X61 tablet - cleaning a screen dirty on the inside

[plesqus]

Got myself a used X61 Tablet (the one with Wacom pen responsive display) - the price was super cheap, and as per the phrase of "you get what you pay for", I got the notebook in a surprisingly bad shape.

The thing is, the notebook has some horrible stains on the underneath of the display - the stains are so bad that they make the color white in the affected areas appear as yellow, or even gray-ish. I want to clean these stains. These stains (two stains that are spanning acrross about one third of the display) seem like dried rust water patches ... or something (never seen anything like that).
What are these stains? Have you encounterted them before?

Here is the visual on the thing:


Detailed imagery: One more, and one other.

Anyway, the notebook seems to have three display layers:

(on the outside): the wacom matrix (this registers the movement of the Wacom pen)
(in the middle): a plexiglass
(on the inside)? the LCD itself

According to this Vimeo guide, I managed to do all that was relevant for me, i.e. getting to about 8:45 of the video (opening up the display and separating the Wacom matrix + plexiglass from the LCD panel underneath). To my dismay, the awful stain is not in between of the plexiglass and the LCD; it is stuck between the plexiglass and the Wacom matrix (as seen in the image above).

The thing is, the Wacom matrix seems to be rather well glued to the plexiglass ... and here I stand, not that sure about prying those two parts apart, in fear of breaking it and/or getting it into a nasty state.

Any advice?
FYI, I would prefer cleaning the thing; if that proves impossible, I would go for replacement hardware, I guess

[ideal-pc]

I have never disassembled one of those but having done a few iPads I know how tricky they can be! On the iPad I use a heatgun to get the screen hot enough to make the glue underneath pliable enough BUT of course the glue on an iPad around the edge of the screen. Take what I say lightly as to use a heatgun on laptop screen is gonna be pretty over the top & a risky move which could easily end in tears or an expensive bill!! Screens are also not easy to clean on the inside, again my experience with iPad, once through with cleaning & putting it all back together to find I missed a spot, very frustrating.

It may of course just be easier to replace the screen. I realise these are USA listings but for about £30 you could get a replacement complete http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-THINKPAD- ... 19ea8d3339

[ajkula66]

Just replace the LCD...any work between the layers of the actual panel does more harm than good 99.9% of the time...

[plesqus]

Screens are also not easy to clean on the inside, again my experience with iPad, once through with cleaning & putting it all back together to find I missed a spot, very frustrating

Sure thing. However, in my case, leaving a few specks here and there would be preferred to the bloated dirt patch across a significant part of the screen.

It may of course just be easier to replace the screen.

Easier, but certainly not cheaper.
Fun fact: did you know that the purchasing power of an average person living in my area of the Earth is about one fifth of an average American? On top of that, the postal fees tend to get rather nasty here, too. In other worlds, if I were to order the screen, I'd be paying the amounts of cash comparable to what you'd shell out for about ten replacement screens. And I say nah to that.

- - -

Anyway, time for an update ...

The insides of the screen look like this (my humble estimation, not a fact):


So far, I only separated the inner LCD chasis piece from the plexiglass-ish piece, by gently pulling the pieces apart in the area of the adhesive rubber, as symbolized in the image above.

This means that the filthy water patches (or whatever they are), as seen in the photo in the first post, have to be:
a) between the inner film and the plexiglass
b) between the plexiglass and the outer film
c) between the outer film and the touch surface

That's three choices ... and without knowing which layer it is for sure, the worst case scenario means three attempts to success. Meh.

I also noticed one other thing: the main Wacom panel that records the motion of the Wacom pen is located on the backside of the LCD chasis ... meaning that even with the plexiglass-ish piece off, the notebook still responds to the movement and the clicks of the Wacom pen (I just tried that).
The thing is, the plexiglass-ish piece has some minor Wacom passive circuitry in it as well (a conductor on the edges of the screen and a tiny matrix of dots across the whole screen area) - after all, there's an orange connector on the side of the plexiglass (just under the outer thin film) that can be connected to the Wacom PCB at the backside of the LCD chasis:


Still, even with the connector disconnected and the plexiglass piece off, the pen works (also, the dude in the Vimeo video does not connect such a connector as well). If I were to, say, replace the plexiglass with one that does not include this minor Wacom circuitry, would I be missing something?