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!
24 replies on “Clean ball point pen off your LCD easily”
[…] I also finally cleaned my monitor. In games I couldn’t make out the ball point pen marks at all but they really bugged me while […]
Good to know! I bet it’d work well for generic monitor cleaning too.
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).
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)
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 😛
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!
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.
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.
STILL a useful topic! One less posting on s*itmykidsruined.com!
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. 🙂
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!
Just tried it, and it work awsome! Thank you so much, hated looking at the squiggles!
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.
Thank you!!!!
Thank you! My son just had a field day with a pen on our new t.v. I went to Walmart and picked up a box of 100 wipes for $1.00. It only took 8 wipes to clean our 32″. It’s like the magic eraser for t.v.’s.
Worked like a charm! Thanks.
Many thanks to you!!! Our granddaughter did a job on our computer screen with a ballpoint pen and that worked perfect.
methylated spirits does the same
You just saved me. Thank you!!!!!!
1 to 1 ratio of water and ethyl alcohol worked for me. Get a piece of cotton and moisten it, not too wet as it may drip when you start rubbing on the lcd. Rub in a circular motion.
50″ vision I have tried everything spot is still with me about to throw out TV most aggravating
WOW IT WORKED REALLY WELL. AMAZING….
Thank you so much we had a giant TV and my little quison drew on it we tried winded blech vinegar and etc. But nothing worked until I looked online and found this
AGAR AAP KI LCD LED MOBILE KISI BHI SCREEN PAR BALLPOINT K NISHAN HAIN . NAIL POLISH REMOVER AIK DROP AAP COTTON PAR LAGA KR JASAY HI SCREEN PAR LAGAEN GAY SAB NISHAN REMOVE HO JAEN GAY JUST IN ONE SECOND.