Yesterday took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage. The screen itself was working just fine but it had two different problems.
- previous owner spilled water on the laptop. Somehow the water got inside the LCD screen and left stains inside the screen. The water marks were very noticeable on a white background and it was very irritating.
- the screen also had dust and lint inside also very noticeable on a white background. I have no idea how it got in there but I decided to clean it up too.
To fix both problems I had to open up the LCD screen. This was my first experience on opening a notebook screen. I was pretty confident because I didn’t really care if I break the screen, I just wanted to know if it’s possible to fix it.
Warning: the LCD screen can be easily damaged if you open it up. If you do something wrong the screen might become completely unusable and you’ll have to buy a new screen. It’s very expensive. Think twice before you decide opening the screen. Continue at your own risk.
Here’s my Dell Latitude D610 notebook with water damaged screen I’m going to take apart.
First of all remove the battery from the notebook.
Lift up rubber screw seals and remove all screws.
Carefully separate the screen bezel from the LCD cover and remove the bezel.
Remove two screws from the front and two screws from both sides.
Carefully remove the LCD screen from the cover and place it on the notebook base. Disconnect the video cable and the inverter board cable.
On this model the inverter board is attached to the screen with two screws. Remove both screws, disconnect the screen cable and remove the inverter board.
Carefully peel off sticky tape and foil and put it aside. You’ll have to put it back in place during the screen reassembly.
Remove two screws from both sides of the screen.
Carefully place the screen upside down on a flat surface. Carefully unglue the film that covers the circuit board and remove two screws from the board (top circles). I wasn’t really sure if I have to remove screws on the bottom, so I removed them just in case. Do not touch the circuit board with fingers.
After both screws are removed you should be able to lift up the circuit board. Be careful, it’s still attached to the LCD.
Start unsnapping the metal frame from the screen. There are a lot of latches on all sides of the screen. You can unlock them with nails or a small flat head screwdriver.
After all latches are opened you should be able to separate the screen into three pieces: metal frame, LCD and background (not sure about correct technical name).
If you have lint or dust inside the screen, probably you’ll find it between the LCD and the background. Do not touch LCD or background with your fingers. I was able to remove dust and lint up with a very soft cloth, barely touching the LCD and background surfaces.
After I split the screen I found that the background has a few some kind of optical layers (three transparent sheets) and in my case they were damaged by water. The water dried out and left stains between these optical layers.
In my case removing dust and lint wasn’t enough and I had to go further.
Very carefully separate the LCD with attached circuit board from the background.
To remove damaged optical layers it’s necessary to remove metal locks on both sides of the screen. It’s like a small clip that keeps layers in place.
After I removed both clips, I was able to look between the layers. At first I tried to clean up the dried water marks with a soft cloth but it didn’t help. The stains were still visible and didn’t want to go away.
Fortunately I had another similar screen laying around, it had a cracked LCD. I decided to borrow the optical layers from the cracked screen and transfer them to my screen. I wasn’t sure if it’s going to work, but as I mentioned before I didn’t really care if I break the screen. It was just an experiment.
So I disassembled the cracked screen and carefully transferred the white background and all transparent layers to my screen.
After that I assembled my screen back removing dust and lint with a very soft cloth. Breathlessly connected my new screen to the notebook. Turned it on and…
That’s a miracle, it works!
No dust, no lint, no water mars inside the screen! It’s clear and the background is absolutely clean!
My donor screen had a cracked LCD but it had a good working backlight tube. The backlght tube is very fragile and it’s located inside a metal casing. I didn’t remove the backlight tube, I just broke off the entire metal casing from the plastic frame. I’m going to use this backlight tube for testing purposes.
If you fixing a Dell laptop yourself, probably you’ll need a service manual. Some Dell service manuals provide step-by-step laptop disassembly instructions.
Are you looking for a new screen? You can find very inexpensive brand new LCD screens here, just search for your laptop model.
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November 28th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Thank you for so detailed instructions . I have read trough all posts but don’t find neccessary answer. How do You think- changing LCD layers will help to remove white spots? Now I san “see” through monitor and see all support points behind LCD as white cloudy spots. I have Dell Latitude D600. Thank You
November 27th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Director,
Nope, this solution will not work. If the LCD screen has a few vertical lines (see example 2), then you’ll have to replace the whole LCD screen.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Your instructions on how to replace the layers was quite informative. However, could you please advise if this solution is applicable to a lcd with different colored vertical lines on the screen at startup and windows?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
EMoorhead
November 20th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Excellent guide!! Thanks for you help!
November 19th, 2007 at 5:07 am
hi, here is my problem i have a ibm think pad a21m and the white color all seems to be either a grayish pink or pink color,,any idea what this could be… thanks
November 13th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Just a quick ?. I do not want to throw good money after bad. I bought ny daughter a Dell Inspiron 2200 about 3 years ago. She used it about 20 hours watching dvds. About 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty, the screen went dark. If you have light shining on it at the right angle, you can see and read what is on the screen. Obviously, it works fine with a monitor.
Does it sound like this backlight thing and app. how much does it cost for you to replace it?
I, obviously, would never buy another Dell. I thought I bought the extended warranty. I notice now it shows up on the order, but with a zero quantity. I did not catch the 0 when I placed the order.
Thanks.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I recently revived a friends laptop that had been his daughters. The display is splotchy. He is not interested in spending $100 for a replacement LCD panel. It displays text OK. Thats enough for him. The colors are muddled. I do not think it is bad pixels, as during the Dell diagnostics routine, it displays solid colors perfectly. It does not display red well when mixed with other colors. The colors are perfect when displayed on an external CRT monitor.
Is this an inverter problem, or a motherboard problem. (the video is embedded in the motherboard) Any repair suggestions?
November 6th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Hello Again,
I have tried my screen on another laptop (Inspiron e1405) which has a different video cable connector to the motherboard. But I managed to attach my LCD (of Inspiron 2200) to e1405 using its video cable and the LCD works fine (I used my inveter only).
So now the problem could be only in one of the 2 things.
1) The video cable of my notebook (Inspiron 2200), or
2) The mother board circuit between the video card and the LCD connector.
The problem as I have explained in the last post is:
1) Nothing come on the LCD Screen, just a flash for the 1st second after which the LCD turns black. No ghost image.
2) The external display works fine (hence the video card is good)
I am going to try a working video cable of the same make soon. Will post the results after that.
But meanwhile, what do you feel the problem could be? the video cable or the motherboard connector?
October 30th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Problem: LCD Blackout.
I don’t even get a ghost (faint) image. But the external monitor works just fine with the laptop. Its an Inspiron 2200 (2years old).
When the laptop is switched on the LCD shows a dark gray light (for less than a second) and then turns black. Earlier it used to flicker and come back but one day it just went black and is same since then.
Since there is not even a ghost image, culprit should not be either a bad inverter or CCFL backlight. Am I right?
Now, assuming that I am correct in the above assumption, it could be the video cable or the LCD screen/circuit itself. I have removed and replugged the video cable but nothing happens. Is there a way I can guarantee a faulty video cable without trying another one? (i suspect the answer to be no)
Now the final question, I am willing to buy a new LCD screen for my notebook and its available on ebay (and a few other sites). But is it possible that its not the fault of the screen at all? Could it be the circuit on the motherboard between the video card and the LCD connector on the motherboard that is breaking the signal? I ask because if this is the case then even buying a new screen wouldn’t help.
Waiting for a response with a half-dead laptop
Thanks in advance.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Chris,
Can anyone tell me how to fix this or what to look for when i take it apart?Look for corrosion on the motherboard. Apparently the motherboard has been damaged by coke.