Several months ago my son grabbed a ball point pen off my desk and with glee scribbled on my LCD monitor. I was of course upset and researched the best way to remove the offending marks. Various methods and potions were recommended but I didn’t do anything about it. I got used to the scribbles, although looking at a web page with a white background was always annoying.
Eventually I asked again and Alex recommended Isopropyl Alcohol. Today I remembered that advice and asked for “i s o alcohol” in a chemist. I received a funny look in reply but she figured out what it was. She brought over a box of “Alcotip Swabs”. 5c each so I bought 4, just in case.
Did it work? Did it what! The swabs dried out quickly and it took two to clean the ball point pen marks off the monitor but it worked exceptionally well! I hardly had to apply any pressure as the alcohol dissolved the pen marks with ease. Here’s a gallery showing the pen marks (not so well), and the swabs. These things work really well if you have ball point marks on your screen!
13 Comments
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Alex (Viper007Bond) (2 comments.) on April 2, 2010 at 11:10 pm.
Good to know! I bet it’d work well for generic monitor cleaning too.
Mark Jaquith (18 comments.) on April 3, 2010 at 5:27 am.
For a little bit more, you can get a whole bottle of it. It’s colloquially known as “rubbing alcohol.” Good for all sorts of stuff, including disinfecting (hurts a lot).
Ramoonus (19 comments.) on April 5, 2010 at 1:30 pm.
As a chemistry student I can recommend most alcohols for cleaning plastic stuff
Strong stuff like acetone only damages your screen
I havent seen people dissolving their screens (yet)
Balmark on April 20, 2010 at 5:13 pm.
suuure blame the little dude
I bet you were just having a blonde moment .. what you’re not telling everyone is you had to scrape the tip-ex off first
Donncha (1707 comments.) on April 20, 2010 at 5:18 pm.
Tipex worked fine when people used white backgrounds for their web pages, but yeah, it was really hard to get off the screen. You wouldn’t believe the number of screens I’ve replaced because Tipex didn’t work properly!
Jessica on April 26, 2010 at 12:51 am.
Thank you! My son scribbled ballpoint pen on my grandmother’s laptop today and i was cleaning it with one of those electronics wipes. It didn’t work so i did a search for a solution and this came up. It worked! What a lifesaver! Thanks.
Israel (1 comments.) on April 26, 2010 at 11:14 pm.
Works for sharpie/various permanent markers too
The solution in the ink is actually isopropyl alcohol, giving them their distinctive smell… It evaporates quickly (which is why those things come in such nice sealed packages), but once you put more on the dried ink, it just goes right back into a solution you can mop up.
sheila on January 19, 2011 at 12:53 am.
STILL a useful topic! One less posting on s*itmykidsruined.com!
Coretta (1 comments.) on November 29, 2011 at 10:49 pm.
Alcohol seemed too risky for me. My two and a half year old just did this to my lcd computer screen. I know alcohol gets sharpie out of couches and carpet… but I went first for the solution and cloth we use to clean our large flat screen tv. We got it with the TV. It is labeled Vizio screen cleaning kit. Worked like charm and I know it is safe. … and so is my daughter. Who is mad at me for putting her in time out while I figured out how to clean it.
Donncha O Caoimh (33 comments.) on November 30, 2011 at 10:56 am.
The swabs I used are for disinfecting cuts so I presume the alcohol was dilute. So relieved to get rid of the mark as it was on the screen for ages. Glad you cleaned your tv!
spycechick413 on February 10, 2012 at 7:49 pm.
Just tried it, and it work awsome! Thank you so much, hated looking at the squiggles!
jessica b on May 14, 2012 at 7:03 pm.
thank you so much, my 2 year old scribbled all over my mothers brand new big screen tv and she was going nuts! This worked very well and it all came off very easily.