I just dropped my laptop and as expected cracked the screen all to hell. Still usable but it has cracks and black spots all over the place. The laptop is a Gateway 7330GZ and I’ve had it for less than two years. To repair the thing would be in the neighborhood of $400 to $500 dollars. For that amount I could pick up a new one from Best Buy but I don’t want to do that.
I am thinking of replacing it myself. I found new replacement LCD screens on eBay for around $160 with S&H. Much more reasonable. I’ve found a few pages online detailing how to replace an LCD but wanted to know if anyone here has tried it? How easy is it? Anyone unexpected or unforeseen problems I may run into? I build and maintain my own PC’s and other electronic gizmos but never cracked open a laptop, well not one that I was worried about putting back together in working order.
Also, anyone ever order an LCD from eBay? The price difference between what I found on eBay vs. regular online was 50%. Are they as good as OEM parts or just cheap knock-offs?
I ordered one from cheapLCDscreens dot com, or something like that about a year ago. Getting it in and out was pretty simple, but it didn’t work when I turned everything back on. I took it to my buddy, and he said something about the power supply not being compatible with the new LCD screens, so he gave me one of his spare ones. The connection seemed pretty fragile, IIRC, so be gentle with it. Shouldn’t take more than about 45 minutes or so, though.
Pay attention to how the ribbon cables are threaded around, or they will either be crimped and soon fail, or the connection will be pulled out the first time you close the lid.
The screens you’re finding on eBay are probably just used ones from laptops being “parted out” after some other failure. The main concern is that you don’t get one that’s already cracked and that it doesn’t get broken in transit. They are fragile things, and especially so when “naked.”
Also pay attention to whether or not the backlight and its “inverter” is included. A stingy seller might separate the backlight and inverter from the LCD to sell separately, or the backlight might be known to be dead, but the LCD is OK. The inverter is the power supply piece that runs the backlight. It’s generally in the laptop’s lid, along one of the edges. Your is probably OK, so don’t worry too much if it’s not part of the deal.
Ideally, you’ll find an LCD and backlight sold together and mounted in the lid, so all you need to do is plug in the cables and re-attach the hinges, saving you from having to mess with the fragile LCD panel itself and the equally fragile backlight. Another option is to look for a “dead” laptop that you can probably swap the lid with and be back in business.
Well, I checked both on eBay and the vendor websites and both just sell the LCD panel. No backlight or inverter. I just ordered a panel from an eBay store. Total was $165 with S&H. It should arrive by this weekend, and at that time I will perform the surgery. Hopefully everything will go OK because if I end up having to buy a new laptop on top of buying this LCD panel I’m going to pissed.
I’ve done it many times on Thinkpads. It’s doable, but there are a lot of little screws. No backlight means things just got a bit hairier. When they leave the backlight and screen together, it’s a pretty straightforward replacement, but separated, getting all the connections right can be frustrating. You should be able to reuse the inverter, and hopefully your backlight is still ok. In addition to pictures, if you can put a camcorder on a tripod, do that (and hook it up to a TV) just so you can go back and see what steps you went through.