Can you help me ballpark repair costs and sourcing a repair place for my laptop?

March 30, 2009 9:10 AM

I am wondering if anyone has had to pay for a laptop screen replacement and what the ballpark price might be? Recommendations for repair places in Hamilton or Guelph, Ontario appreciated.

Over the weekend, my laptop screen died. It's an Acer Aspire 5680, about 3 years old. It had been flickering for about a day and then suddenly went dark - you can still see some actions happening on the screen, but it's not really usable. If I quickly depress or wiggle the tag near the screen that turns the screen off when you shut the laptop lid, it will come back to life for a second and then quickly goes dark again. I don't know if that's a good sign or not (i.e. the screen might not totally be dead).

Reading through some of the past posts here for ideas, I tried plugging in an external monitor and it works fine with no flickering, so the video card is ok, so I think it's the screen that is buggered. I had been planning to give this machine to my dad so I'm hoping it can be repaired. I can't diagnose it any further or do any repairs myself because I am totally not technical.

But, if this is going to be a $250 or $350 repair, it might not be worth it. Has anyone ever had to go through this and be able to provide a ballpark about the cost in getting a screen repaired or replaced? If anyone had recommendations for places that repair laptops in either Guelph or Hamilton, that would be great - the machine is off warranty and I would prefer not to have to deal with the hassle of dealing with sending it into Acer to fix it off-warranty.

Any help the hive mind could provide would be welcome. Thanks!

posted by Cyrie to computers & internet (10 comments total)

It's the backlight.

I don't know how much that will cost.
posted by unixrat at 9:11 AM on March 30

Get a new one at places like this one (have no idea if these are good or not, just the first google hit I got). You should also be able to find these on ebay. Guesstimate is below 100 $

Replacing the screen should be fairly easy for anyone handy with a screwdriver.
posted by uandt at 9:30 AM on March 30

Seconding uandt. You could probably do it yourself.
posted by rhizome at 9:48 AM on March 30

Could be the cabling between the video card and the screen. This is usually a ribbon cable that can wear and break overtime. Replacing that would be cheaper than replacing the entire screen.

That said, troubleshooting that would be a pain for even a skilled tech, so most places will tell you need an all new screen (which usually includes a new cable anyway...) That can be expensive unless you supply the replacement parts yourself - which is doable with some searching on ebay, etc. Of course then you're going to have to jerk around with computer techs who may not be willing to do the job with your parts...

In short, unless you're capable of taking the laptop apart and replacing the screen yourself, you're likely looking at a $200 or more repair.

It's not difficult (usually) to replace a screen, but it does require some care and a good set of small screwdrivers. You may find instructions on the web. If you have a neighborhood kid who is good for this type of thing you may want to go that route too.
posted by wfrgms at 9:51 AM on March 30

If you can still see things going on on the screen, it's the backlight that's not working. This might be the inverter that provides the AC power required by the CFL light behind your screen.

The Hardware Service Manual for your machine is here. Page 94 includes the official troubleshooting process for your screen woes. Disassembly instructions begin on page 65.
posted by toxic at 11:00 AM on March 30

Sounds like it's the LCD Inverter board...I replaced the one on my toshiba for like $20. If you google the model number sometimes you can find step by step directions on changing it.
posted by legotech at 11:04 AM on March 30

I replaced a inverter board for a friend recently. It wasn't at all difficult. The replacement was the equivalent of $15 on eBay. The seller even had a web page with instructions. The repair took me about 20 minutes. And you already have the disassembly instructions from toxic.

If it's the actual backlight and not the inverter, those are around $15 too.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 11:24 AM on March 30

Yeah, if you can see a faint image then it's the converter or backlight. My GF is currently shopping around for replacements for her laptop and the cost for both comes to approx $50.
posted by fullerine at 11:29 AM on March 30

Thank you, everyone. I am going to find a replacement backlight and inverter on ebay and see if I can get my very handy and hardware-friendly boyfriend to assist me with a repair, or bring the parts to a local shop to see if they can do it.
posted by Cyrie at 12:21 PM on March 30

Going rate for my Thinkpad T23 backlight replacement from local repairfolk was $180-250 about 4 years ago.
posted by liquoredonlife at 1:45 PM on March 30