Electronic Surgery

Unfortunately, I am not referring to the da Vinci system. A week or so ago Sarah's computer screen began dying. At first the computer would work fine but after a few hours the screen would go completely dead. The computer itself would stay on, however. Then it progressed to showing various shades of gray before going completely black. Now the screen doesn't turn on at all, not even during boot-up.

Between the two of us, Sarah and I have owned three laptops. My Toshiba crashed from overheating issues after about three years. It would run for about an hour before completely shutting down. It was actually involved in a class-action suit and I got $500 from Toshiba because of it. Sarah has owned two Dell laptops. Both have failed after about three years because of LCD monitor problems. Her first one had a large brown streak down the center of it that progressed to the whole screen looking brown. Her current laptop is also a dell and has the problems mentioned above. So the most I've been able to get out of any laptop is about 3 years, which is a bit disappointing. The desktop I use is a 2005 model and is still running strong for the most part, though I have had to make some minor repairs/upgrades.

I must say, I was completely disappointed with Dell's customer service. I thought they might be able to give me some suggestions or advice over the phone, but since the one year support plan was over they wouldn't even talk to me without paying $65 first. That is such a load of crap. Why should I have to pay for them to talk to me about an issue with their poorly made computer? I don't expect them to fix it for free, but they should at least talk to me and give me some ideas. Needless to say I was not happy when the customer service girl talked to me on the phone and this was probably the nail in the coffin in terms of me buying another Dell.

I've hooked up the computer to my TV and it runs fine so I am nearly certain the problem lies somewhere within the monitor itself. I am not interested in putting in $300-$400 in buying a new monitor for this computer. In an effort to not buy a brand new laptop, I am giving a desperate attempt to fix this screen myself. As seen above, this involves taking apart the casing around the screen and removing the screen in an attempt to reach a little part called the LCD inverter. I've read and been told that it commonly goes out on laptops and can cause the symptoms Sarah's computer is having. I bought a replacement part on eBay for $5. Thus far it has been kind of a pain because all of the parts are so small and packaged in such tight places. One of the screws surrounding the screen was stripped and couldn't be removed. And I had to buy a smaller screwdriver to work with some of the smaller parts. This is the first time I've taken apart a laptop so I am basically flying by the seat of my pants, though I am using a website as a guide. If this desperate attempt doesn't work it will likely be time to buy a new laptop unfortunately.





UPDATE: Well this experiment was an epic fail. As you can see from the picture below, I have the new part installed (it's the shiny bar sitting in front of the screen) and there still is no picture. It is likely the screen itself which will cost $100-$200 to replace and I don't think I'm going to go that route. I'll likely just pick up a new computer, unfortunately.