How I took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage
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 flathead 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 transfered 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.
Entry Filed under: LCD Screen Repair
278 Responses to “How I took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage”
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Pages: « 28 … 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All
March 7th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I have a question, or should i say i have a fried laptop and i wanted to ask if you can give me some clue to what’s wrong with it.
Its a Dell D600, and when i turn on the power, the Caps-Lock and Scroll-Lock lights turn on, and so do the power and HDD lights. about 5 or so seconds later, the thing powers off!
I have tried everything from swapping Memory modules, to removing battey and using AC power instead, and also tried removing DVD and HDD … Nothing seems to work
Any ideas ?? i read in one of your posts that you fixed a laptop which wouldnt start because of a lose cable .. do you think this is a similar problem ? or is the motheboard DEAD ?
Helpppp meee … pleaaseeee ….
and doc .. here is some medical history of this laptop …
…. a few months back i had a different problem, the Caps Lock key was blinking a few times, and then the system would shut down. I read on some forums that this was related to memory, so i tried removing the memory from Slot 2, and it turns out, the Slot2 is probably fried. Because the system doesnt work if it has memory in Slot 2.
At that time i was relieved that the motherboard was OK, and so i happily kept working with half the memory !
March 3rd, 2007 at 8:17 pm
John,
Did you remove the CPU during disassembly? If you did, make sure it’s seated properly in the socket and the socket is LOCKED. Make sure the memory module is seated properly in the slot.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Google brought me here while searching LCD screen cover Toshiba 105.
Question: Can one replace only the flexible shiny front plastic cover which protects the Toshiba LCD screen? Mine has a little scratch where the cover bravely protected the LCD from a falling tool. It’s not the end of the world, but if I can replace this easily and economically I’d like to do it. If I could I’d replace it with a protective cover that was not so reflective.
KLS
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:30 am
Jerry,
I haven’t created a guide for a Satellite A75 notebook but I have created guides for other Toshiba laptops. Take a look at Satellite A65 for example. Steps for taking apart the LCD panel on a Toshiba laptop will be similar for most models.
March 3rd, 2007 at 8:30 am
[…] How I took apart and repaired my notebook LCD screen with water damage - removing the LCD and taking it apart […]
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:51 am
I have a Sony Vaio FRV25. I was having fan problems, opened up the laptop, replaced fan. The screen is now black. I tried an external monitor and nothing happens.
I’m just wondering if I broke a ribbon or something. Im pretty sure I put all of the screws into the right holes.
Any help would be appreciated.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:57 am
Hi charmaigne, did you have any luck with your blacked out screen??
I now have the same problem!
Shayne
March 1st, 2007 at 10:39 am
My laptop is Toshiba Satellite A75-S2292.
Do you have any idea how to disassembly the screen and change the new LCD on this model.
Appreciate your help.
Thank you.
February 25th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Bojan,
I think a dark spot on the LCD screen might appear if you press on it with your fingers. Maybe the previous owner wasn’t careful enough with the screen? I cannot see your screen so it’s just a guess.
If you decide to take it apart be very careful because you can permanently damage the screen and it will be even worse. Here’s a guide for removing the LCD screen from a Toshiba Satellite A105. This guide should be close enough to Satellite M100.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Hi,
I have a Toshiba M100 which is otherwise in great shape but has a problem with the LCD. If you look directly at the screen you can see dark grey spots scattered around the screen. To me this looks like mould or some sort of dirt and it’s definitely on the inside of the screen. So basically, the LCD is dirty on the inside!
To make the story worse, a friend of mine also bought the same laptop from the same source (private seller, used laptop, no warranty) and it also has the same spots. When I was buying the laptop I figured the screen was just plain dirty and I could wipe it off. But it turns out it’s not and the spots are driving me nuts.
Do you know whether or not it would be possible to open the screen and clean the LCD panel? I figure it’s the top glass layer but then again, I could be wrong.
Thanks in advance.
Greetings from Slovenia!
Bojan