The screen on my work computer broke. It’s worth it to me to just replace the screen myself, rather than turn it in and wait to get it back. I can still use it with an external monitor in the meantime, so if I order the screen myself, I can just replace it in the evening.
Anyway, some things I read online stated that it had to be the exact same screen, or there would be problems. If I’m going to buy it, I’d prefer to upgrade the screen to 1080p. Neither screens would be touchscreens, and both screens are for the same computer model.
Should this be a simple swap? I don’t have admin privileges to the computer, so part of my concern is that a driver request or something is going to pop up. But that can’t be right. All the basic display adapters come with Windows, now, right? And it’s the same computer model, just a better screen.
The Cub dropped his Mac and cracked the screen so it wouldn’t turn on. I took it to the repair shop and they were able to install a new screen.
I’m skeptical about a laptop being able to support anything other than an exact match.
That’s what one of the comments online stated (it was a month ago, I forgot where I read it). If the only difference is resolution, but if the laptop easily supports the 1080p or even 4K on external monitors, what prevents the new screen from working? Both screens would be from HP (not aftermarket), and both made for the same model of laptop. The new screen would be 1080p, and the old screen is… I forget what, but less than that.
Is your company large enough that you have an IT department? Because they may not want employees attempting repairs themselves. Also, they might have another computer of the same model. If so, they might be able to swap the HDD/SSD and get you back up and running very quickly.
If you’re not doing anything that makes use of a 3D graphics generator, drivers are not (*likely) to be an issue.
If the monitor’s plugs connect right up (which they *might, since you say it’s the same model), it should probably work fine.
The next issue is how well your computer can drive the improved monitor. More pixels take more processing power. You run the risk (after all the other caveats) of the computer running slower, perhaps notably so, and perhaps imperceptibly so.
* All of this desperately caveated, since I don’t know any other particulars about your laptop.
The interface ribbon between the video card on the laptop motherboard and the display doesn’t go through any form of standardized interface (HDMI, DisplayPort, etc). It’s a direct digital drive, and it would be a considerable leap to assume that a screen of a different resolution will work with the hardware output driver on the video card. Even if the display adapter in the laptop for the 1080p model is the same as yours, it probably won’t work.
There is a nice market in screen drivers that allow an old laptop screen to be used with HDMI inputs. Each screen model has a different adapter (or more correctly, the same adapter but with different programming, whether CPU firmware or FPGA).
It’s not a risk I would put my money on.
To put it a different way: the screen in a laptop is usually just a screen, rather than a monitor. So what you are talking about would be like taking the screen out of your monitor and putting in a new one. The electronics that control the screen will still be the same as they were before.
Even if the screen comes from the same model number of laptop, it’s likely the inner electronics are set for a specific resolution, and there won’t be any easy way to change it to work for the other resolution.
Maybe an expert might be able to figure out how to set the electronics to accept a 1080p screen in your laptop, but I would not recommend a layperson trying it.