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Replacing a broken laptop screen, part 3
January 26, 2009
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You may recall that last week, the dog knocked my laptop to the floor and shattered the screen. It was a very sad day.
Then several blog readers suggested that I try to replace the screen. So last weekend I ordered a new screen off eBay for $72. There were over a dozen vendors on eBay selling these screens.
The new screen arrived and I installed it this weekend. After watching that video it was surprisingly easy. I unscrewed six bezel screws and pried off the bezel. I had to undo two screws that attached the mounting bracket for the screen to the lid of the laptop. This gave access to the 8 screws that hold the screen in.
The new screen fit perfectly. I plugged in the ribbon cable and the fluorescent light power connector. All the screw holes lined up. The bezel snapped back in very easily and I screwed it back into place. I powered it up and it is absolutely gorgeous. No bad pixels. No alignment problems. No funny colors. Anyone looking at the new screen would have no way to know it was replaced – the bezel is just as tight and the screen’s fit is perfect. And the whole process only took about 20 minutes.
Having this laptop back on line is great. I am typing on it right now. I appreciate all the suggestions to try replacing the screen myself. It worked out better than I would have expected.
PS – I would swear that battery life has improved by about 20 minutes with the new screen, but that could be an illusion. I never wrote down battery life before, although I did pay attention to it.
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5 Responses to “Replacing a broken laptop screen, part 3”
Happy to hear it all worked out for you!!
Cool! Glad it worked!
However, I think the future does not hold well for DIY screen replacements with the way products like the Macbook Pro are being constructed.
Since this laptop has made a trip to the floor, you might also want to double-check your hard drive. Most HDs keep an internal log of error rates and operating parameters (called “SMART”, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. ) There are several PC utilities for checking these out, if they’re starting to look suspicious you may want to preemptively replace your hard drive as well. A friend discovered his Powerbook’s HD error rate jumped after it took a trip to the pavement.
That’s a great point. Thanks!
Excellent – good to hear!
Now the total cost of ownership of your dog only went up $72 plus some time factoring. Or we could give him even more credit and say he helped you learn something, and maybe a few others, so your dog helped improve your life and that of several other people.
That said, I’d keep a better eye on that power cord from now on.