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Guide to repairing TFT monitor scratches

2 minute read #guide, #monitor, #repair

About a year and a half ago I was working on a guitar modification and dropped part of the modified casing on my laptop. It made a pretty good scratch on the bottom of my monitor about an inch long (2.54cm for you metrics out there). It has mildly bothered me since then but I’ve never done anything about it. But this evening I decided to google around and see if there was any kind of specialist product that could be purchased and used to fill in the scratch. I read a few blogs and sites until I found the most amazing solution ever.

Now this solution only works for monitors with a matte finish. Not screens with a glass or glossy face. But the solution I have used is vaseline. Just rub some into the scratch and get a tissue and dab off enough so that you can’t see it but not enough to wipe it out of the groove. The great thing about this solution is that if you do rub too much off you can just add some more and try again.

I’ve also done a bit of reading into why this works. It it because the optical density of vaseline or petroleum jelly is the same as the optical density of the plastic coating on TFT monitors. It isn’t a perfect solution as you can still see the scratch when you look at the monitor from different angles but it is invisible from straight on.


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