Sometimes it pays to snoop abit!

[canuckbid]

A few weeks ago my laptop would start up but I had a blank screen. I though, geesh my LCD monitor screen has gone dead already. Cheap piece of garbage! I fired up an old backup machine and went shopping online. Sure enough there was lots of 17" LCD screens for sale. Thought again, ahh it's a common problem. I was ready to "bite the bullet" and purchase a new one for 300-400 bucks. Then thought it might be worth a quick check online for anybody having the same problem. I found a tech site with some answers. The front plate on mine (near the hinges) has a little plate that you pop off with a sharp knife or fine instrument. After removing it I found the plugin for the LCD screen had come loose. All I did was push it back into place and my screen light right up! Nothing wrong with it at all! It has worked perfect since then. So unless you just like throwing your money around, its pays to do a little snooping. I'm not saying that it's the problem all the time, but if your machine is relatively new it's worth having a look if you ever have this problem. Just a tip for my fellow ebiders. Come on by my store and have a look. I have some good prices on games and more. Here's hoping you all have a super day!

http://ca.ebid.net/stores/UBUYWAREHOUSE

[canuckbid]

Alot more people have joined ebid since I made the original post. Gave it a bump in case it can save someone a dollar or two.

[JanetB]

Wow, I've been on eBid for over a year and I never noticed this post. I have a PC and a laptop (which I use when hubby is hogging the PC). So thank you for the tip!

[heatemyfather]

Good tip!

I've been hesitant to buy a replacement screen for a laptop in the past as the whole thing probably wasn't worth much more than the cost of the screen (even a 2nd-hand screen), and would probably make more money sold as parts.

[Bitsofthis]

My hubby knocked a drink over on the coffee table, my laptop was sitting at the other side. Screen went very dark, if you hold it in a certain light you can see the images on screen very faintly.

Ive taken it to 3-4 different people to get it fixed, one says it just needs a new back light, another says the same but also needs a battery, another says its cheaper to replace the laptop and dump this one.

Laptop is only 2 years old, 1024 of memory, and had become an extra limb. Its easier for me to use the lappie as I can sit in the living room in my comfy chair (have a back injury). There is a new laptop shop opened here, only deals with laptops and laptop repairs. Might give them a ring.

BTW liquid didnt go over keys, went underneath the lappie

[canuckbid]

Hello. If no liquid went into the machine maybe it just got jarred. Most laptops have small taps so they have a little airflow under neath. It only takes a minute using a sharp instrument to pop off the cover by hinges. Well at least on my Toshiba anyway. Right under the cover is where my screen plugs in. It's worth a quick check. That's how mine went, when it came unplugged. You could see it ever so dimly. Back lights also burn out so I hope yours is just a loose connection.

[heatemyfather]

Ive taken it to 3-4 different people to get it fixed, one says it just needs a new back light, another says the same but also needs a battery, another says its cheaper to replace the laptop and dump this one.

I agree that it could be the backlight, but it could also be the connector as canuckbid said. I would doubt it was the battery, however there's an easy way you can check this - make sure it's had ample time to charge and just leave the laptop on and see how long it lasts; you'll have to disable sleep mode in power settings (you'll have to try your best to read the screen to do this, or if you can just plug in an external monitor). It's possible your battery could have been weak anyway before this happened. On a Windows laptop you could probably run it for about four hours on the battery, although with the backlight off and CPU idle it might be longer.

As a general rule, one should run a laptop on the battery until it tells you it needs to shutdown or hibernate due to very low battery power once per month, then plug it in for charging and normal use. This cycles the battery power and helps it to maintain a healthy charge, providing longer uptime when running on the battery.

A new laptop will probably come in at about £300 starting price, maybe £500 for a good one. If you buy second-hand you run the risk of getting one with a tired old battery which may not hold much of a charge, although if you only run it off the mains this shouldn't present a problem. I think any decent shop or seller will tell you if the battery isn't up to much.

If it's just a backlight then it could be a relatively easy and quick fix for someone who knows what they're doing and can acquire the parts.