Replace a Gateway Laptop LCD?

January 30, 2009 2:33 PM

My girlfriend's Gateway T-6836 just fell. Her screen is broken and she called me in tears. I found a replacement screen, but will it work? And how can I replace it?

Here's the screen I found: link
Thoughts?

Any ideas on how to get to taking this thing apart and replacing the screen? What potential problems might I run into? Should it be as simple as opening up the LCD, unplugging the broken screen and pluggin in the new one?

Obviously there could be other problems, but I figured I'd start with the screen. I work in IT and am not afraid to get my hands dirty, but I've never had to replace a laptop screen... Help?

posted by nokry56 to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Response by poster: I should mention that I did find the repair manual on Gateway's website, but it doesn't have any instructions on replacing the screen...here are the manuals
posted by nokry56 at 2:42 PM on January 30, 2009

I've opened up and swapped screens around on laptops at work before, and if you've built PCs you should be able to handle it. From my experience: get a dozen paper cups to hold all the different screws, draw pictures step by step as you go, take it slow and gently when you're prying any latches apart, and be careful with the flimsy connectors. Also, if you ever come to a point where you need a different tool (tiny or long screwdriver, tiny torx key, etc.), have the willpower to stop what you're doing until you get the proper tool. Good luck, you won't have much trouble.
posted by pocams at 2:49 PM on January 30, 2009

If for whatever reason your repair doesn't work, I just sent my computer to the Gateway repair center (now run by Mundo Corp) to get the screen casing replaced and they made the repair very quickly and it's working just fine. Good luck!!
posted by thewestinggame at 2:54 PM on January 30, 2009

Hopefully all you'll need to do is remove the bezel around the screen (the screws are probably under rubber bumpers), the bezel above the keyboard, and maybe the keyboard itself.
posted by zsazsa at 3:01 PM on January 30, 2009

I successfully replaced a motherboard on my wife's ThinkPad once. The motherboard came from eBay and the replacement job wasn't too bad. The screen might be a little trickier because of the glass components, but pocams' advice of keeping the screws in paper cups is a great idea. My wife's laptop ended up with a couple fewer screws. Good luck!
posted by tybstar at 3:06 PM on January 30, 2009

I looked at the replacement guide you linked to and your LCD replacement should be straight forward. Looks a lot like a Dell Latitude replacement.

You'll remove the battery, follow the steps to remove the multimedia keyboard cover.
Lay the LCD all the way back, then you'll probably find some small screw cover stickers around the LCD bezel.
Remove those stickers with a small flat head and then unscrew the screws.
The LCD plastic housing the LCD will then be able to be popped apart.
You'll see a thick-ish rounded cable plugging into the area on the left side area of where you removed the keyboard cover.
Just un-plug that, put in the new LCD, plug it in and you're good to go...no configuration or anything needed.
posted by zephyr_words at 3:46 PM on January 30, 2009

I imagine those repair manuals will suffice. You must keep an eye out for any screws in strange places, like hidden under tape or in weird compartments. You just don't want to pull on stuff that's still attached. I'm fairly confident those manuals will cover any such issues, even if they don't specifically talk about the screen.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:40 PM on January 30, 2009

So the algorithm is inherently : Read over the relevant manual sections. Try the repair carefully. If anything feels wrong, reread the manual more throughly.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:43 PM on January 30, 2009

It is MUCH easier to replace a laptop LCD if you have the entire assembly, plastic bezel and all, rather than the LCD panel.

Otherwise your job is two fold - removing the old screen and getting the broken panel out of the plastic bezel before installing the new one.

The second part is problematic because sometimes these are glued up, other times they are held together by little screws under rubber bumpers, which are often destroyed in the process of removing them. Then again, sometimes the bezel just snaps together, but that doesn't mean it was meant to be taken apart. Be gentle in unsnapping it and keep a tube of crazy glue nearby in case you break any of the delicate plastic tabs.

Otherwise it's straight forward. Make sure you have a well lit and clean workspace and some okay-quality little phillips screwdrivers.
posted by wfrgms at 4:45 PM on January 30, 2009

I did it on a thinkpad once. It was not fun by any means, and yeah, keep track of all the screws...but it was doable. Just a little tricky.
posted by sully75 at 5:24 AM on January 31, 2009

Laptop repair is made much easier when you have a spudger for prying things apart gently without leaving toolmarks everywhere. That's my pro-tip.
posted by baserunner73 at 11:27 PM on January 31, 2009

Response by poster: thanks guys! we've got it ordered and i'll report back here on how it went!
posted by nokry56 at 7:47 PM on February 11, 2009