I'm a silly sausage. I used alcohol gel to clean my laptop screen at some point in the past. Some residue must have remained when I closed the laptop, creating something that looks like a permanent smudge. The smudge, incidentally, perfectly matches up to the trackpad and a little protrusion in the keyboard.
Cleaning it with a cloth dampened in warm soapy water appears to remove the smudge temporarily, but it reappears when the screen dries, suggesting the alcohol has damaged the outermost layer of the screen.
Is there any way I can lessen the appearance of this damage?
I did not take the OP picture, but it's like a far less extreme case of the attached (a few mm in thickness).
Either strip off the rest of the anti-glare coating, replace the screen or live with the damage. It's possible to replace the anti-glare coating, but it's very much not for amateurs.
I removed a similar kind of stain from the inside of the pane of a scanner, pretty sure I used regular window cleaner and either ammonia or methylated spirit, the bright purple stuff. I had to go over and over it again but it eventually worked.
I assumed at the time the reason the smudges kept reappearing was because there was some greasy substance embedded or stuck to the glass and some degreasing agent would work, apparently it did. I hope that helped.
I have the same problem but I hardly notice it while the screen is in use. Same pattern, btw. Short of getting a new device and religiously using a microcloth to divide the keyboard and the screen it will happen.
It won't melt your laptop, it'll just completely remove the anti-glare coating. That's why they tell you not to use window cleaner on your monitor. If your anti-glare is damaged, it might be preferable to completely remove it.
>>27693 It didn't melt the scanner so I'm guessing it won't melt your laptop, unless these things perhaps react differently on whatever a laptop screen is made of.
