Glossy Screen Scratched

After travel torturing four different laptops over an 8 year period I finally placed a 2” diagonal scratch near the center of my screen. I don’t know how it happened! I thought it was a dark hair stuck to the screen…

Now that my self denial is over, curiosity is taking over. What to do? I had suggested a clear plastic repair kit on an old post; I may try it in the future.

I find the scratch so high in contrast it might as well be thin black line on a white page. So I have four options with one very optional option if my screen were to fail under warranty.

1. replace screen - $500
2. polish out scratch
3. fill the scratch
4. ignore it under any circumstance

Four; is no longer an option as the scratch is very annoying on a white or light screen.

Two; is risky in that you must remove all surrounding plastic to depth of the scratch and hope the screens optical properties are acceptable when complete. This is probably not an option on a matte screen, in any case, but mine is the glossy type.

One; forget it, that $500 bucks is for the new quad, double SLI with virtual screen, laptop down the road.

Three; yep! I’m still testing but have reduced the scratch to near invisible on a light screen. It’s now a very faint line that I have to search for…and this is very acceptable to me considering the alternatives at this time.

I read a few online “solutions” but will quickly rule out toothpaste polish, clear nail polish, car wax, and Vaseline, but if it works for you go for it.

What am I using? Well, all I will say is it’s a plastic protector, goes on white and dries clear. It passes enough light to help blend the scratch optically around its surroundings without any distortion. It cleans off and is NOT perfect but way better than nothing at this time.

I do think that the best solution for scratched matte and gloss screens is to fill the scratch, optically-transparent, and have a few ideas to try on an old matte screen when time permits.

Hopefully someone can point me to a bottle of “scratch b gone” spray that really works as advertised, but not just for iPods or cell phones

 

I am sorry for what happened to you, but could you send pictures so we can see what it looks like. Thanks

 

Thanks, in a way the screen is like the first little dent in your new car but it could have been way worse, no?

At this time I do not have access to a camera with macro. But, if you can imagine a thin black line then replace it with a very faint line that looks somewhat shorter, you may get the idea, both about a hair width.

If I turn the laptop off and shine a light at the screen the scratch is very easy to see. When on and backlit with a white screen, I asked a co-worker to check it out, nada. When I said the screen was scratched inside the white document I placed on the screen, he looked again, and then spotted it

 

Sorry to hear about your scratch. Glad to hear you've been able to minimize it to the point where it's not distracting anymore.

What you did will be a great tip in the future.

 

depending on what laptop you got, you can still replace just the glass screen itself if parts of the lcds are available and those are much cheaper.

 

Thanks, from repair sites I checked out, it was suggested that this was a "clean room" procedure, like “they” don’t do it but “we” do stuff. When I get time I would like to see how the layers are set up in the LG, Samsung, screens.

Did you have the links?