforts. To open thin iMacs, you may need a special tool (vaguely reminiscent of a pizza cutter), which our foreign colleagues from iFixit sell, but you can do without it if you wish.

By the way, while performing the “procedure” we spotted several more interesting cases: MacPlus not only cleans matrices - our colleagues have enough experience to fix problems with power supply, backlighting, cleaning and repairing flooded or burnt-out motherboards In a word, they can perform absolutely any Apple repair. Let's hope that we'll be back here soon, because the guys definitely have a lot to talk about.

Fair, not overpriced and not underestimated. There should be prices on the Service website. Necessarily! without asterisks, clear and detailed, where technically possible - as accurate and concise as possible.

If spare parts are available, up to 85% of complex repairs can be completed in 1-2 days. Modular repairs require much less time. The website shows the approximate duration of any repair.

Warranty and responsibility

A guarantee must be given for any repairs. Everything is described on the website and in the documents. The guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and sufficient. It is needed to check quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that they will help you.

Half the battle is Apple repair- this is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works with suppliers directly, there are always several reliable channels and your own warehouse with proven spare parts for current models, so that you do not have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a rule of good manners for the service center. Diagnostics is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you don't have to pay a penny for it, even if you don't repair the device based on its results.

Service repairs and delivery

Good service values ​​your time, so he offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of a service center: correctly and according to technology can only be done in a prepared place.

Convenient schedule

If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient to fit in before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

The reputation of professionals consists of several points

Company age and experience

Reliable and experienced service has been known for a long time.
If a company has been on the market for many years and has managed to establish itself as an expert, people turn to it, write about it, and recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the service center are restored.
Other service centers trust us and refer complex cases to us.

How many masters in areas

If there are always several engineers waiting for you for each type of equipment, you can be sure:
1. there will be no queue (or it will be minimal) - your device will be taken care of right away.
2. you give your Macbook for repair to an expert in the field of Mac repairs. He knows all the secrets of these devices

Technical literacy

If you ask a question, a specialist should answer it as accurately as possible.
So that you can imagine what exactly you need.
They will try to solve the problem. In most cases, from the description you can understand what happened and how to fix the problem.

In which we talk about how to fix certain problems with Apple computers. Desktop users often contact McFix Apple computers iMac, manufactured from 2009 to 2012 inclusive, with a dust problem on the screen.

In this article we will tell you and show you how to clean matrices in iMac 21.5 or 27 yourself.

For the experiment, let’s take a 2010 iMac 27″. iMac (by appearance) was in a dusty room, even when turned off, gray stains are visible under the glass. And, as it turned out later, they also smoked regularly in this room, and clearly not subtle cigarettes.

Before you begin disassembling the screen, you need to carefully prepare the work surface. The surface must be horizontally flat, clean, free of debris and especially without any crumbs. You can place a clean, dry and soft towel of a suitable size on the table (larger than the size of the screen - at least 10 cm on each side).

There should be enough space on the desktop so that during disassembly all the parts of the matrix can be freely placed on it in a disassembled state. The screen frames can also be removed under the table if this is convenient. Let's get started.

The photo clearly shows (without removing the glass) that there is a wide strip of dirt and dust along the top of the screen.

Carefully remove the protective glass, catching it in the middle of the screen with a suction cup.

Using a visual inspection, we carefully examine the condition of the matrix and glass. The conclusion is clear - wiping the glass and matrix with a cloth will lead to nothing. It is possible that only streaks will remain from brushing off the top layer of dust.

We put the glass aside, remove the matrix and begin to disassemble it.

First of all, carefully remove all the cables.

We carefully remember the position of the fastening frames attached to the short sides (the magnets are on top and on the vertical sides of the matrix, directed outward). Unscrew all the screws securing the frames to the base of the screen. Of all the screws, only two are short (remember the side on which they were installed).

The frames in some places are glued to the foil along the base of the matrix, so to remove them we use thin but strong tools (for example, a construction spatula and a specially sharpened spatula).

Along the upper border of the screen along the edge there are thin cables bent towards the base of the decoder. They are attached to the decoder very unreliably. Therefore, any contact with them must be extremely careful. Even if you apply a slight force, the cable or even one contact on the cable may move away from the contact pad of the decoder, or a crack may appear at the base of the cable due to bending. In this case, the repair of the matrix can be considered complete. A new matrix for a 27″ iMac costs from 20,000 rubles.

Remove the aluminum adhesive tape around the perimeter of the entire matrix frame. This must be done slowly and very carefully! We will also have to remove the adhesive tape covering the decoder cover (along the top border of the screen). We remind you that a new matrix for a 27″ iMac costs from 20,000 rubles.

Unscrew the screws securing the decoder cover. Remove the cover and carefully disconnect the two adapter cables from the main matrix board. We carefully peel off the matrix boards from the matrix body. Again, it’s worth reminding that the new matrix on the 27″ iMac is expensive.

Along the perimeter of the screen (again, very carefully) we remove the fastenings from the latches, slightly bending the edges of the frame. It is more convenient to do this operation together, placing the matrix on a short edge on a flat, hard surface. Everyone already understands about the cost of the new matrix.

Next, we very carefully remove the LCD glass of the matrix (we don’t remind you about the new matrix). You will have to carefully and as easily as possible throw the decoders to lift the LCD glass, holding them strictly by the middle of the long side, without twisting or tugging.

We lift the LCD glass of the matrix and place it to the side so that the cables from the LCD glass to the decoders do not bend anywhere and lie freely.

Under the LCD matrix we see reflective layers; the one closest to us along the upper side is covered with a wide strip of gray-brown soot.

We can only remove this type of dirt with active chemicals. In this case, we took Mr.Muscle Professional (without ammonia). White paper towels (without a color pattern) are ideal for us to control the removal of dirt and remove residual cleaning fluid. Textiles are not suitable here - we’ll just smear dirt on the LCD glass.

We do all the operations of washing and wiping the reflective layers and matrix carefully and quickly enough, since the detergent, dissolving contaminants, begins to dry out. We installed a bright lamp next to the desktop so that we could see that there were no streaks on the reflective layer and on the matrix.

We clean all surfaces, starting with the reflective layer that remains in the screen module mount.

Now it's time to clean the LCD glass. Very carefully place the glass on a clean surface so that the decoders lie freely on the table surface without any kinks. In this case, the glass itself should lie tightly on a strictly horizontal surface of the table. It is better to do this operation together so that the LCD glass does not move on the surface of the table when actively wiping it with a paper napkin.

We see the result of cleaning the reflective layer and matrix in the photographs.