How should I clean these faint yellow spots on the display

cleaningdisplaylaptoplaptop-displaymaintenance

It happened two days ago. I thought I had unknowingly used my laptop without sanitizing my hands, so I had sprayed the sanitizer on the keyboard. After that, I closed the left my laptop unused for hours.

When I opened up my laptop, I noticed these faint yellow spots on my display, mimicking the keyboard layout. These were caused due to the sanitizer on the keyboard touching the display while the lid was closed.

These spots are only visible on a bright background.

The faint yellow spots

I tried repeated cleaning using Colin but the spots are just refusing to leave. 🙁

I hope someone would guide me on why this happened and how to get rid of these spots.

I'm unsure if this is the correct place to ask on StackExchange, so please transfer this question to a more appropriate place if you feel so.

Best Answer

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but unfortunately those spots are likely permanent.

Alcohol of any kind will damage the protective and/or anti-glare layers on the front of computer monitors. The alcohol in the hand sanitizer sitting on top of the keycaps has actually stripped away and chemically altered those coatings in the spots it touched. Unfortunately the only way to truly fix it would be to completely replace the display, which is likely complete overkill in your case.

If it doesn't bother you that much and it isn't worth the cost of a screen replacement to you, it's probably best to just live with it. Trying harder to remove the spots can only make the problem worse. At the very least it doesn't look to be that severe - sucks that an innocent mistake like that damaged your laptop when you were otherwise responsibly sanitizing things :/

Some other side notes for folks who find this down the line:

  • Rubbing alcohol is safe to use on keyboards with a clean microfiber cloth, just make sure the liquid does not drip down under the keycaps and potentially damage the circuitry underneath
  • NEVER use alcohol on your laptop screen! Water on a clean microfiber cloth is OK in a pinch, but a dedicated screen cleaner works best. I personally use iFixit's brand, but there are loads of alternatives on Amazon.
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