Replacing a Broken Laptop Screen
A cracked screen or blown pixels can be very frustrating when you want to use your laptop as you cannot view anything correctly. Rather than getting a whole new laptop, you can get a universal LCD screen for your 15.4-inch size laptop to replace yourself, so you can get back up and running in no time.
How to Replace the Screen
Before attempting to replace your laptop screen, you should check to make sure you cannot get it fixed under warranty. Once you try to fix anything on your computer yourself your warranty will become void. If you are not confident in making the repair yourself, seek help from a professional so you can ensure that everything is done correctly. You will need a few special tools to replace the screen and it is always a good idea to find detailed instructions on replacing the screen for your model laptop before starting. To give you an idea of what is involved, here are the instructions for replacing an LED-backlit LCD screen on one laptop model.
- Step 1: Turn the laptop off and remove the battery. Remove the screen bezel by accessing the screws in each corner. Once the screws are out, youll need a thin metal blade to pop one of the bezel corners loose then work your way around, so its completely removed.
- Step 2: You will now be able to see the LCDs mounting brackets, so remove the screws that attach it to the lid, then place the display front side down so you can disconnect the cable. Some older model laptops will have two cables.
- Step 3: Find the manufacturers label that has the screen model number so you can choose the correct replacement.
- Step 4: Once you have the new universal screen, check to make sure it matches the one you already have, then connect it to the cable, position it in the lid, secure with screws and put the bezel back on in the same way that you took it off.
Are There Different Kinds of Screens?
You will see that there are different letters in the title of each screen name. This refers to the kind of display used. The main display types that you will find are:
- LCD : Liquid Crystal Display - one of the most common laptop screen types that uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps to illuminate the screen in the LCD panel.
- LED: Light Emitting Diode - this kind of screen uses an array of LEDs as a backlight for the display.
- AMOLED and OLED: Both of these contain a thin film of organic materials that illuminate when given power. These are less common display types.