We’ve been offering replacement laptop screens for a few years now. We’ve built up a vast knowledge about replacing laptop screen so we thought we’d share some of the important info with our website visitors.
Top things to check when you order a replacement laptop screen.
Make sure you order the correct screen for your laptop! If it’s your first time replacing a laptop screen a lot can go wrong. There are countless videos on the web the show how to replace a laptop screen and make it look dead simple. Well the wise words of wisdom here at laptop repair probably agree with that statement. It is pretty easy to replace a laptop screen if you know what you are doing and have experience replacing and fixing laptop screens.
One of the hardest parts a when replacing your laptop screen is making sure you get the correct replacement. Our best bit of advice is to remove the old damaged laptop screen and take a note of the model number. I also suggest that you take a note of the backlight type on the screen.
There are two different technologies that are in play on laptop screens. CCFL and LED.
CCFL is basically a small long fluorescent light bulb inside your laptop LCD panel. It’s the older of the two technologies and you can usually tell if your screen is CCFL if there are two small power wires coming from the screen.
The other type is LED and the lights from the backlight are powered via the main laptop motherboard. In LED LCD panels there are no power cables coming from the laptop screen.
When you have taken out the old laptop screen and are ready to start searching for a replacement laptop screen you be better prepared having the model number of the LCD panel and the model number of your laptop as well as the type of backlight panel you require. This is a big help as we’ve sent screens out to many customers who then inform us that their replacement LCD panel is incorrect.
This usually occurs due to the laptop manufacturer using two types of screens in the same model of laptop. The customer just types the model number of the Laptop and does a simple google search for the replacement panel.
So to summarise make sure you know what type of backlight is in your current LCD panel that you are replacing and when ordering up a replacement laptop screen make sure it matches the same backlight type. This usually can be helped if you happen to have the laptop LCD panel model number however is some cases you may not be able to find the matching model number online and will have to resort to matching the laptop model number with a compatible screen.
Other things to check when ordering a replacement screen is the finish on the screen. Do you want a glossy or a matt finish? Glossy screen’s usually look nicer however you may get more reflection if you are using a glossy screened laptop outdoors more often. This comes down to more of a personal preference that anything else.
Also check the warranty on the new screen most laptop screen retailers offering replacement screen will offer some form of warranty if the LCD screen breaks down after only a couple of months. The standard warranty is usually 30-90 days depending on the supplier.
The supplier is also another consideration. You may have found an excellent priced laptop screen supplier however cheapest is not always best! The main reason for this is there could be considerable waiting time for your new screen to arrive. Many suppliers are based in the far east in places like China & Hong Kong and it can take a few weeks for items to arrive from these parts of the worlds. Can you really be bothered to wait two week for your laptop to be fixed when for maybe a little more you can find a UK supplier that will ship next day. There is also the little known fact of import duty. You could get stung with a 25% tax on the item at customs depending on the value of the screen. Ouch!
The above article is a few things we’ve learnt whilst replacing laptop screens for customers over the years.
Best to take things slowly and identify your need otherwise you could have trouble later on in the repair process. We hope that this article has helped make clear some of the issues when in the process of looking for a replacement laptop screen.
