do magnets damage LCD flat panel screens the same way they damage CRTs ?
No!
And to be clear, magnets don’t actually do any damage to CRT screens. The dramatic color splashing is a result of the magnetism causing the three electron beams (coming from the cathode guns in the back of the tube) to miss their target phosphors on the face of the tube. Some residual magnetism will be left behind, and this color splotching may persist even after the magnet is removed, but the CRT isn’t actually damaged. Most modern sets have automatic degaussing circuits to help neutralize any residual magnetism.
Bad, bad, bad, advice.
Magnets can and do cause permanent damage to CRTs (and TVs). The degaussing systems are only intended to remove small amounts of magnetism. Big fields cannot always be cleared. I have seen sets that can’t be cleared up using those giant 3ft coils used by servicepeople. Also, the shadow mask can be bent out of shape and no amount of degaussing can fix that.
Some LCD screens do have “bendable” material inside that can be distorted by magnets. Keep them away, far away. And that includes speakers.
I have never yet seen a spot that couldn’t be cleared with a normal service degaussing coil, but there are some that the auto-degauss won’t get. The shadow mask can be warped as well, but I have never seen this happen as a result of exposure to magnetic fields. It’s usually the result of an impact on the CRT or a really severe case of doming. (Doming results when part of the mask overheats, making the metal expand into a dome–it generally happens when one spot on a screen stays very bright for a long period of time.)
Do you have a cite on the magnetic material in LCD’s, ftg? I’ve never seen that either.
I’ve just taken a huge plate magnet of the type that is used in hard drives to see if there was any effect on my Sony laptop LCD screen. This is a magnet that, if you let it get stuck to the refrigerator, you need a vice grips to get it off, and yet there was no affect on the LCD screen.
In 12 years of working on consumer electronics, I’ve never come across a residual magnetic field that I couldn’t get rid of with a degaussing coil. Color splotches that can’t be degaussed are probably due to a purity or convergence misalignment.