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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December 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Harsh Kulkarni,
Sounds like a problem with the LCD screen. There is no easy way to fix it. Call HP customer service and fix it while the laptop is still under warranty.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Hey
I have a Compaq Evo N610c Laptop.
But i take a very long time to start.
When Compaq Logo Screen Appear,it take five minutes foir the logo screen to finish and laptop to continue booting
Sorry for my english but i hope u will understand what i wanted to say.
So plz,plz,plz HELP ME IN GETTING RID OF THIS PROBLEM.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:30 am
on my laptop the lcd screen goes white and then the power cuts off any idears
November 28th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hi i have a compaq DV6800 laptop thats barely 10 months old. i havent used it for the past 2 months and when i removed it and switched it on there was this pale halo in the center of the screen almost frosted white. it doesnt show that easliy when i play games or movies but shows when i open a word document. The laptop is under warranty ofcourse but is there an easier way of solving this issue. would appreciate if you could help me with the same. Regards
Harsh
November 19th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I have a 2 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron E1705 with an XGA+ (also known as WXGA+?) display. For the past few weeks when I power the unit on, the screen looks normal. But, over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, about 1/4 – 1/3 of the screen (on the left side) dims. It never gets really dark, but it’s definitely dimmer (and harder to see) then the rest of the screen, which looks normal. The transition in brightness is gradual – there’s not a clear “line” separating dim from normal. The image is otherwise fine – just dim in that section of the screen. I have an external monitor connected to the laptop and the image is fine, so I think that rules out a video card problem. From reading the above (great info by the way), it doesn’t appear to be an inverter problem either. It think (but am not certain) the display for this laptop has one backlight bulb. If that’s the case, where is the bulb located? Does it run horizontally or vertically. If it’s horizontal, can part of the bulb go bad? What does it sound like the problem might be, and how should I troubleshoot it to determine whether or not I need to bite the bullet and get a new display?
November 13th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Hi, I have the problem where the video on the LCD screen is garbled. When the LCD board is flexed just right the screen returns to normal. How do I find where the problem is? I believe it is in the ribbon connecting the LCD board to the LCD itself. It has many tiny tiny wires. I have been looking at them with a 10x magnifying glass, but I am not sure where the break is, or why is it that when I ‘stretch’ it/ or bend the board the screen works. The even that caused this damage was that someone had stepped on my laptop when it was closed and cracked the lid case, probably either disconnecting some wires with a fissure or something along those lines. I am certain that the problem is not the inverter as the lighting is perfectly fine, and when the top board is bent just right the screen works just fine. Is it the wires between the chips? or is it a cracked microchip? … I already have a new laptop, but I would like to figure out how to repair this one myself without replacing the LCD screen as it works (when the board is bent just right).
November 12th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I have somewhat a similar problem regarding dark area in my presario, actually the position of the dark area covers exactly the same space of the tgrack pad when the lid is closed.
Whats seem to have cause this? Is this because of the trackpad heating up when the lid is close(laptop on) for a long period of time?
heres a shot of it:
http://i15.photobucket.com/alb.....ure023.jpg
November 11th, 2008 at 10:26 am
ihave dell vostro 1500 when i connect to ac adapter my lcd backlight turns off.every tinhg does black. can any one help me?where can be the problem?
November 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
My Hp dv8000 doesn’t go to post. When I unplug the screen it boots to windows normaly. I can network from my other laptop. Does anybody have an idea whether it is the screen or the videocard?
November 5th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Hi,
I was trying to lift my DELL laptop with my one hand, the thumb finger had pressed the monitor hard i guess, 75% of the screen is not visible.. with lines throughout..Just wondering if I have to go for a brand new screen or I still have a chance to get it repaired though!! Dont find any visible crack on the outer screen…
Any comments, welcome!