How to clean a laptop screen with household products

Hi,
In this instrutable I am going to show you a few methods of cleaning a laptop screen with household products you probably already have. It is cheep and safe way to make your monitor shine like its brand new!!

Step 1: Gather Materials

For this instructable you only need a few things
Materials

• Cloth-_{Make sure that it is clean, soft, and lint-free cloth. You can't use most paper towels because most have very small pieces of wood in them which will scratch screen.}
• Water- _{I Justed tap water}

You can use this method with any LCD so it doesn't necessarily need to be a laptop.
Optional-
You can use camera polishing cloth or eye glasses polishing cloth to polish the screen after you have cleaned it.

Comments

[sahara_trip]

i have the same laptop as yours..

[snowfreak]

me too

[littlechef37]

Simple....... However a dell will never sparkle......GRR DELL there so evil!

[alvie]

1) Turn off the laptop or monitor. 2) Wet a small (3 or 4 inch) sponge with tap water, add 3 or 4 drops of liquid dish washing soap (non toxic & biodegradable preferred). 3) Rub all over the screen. Look from the side to see the greasy spots and get them off. The sponge shouldn't drip, you don't want to get water into the screen. 4) Rinse the sponge well, wipe the screen with end-to-end horizontal swipes from the top. Use just enough pressure to pick up the soap from the screen, so the screen is almost dry behind the sponge. Use a different edge of the sponge for each swipe, and rinse the sponge again in running tap water when you run out of clean edges. 5) Repeat with vertical wipes, top to bottom. Done. No drying needed. Distilled water is overkill, if you use the correct pressure on the sponge it will pick up 99% of the water with anything dissolved in it. Same goes for alcohol, as regular dish washing soap is more than enough for this job and there's no risk of damaging the coating. Enjoy!

[Hello Kitty]

You shouldn't use tap water because it will leave spots on your screen. And NEVER use paper products. Those can scratch your screen. Nice Instructable!

[waterppk]

Windex and a clean paper towel hasn't let me down yet. A LCD monitor is nothing more than a big sheet of plastic on the front, so it's not affected by much. . .

[joejoerowley]

Yeah I hear that you are suppose to not use paper because it can scratch the screen. IDK though.

[waterppk]

I've never had a problem with clean paper towels, what usually causes scratches is if you have dirty towels or if you have dirt/sand on the screen. If that's the case I'll use a little canned air to knock the dirt off and wipe away what's left ;)

[DjProToJeeX]

you just voided your warranty hahah

[joejoerowley]

No, I don't think so. At least with apple products thats how they tell you to clean your laptop and how will dell ever know besides the fact that I showed how to do it on the internet?

[DjProToJeeX]

i was just kidding but a micro fibre cloth is the best the really fine ones i forget the size but thats the best cloth. i got mine at the dollar store and it works great.

[joejoerowley]

Cool! Thanks!

[bmlbytes]

Amazing! You seem to have the same laptop as me. At least it is a very close model. I am sitting here on this laptop, looking at my laptop in a picture. Mine is the Inspiron 9200. When I enlarge the picture, it looks like yours too may be a 9000 series Inspiron.

[bmlbytes]

Oh and nice instructable btw. At work (in a computer repair shop), we use foaming glass cleaner and strange microfiber clothes. It does wonders.

[cool!]

That sounds interesting... hey I was wondering what btw means, everyone is saying it!

[Silver_Duck]

Btw = By The Way :)

[cool!]

THNX! (Showing off my vocab!)

[joejoerowley]

By the way.

[cool!]

THNX! (Showing off my vocab!)

[joejoerowley]

Cool! Nice tips! Thanks

[Hoboman]

very nice I'ble. Two things, I believe laptop is only one word (Step 1,) and you spelled "you" wrong. (Step 1.) But very nice, clear, Instructable.

[joejoerowley]

Thanks, there fixed now.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Any other compounds you can use to get rid of the streaks? Using distilled water is best. Great job!

[joejoerowley]

You just have to apply a little bit of pressure with a dry rag to get rid of most streaks. There are pre-maid chemicals and I have heard of people using rubbing alcohol but I have also heard people say to never use it. Idk,. Thanks

[LinuxH4x0r]

Don't risk alcohol! it might ruin a $1000 laptop. I have to do it again... Its looking really bad

[zachninme]

How would it ruin the lappy?

[LinuxH4x0r]

It discolors the screen sometimes. Better safe than sorry

[timheppner]

I've used rubbing alcohol (after searching on Google and finding quite a few sites recommending it) and have had good success with it. I've used rubbing alcohol, and a lint free cloth, to clean all my laptop screens, my LCD screens, and my PDA and MP3 player, all with good results. No streaks, and I've not seen any harm done to the screens, and I've used rubbing alcohol quite a few times. The trick is, put some alcohol on your cloth FIRST, then clean your screen with it.

[joejoerowley]

Cool! Nice Tip! Maybe if you someone does not want risk pure alcohol they could do a 50/50 solution with water . Thanks

[gmjhowe]

Woot! spot on, perfect. water, and soft cloth!

[joejoerowley]

Thanks!!!

[SurferGeek]

I use three microfiber cloths distilled water and a VERY mild and diluted soap solution in a spray bottle. The solution is Dawn dishwash liquid, about 4-5 drops in a spray bottle of distilled water. I use distilled water as it contains no minerals to dry on the screen. First I use a can of compressed air to make sure there's no debris on the screen then I use the first microfiber cloth and spray a small amount of the soap solution on the cloth, not the screen. Lightly rubbing to remove any finger prints or other possibly oily residue. I use the second cloth dampened with just distilled water to rinse the screen, not sopping wet, just very lightly dampened. You don't want to see water beading up. I use the third cloth to dry and polish the screen. Works like a charm.

[joejoerowley]

Thanks for the details. !! Nice tips!