Any hope of repair for my cracked lcd monitor?

May 29, 2007 6:09 PM

Is there any hope for repairing my girlfriend's cracked monitor?

So this morning the cat decided to jump onto my girlfriend's computer desk and in the process knocked over her monitor and now it has an unseemly crack in it. Images.

However, from what I can see it doesn't look like there's anything particularly wrong with the image. It just looks like there's a crack over the top of it. So my question is, is there any chance of getting this repaired for not a whole lot of money? Looking at the other threads about broken laptop screens it seems it would be a pricey endeavor, but since this is a standalone unit I was hoping the price might be more reasonable.

Some information about the monitor:
It's a Sony SDM-V72W.
It was a hand-me-down so I don't believe there's any sort of warranty that would still cover it.

If the monitor is hopeless, maybe you have some tips on not hating pets?

posted by mindless progress to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I know of one guy fixing this on his laptop by opening the case enclosing the screen, taking out the protective front panel (that had the crack) and having a glasscutter cut a sheet of glass to a matching size. However he had a tablet-pc, which have a strong glass panel in front of the LCD so that you can press down on the screen when writing/drawing with the pen.

When the LCD cracks, it often looks much worse than this (you tend to get black spots, and areas where the signal is lost), since the pics don't show that, there is a chance that it is some kind of protective covering panel that has broken. You could take it apart to find out. If it's not, you need a replacement screen (or sell it on ebay). If it is, you can probably repair it yourselves. If you take it to a repair shop, you're probably going to pay for a replacement screen, so I figure you might as well investigate it first.

(Unless it may be covered by insurance, in which case look into that :)

There is also, unfortunately, a good chance that it is the LCD panel that has is cracked, just not a part with the traces. In which case, a replacement would be needed. Or just using it as-is (if possible).
posted by -harlequin- at 6:30 PM on May 29, 2007

I'm pretty sure the Sony LCDs have glass in front of the LCD, so that's probably what broke. These days it would probably be cheaper to buy a new one if your time is worth anything.

IIRC, the Sony LCDs do have 3 year warranties, although I don't think this would be covered anyway.
posted by wierdo at 7:00 PM on May 29, 2007

When you have pets, you have to expect that they're going to fuck things up. The biggest home cat catastrophe I ever experienced - cat jumped up onto mantle*, where candles were lit. Walked across candle, set his stomach fur on fire. Freaked out and bashed into the huge (about 5x4) antique mirror that was also on the mantle (leaning against the wall).

I entered living room to find furious yowling cat with smoking fur, piles of shattered glass, and pools of wax on the carpet. All of that happened in about 10 seconds.

*this was before I learned that there are some cats that can jump onto anything, no matter how high/inaccessible.
posted by Liosliath at 7:50 PM on May 29, 2007

Take it apart, if it does have a protective glass sheet the easiest way to replace it is to buy a not-working monitor from eBay. There is at least one available for the next 12 hours for a reasonable price.
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:38 PM on May 29, 2007