the plexiglass. There's a mediumish smear on the left side of my right hand monitor's plexiglass, so I pulled out the windex and a soft paper towel and tried to buff it off. It's PERMANENT. Some kind of foggy smear that won't come off.

I thought for a moment that condensation had gotten BEHIND the plexiglass covering the display, but that's not it. When I pass the towel over that portion of the display there is a noticable "drag" when the towel comes in contact with the smear, so it's external.

WTF??@!

Windex damages plastic monitor screens, so I am told. You should only use special purpose screen cleaner.

I've been using Windex on these displays for 3+ years with no problem whatsoever (until this one).

He never said it *instantly* damages plastic monitor screens -- maybe it takes 3 years or so.

3 years to make a sudden, very discernable stain over a decent area (that was crystal clear last week)? That's a good trick. :)

I can't say for certain. Clearly, neither one of us understand the physics behind it. ;)

Hmm...assuming you didn't recently switch brands of Windex or something, that's pretty weird.

The best WTF moment I ever had with something like that was when one of my printers mysteriously developed a giant melted gouge through the front of the paper catch tray that looked like someone had taken a mini light saber to it.

I theorized for days over how it could have possibly happened and was just about to give up and settle on aliens or poltergeists as an explanation when my girlfriend walks into the room and sets her magnifying makeup mirror on the bed directly in the path of the sunlight coming through the window...apparently the office/guest room was her favorite place to tweeze her eyebrows due to the bright natural light.

Apparently, the printer gave its life to save her from burning the building down...

Well I'm super pissed because I've had these two displays for over 3 years and they cost me $1100 between the two. I SOOOOOO can't afford to replace them.

That's better than my monitor. If I push on the screen, a little fingerprint LCD coloration appears around it. If I sneeze and hock a loogie on the screen, getting it off requires some sort of cleaner because the surface isn't completely smooth.

Yeah that's a typical LCD. That's how my fiance's and daughter's are.

Cat urine has ammonia in it. Have you upset your cat lately?

+++

I know they make plexiglass polishing compound, but if you're talking about an LCD panel here, I don't really think that it's actually plexiglass on the screen. Plus, many screens have that super-fine anti-glare texture on them which would make buffing almost impossible anyway.

Assuming it's even removeable, I wonder if the manufacturer would charge an obscene amount of money for a replacement screen overlay. That can't be a very expensive part of the monitor...the question is whether they'd sell you the part.

It's definitely plexiglass. These monitors have a very thick plexiglass plate over the LCD itself. That's the reason I bought them, they're gorgeous. :-)

The cat is female, so I'd be surprised if she'd sprayed. It might be pheremone though. Who the fuck knows.

If its really plexiglass, you can uses a very mildy abbrasive car polish (get one designed for clear coats). It should but it right out.

I used to use this stuff to polish plexiglass when I worked in a car audio shop:

http://www.noscratch.com/novus/

How much your monitor's screen has in common with a mirrored window in a neon lit woofer box is another question, though...

> If I sneeze and hock a loogie on the screen, ...

awwww shit ... thanks MarkTAW, my sinuses are full of Pepsi now.

Windex isn't suitable for cleaning plastics; over a period of time it will attack the plastic and cause precisely the kind of problem you're having, in addition to tinging it a faint yellow.

That's true for ABS type plastics. Don't use anything with ammonia in it anywhere near plexiglass (or other soft plastics), as they will harden the plastic and change its properties over time.

There's a product called Plexiclear which is used for aircraft windows.

Generally a very very light buffing with a very very soft cloth is enough to clean a screen unless you have expectorated over it. If you use a paper towel you will scratch it.

One final point, aged female cats will piss wherever the fancy takes them. Warm computers are especially favourable.

This particular female cat is 2.

I don't know, I guess it's ruined. I'll try to find some rubbing compound locally with a fine enough grit for plexiglass, I guess. I'm leery of ordering such items online, for whatever reason.

"my sinuses are full of Pepsi now"

Try that with Listerine. I gargled with it and kind of half choked, forcing it back through my nose and into my sinuses.

I would rather pour boiling lava into my eyes than go through those five minutes again.

I think rubbing with anything will make it worse. I believe for aircraft windows they give them a kind of chemical peel but that sounds expensive.

The etch seems shallow, though, so if I rub a wide enough area I should be able to smooth it out, I think?

Maybe I should leave well enough alone, but boy am I pissed.

Philo

You just will not let it lie.

What's on the end of the stick?