Interesting, and good to know. So far yours is the only reference to tunnel vision on those that I've found.
I'll have to ask solidpro on VCF whether he's run into this. That guy has the largest collection of ThinkPads that I know of and has repaired numerous models that should have that Hosiden LCD according to that list.
Very interesting that BOTH you had ran into that issue.
I definitely think it's somewhat related to storage conditions. My 170 that is unaffected by tunnel vision was stored very well over the years based on all I've examined - I highly suspect it was sitting in its bag in a closet, not in a damp basement like most of the stuff I end up with smells like.
Yeah it will probably happen to all of them eventually. I'm counting the days till I see it start on my 170.Funny you mention, I have a 180 thats starting to tunnel. It didnt when I got it over 10 years ago, and its been stored in my climate controlled house ever since. So yeah it might be a factor in potentially decelerating the effects, but it will still happen regardless.
I do think its a bad chemical mixture of liquid crystal that breaks down with time accelerated by heat. Just like vinegar syndrome.
I've only run into one Hosiden panel (that I know of), and it was the one in my CTX EzBook 800. I only had it on for maybe an hour total as the laptop got varta bombed and died after cleaning, but it worked while I had it on. It was a much newer panel - circa 1998. It was yellowing at the top though, but that's fairly normal on LCDs from any vendor.
It was TFT Color 800x600.
Beyond that I have the 170 which is still fine, and a PowerBook 540 that is affected. It's got a far more interesting failure though, some sort of what looks almost like moisture damage, although there are no other signs of it. The corners on the bottom are yellowed in a very uneven way. I took the panel apart and it's the backlight diffuser. I thought it was just a freak failure, but then I've seen a couple more on eBay that had the same issue. Very odd.
I'll try to find an image.
View attachment 15652
This photo was taken after leaving it on for a few hours to show the tunnel vision but you can also clearly see the weird yellowing in the bottom corners. It's the diffuser layer itself and is not something that can be cleaned off.
Yes. The 540 panels don't have a specific part number printed on them for whatever reason, but it's a Hosiden panel.
PowerBook LCD Index - MacDat
macdat.net
Honestly, I've just heard so many hypothesis from so many people that I have no idea what to think. Moisture due to defective seal? Defective seal itself? Bad glue? Bad liquid crystal? I wish there was a way to know for sure.
The one thing I wonder is why baking a panel would improve the condition if it was in fact defective liquid crystal. I know it did not work for your color panel, but it does work on the monochrome ones (and I believe the grayscale panels too), depending on how bad it's gotten.