Weird white spots showing up on the back of monitor

reply to post by Aktulu


Sorry, sorry, my bad. Apologies to you…

Now we know its a damp environment. Trying a wet rag with laundry bleach (clorox)?

I know this was a long time ago, but maybe future readers of this post could be helped by it. My RCA tv is doing this exact thing. I just found a facebook post where RCA has replied to others about this issue. RCA is saying that its NOT mold. Here is their exact response "... This white powder is not harmful nor is it mold. We have had a few cases and have found it is the fire retardant interacting with the environment. In most instances all that is needed to correct this is a damp cloth, but in the case the white spots do come back we have a tech come out and replace the back cabinet. For further assistance with this concern, please reach out to ONCorp (the manufacturer of the television) at 888-977-6722. Please inbox us if you need additional assistance getting in touch. Thank you!"


a reply to: Aktulu

I'm also having the same issues on two separate tv's by VIZIO bought at the same time in Costco. I keep cleaning the back of the TV and the white weird sports continue returning. I finally called VIZIO and they told me they will replace them both with hardly any questions. I had to send them photos of course.
Why did it take me several years to call? Well I didn't use these two TV's. I had a friend buy them for a convention show and never picked them up, so I kept them. I had one TV sitting on my dresser in my bedroom for years and have had continuous problems with coughing and headaches. Not sure if there is a correlation. Any thoughts?

a reply to: Aktulu

Hello there!

It's been a while since this post was active, but recently I've had the same issues as Atkulu. I thought I would contribute to the discussion about the defect of these types of TVs, being that the problem seemed to never be solved definitively.

I received a Westinghouse LD-2480 TV for Christmas a few years ago, perhaps around 2012. Since then, I've noticed that it has began to "grow" white specs of some material on the TV's back panel. Some people here and from other places (Reddit, Yahoo, YouTube, etc.) have claimed it to be mold, paint, or some other material, whereas others have claimed that the white specs are a result of the quality of plastic used in manufacturing TVs around the period from 2012-2014.

I can support the second claim with some pictures:

LD-2480 - Front

LD-2480 - Back

LD-2480 - Nameplate

LD-2480 - White Specs after Wiping Down

LD-2480 - Inside 1

LD-2480 - Inside 2

LD-2480 - Inside 3

In the last picture, you can definitely see the oil drops sliding down the panel. The area had a foul smell of what seemed to be WD-40, or grease leftover after cooking. Not quite as strong as the oil smell from gasoline though.

Hope this sheds more light on the situation. It seems that this chemical deterioration side effect doesn't affect the TV's function, but it does seem striking upon first glance. Still, it doesn't hurt to wipe down TVs like this every once and a while so that actual mold doesn't take up shop.

Edit 1: I should indicate to the viewer that my TV has rested in a couple of locations over the course of the last few years. In the recent year, it's resided in a room with:
- Ventilation < 10 feet from the central heating unit; this heating was not towards the TV directly
- Air circulation from a ceiling fan and tower fan that on average over the last year has ran for 16 hours a day; this circulation was not towards the TV directly