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.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
July 20th, 2008 at 9:00 am
David,
The backlight lamp is a part of the LCD screen, it’s mounted inside. When you order a new LCD screen, it will come with the new backlight lamp.
You don’t have to transfer the backlight lamp from one screen to another. Simply buy a new LCD and install it instead of the broken one. It’s not necessary to disassemble the old screen.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Thanks for this! I have a cracked screen and I also have a Dell Latitude D610!
July 10th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Ok, so, the only problem I have is a cracked screen. The backlight is working just fine. How do I go about simply replacing the cracked LCD screen on my own? I checked into having it done professionally, but out of pocket expense is going to be enough to buy another laptop all together. And since I never got a warranty, I assume I have nothing to lose if I mess up my screen any more than it is. Any help would be great.
June 24th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Benedict,
Try this. Remove laptop battery, DVD drive, memory, hard drive. Connect the AC adapter and try turning it on again. Does it still shut down as soon as you turn it on? If it does, your problem could be related to the motherboard.
Also, it would be a good idea to test the AC adapter. Even though it look like the adapter powers up the laptop, you don’t know if the adapter outputs correct voltage. You can test the adapter with a voltmeter.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Thanks for the good job. I need help with Toshiba satellite P25-S607. You switch it on then it switches off almost immediately. The power led stays on. What can I do t correct the problem?
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 am
that real help! thank’s a lot
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Adam,
Not sure if it’s going to help, but take a closer look at the lid close switch – a small button located close to the left hinge.
When the lid close switch is pressed down (the display is closed), it cuts off power from the inverter/backlight and the image on the screen becomes very dark. It’s possible that the lid close switch on your laptop is dirty and it’s stuck inside the case somehow. As a a result, there is no power coming to the inverter/backlight even when the display is opened. Make sure the switch moved freely when you press on it with a small screwdriver.
Yeah, it’s really hard to troubleshoot a laptop when you are not sure about spare parts. Sorry, cannot help you here. If a known good inverter and LCD will not fix the problem, I guess I would try the video cable next.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hi, I have an IBM R51 laptop that I’m trying to fix for a friend. The problem is the display is very faint, however, when I hook it up to an external CRT it works fine. The first thing I tried is replacing the inverter. I ordered a new one from thinkpad-parts.com. When that didn’t work I tried replacing the whole LCD screen with a used (supposedly tested and verified working order) one I found on eBay. It appears to be in excellent condition, but still the same problem occurs. I’ve also tried re-seating the video cable and the old inverter with the new (used) LCD. I’m at a loss as to what to try next. I hate to say it, but I believe I either got two bad inverters or two bad LCDs. Any ideas?
June 1st, 2008 at 11:34 am
nathan,
First of all, test video on the external monitor. If video on the external monitor is messed up too, most likely you problem is related to the graphics card.
If video on the external monitor is fine and this defect appears only on the internal LCD, most likely this problem is related to the LCD screen.
Also, this could be related to the video cable. Try reconnecting the video cable on the LCD screen, make sure it’s seated correctly.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:26 am
seyed bagher,
The screen is completely black or you still can see a very faint image? Does your laptop works fine with an external monitor attached to the VGA port?
If the laptop works with an external monitor and you still can see a very dim image on the laptop LCD screen, your problem could be related to the inverter board.