Cracked touchscreen laptop: what's my move?

October 9, 2016 1:25 PM

My wife's touchscreen laptop, an Asus Q302L, is cracked. Is there an easy way to tell whether I need to replace the LCD screen, the digitizer, or both? I've replaced the screen in my non-touchscreen laptop without much hassle, but I don't know where to begin with touchscreen technology. Extra points: whatever part/parts it turns out I need, where's the best place to go? Many thanks.
posted by jwhite1979 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

If all the pixels display and are the right color, and change when needed (move the mouse pointer around), the LCD is fine.

If you can't touch all the places, then the digitizer needs replacement. Some of these thin and light packages are all glued together, so you may have no choice but to replace the whole thing.

For an old enough machine, Ebay can sometimes have the whole lid as a single piece to swap out, but this might be too new to do so. You could try and contact Asus North American support to see what the cost of the whole screen + backlight + digitizer is.
posted by nickggully at 1:50 PM on October 9, 2016

nickggully is right about how to diagnose what's broken.

Here's a screen assembly on ebay for $170 (double check the model number).

You should probably just buy the whole screen assembly. The digitizer only replacement is a pain...
Here's just the digitizer (touch screen) for $63.
posted by gregr at 3:03 PM on October 9, 2016

Touchscreens are typically reinforced with a strong glass cover so they can withstand more pressure/impact than regular laptop screens, so if the underlying LCD and touch sensing is still working then it's possible that the only thing damaged is an inert sheet of glass sitting on top of everything. I know someone in that situation who just had a glass shop cut a piece of window glass to size for a few bucks and replaced it with that, fixing the screen. The window-glass lacked the anti-glare coating, and the laptop bezel bulged slightly from the new glass sheet being thicker, but the point is that there was also a quick and cheap option :)

For an exact replacement part, check Asus but you'll probably have to get a screen assembly. Ebay is my go-to place for that.
posted by anonymisc at 5:49 PM on October 9, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks guys. Looks like the LCD screen is fine, so for now the solution seems to be to turn off the touchscreen feature in Device Manager and meanwhile see if someone local can replace the digitizer.
posted by jwhite1979 at 6:03 AM on October 10, 2016

I have this thing's slightly beefier cousin (Asus Q304UA) and there are what appear to be covered screw holes on either side of the display, near the hinges. Looks like yours has the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a relatively straightforward operation to replace the digitizer. Hard part would probably be finding a replacement.
posted by neckro23 at 11:25 AM on October 10, 2016