Cost to repair it: $780, according to the Pomeroy dude. :eek: It cost $1200 2 1/2 years ago. I declined to have it repaired and the crack is slowly creeping up and now covers 1/3 of my screen.
The really crappy thing is that I didn’t drop it or anything. In fact I can’t imagine how the damn thing got cracked. One morning, I turn it on and there’s the crack.
Sigh.
If I wasn’t so addicted to the convenience of a laptop, I’d go back to a reliable old desktop. You break a monitor on those buggers and it’s $25-400 depending on how fancy you want the monitor to be.
Wow. The same thing happened to me, except it was my fault. I was drunk and slammed my laptop closed while my headphones were still on the keyboard. DOH!
It cost around 700$ to repair for me too. It also started small and grew slowly like a digital cancer from robot hell.
I did that once, on a Toshiba Satellite. Official repair estimate was ~$700, which was about how much I paid for the computer. So I had nothing to loose, I just took out a few screws, popped off the frame around the screen, and then just kinda ‘unplugged’ the LCD. There was a part number on back, I found a replacement on ebay for $40 (actually, the replacement part was 1 letter off, i just crossed my fingers). New screen arrived, I plugged it in and it worked!!! The LCD panel always kinda wobbled a little bit after that, but the quality was fine.
I am not specific to laptops, general PC repair. I can replace displays. Only thing I don’t bother with is laptop mobos. $780 sounds a tad steep, whats the make and model so I can look up a part.
I bought one from them about 6 months ago for my Dell Inspiron for about $300. You have to install it yourself, but it’s really not very difficult. They even waved the shipping because I told them I was a student.
Thanks for the advice. I put in a request for a price quote on a new monitor. I’m crossing my fingers that it will be a far cheaper solution. Currently I’m plugged into my flat screen that I’d bought for my old desktop. It’s working okay but folks at Panera might look at me funny if I try to drag it out there.
A small irregularity against the glass could have finaly stressed the glass at the point of contact to the breaking point. Check out the contact area you install the LCD panel against for a protrusion. you don’t want it to crack again if that’s what caused it. Here’s to hoping for the best.
That price is just… ridiculous. You can purchase the screen for about $200-300, depending on the model and size. They’re relatively simple to replace - maybe 30 minutes work if you don’t know what you are doing.
You can go to most of the manufacturer’s websites (Dell, Gateway, etc., and they have some relatively nice and simple guides on how to replace the monitors.
Unless, of course, it’s a Macintosh. I love my Mac machines, and use an Apple Cinema Display on the desktop and a Titanium Powerbook G4 to walk with.
In that case, you go to an Apple Store, where a Mac Genius takes a sample of your DNA and cross-matches a pint of very unique and secret fluid. Then, using your actual DNA and a few scrapings from the cheek of the store manager ( something about " maintaining the purity of our precious bodily fluids… ) and they actually grow a new display just for you.
Update: I went to a Mom and Pop PC repair shop up the street and they quoted me $329, including labor, to replace the screen. For those with calculators, that’s less than 50% what the eye-gouging Pomeroy people quoted.
I love Mom and Pop shops. Though, technically, this one is more of a dad and geek son shop. I also found out that they make house calls and only charge $45/hour. When I buy the network ready color laser printer that I’ve been eyeing, I’m so going to call them up to come install it on our router.
