Mystery mark on thinkpad screen

May 6, 2006 11:48 AM

What is this "watermark" on my thinkpad's screen?

I recently bought a Thinkpad T43. I noticed there's this faint "watermark" (for lack of a better term) on the screen. It's very hard to see, but if there's a dark background behind it, i can see it. And it's driving me nutes.

It looks something like this but much smaller, not as squished, roughly in the center of the screen, off to the left somewhat. Forgive my horrible ascii-art

    * * 
   * * * 
  * * * * 
 * * * * * 
* * * * * * 
 * * * * *
* * * * * * 
 * * * * * 
  * * * *
   * * * 
    * * 

I'm running linux. And the mark is present even when I'm in the console. Not sure if it's there under windows, since I pretty much haven't booted windows since the day I got this thing.

What on earth is it??

posted by jclovebrew to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I've got a weird "watermark" pattern that I can only see under certain conditions on my thinkpad too. Appears regardless of operating system. Mine isn't terribly noticable.
posted by phrontist at 11:57 AM on May 6, 2006

Could it be an imprint from the TrackPoint (the pointing device in the middle of the keyboard)? When the laptop is closed, sometimes the screen can flex down a little bit and touch the top of the keyboard; then the finger oil and grime on the keys and the TrackPoint can get transferred to the screen. I get that on my T41 sometimes.
posted by em at 12:04 PM on May 6, 2006

have you tried cleaning it? does it correspond to anything on the keyboard including dirt? all my laptop LCDs have gained some sort of varying dark/light patterns but yours sounds quite focal.
posted by kcm at 12:06 PM on May 6, 2006

Holy schnikes! It is caused by the trackpoint. I just wiped it right off!

Go figure.. I had no idea it was a physical thing.
posted by jclovebrew at 12:17 PM on May 6, 2006

Metafilter: I had no idea it was a physical thing.

(Sorry.)
posted by SPrintF at 5:10 PM on May 6, 2006