semi-broken z96j

Hope this won't end up being too long since I have several questions.

Recently my nearly 3-year-old z96j fell and basically the screen stopped working. Everything else seems to work fine. Since I was in the middle of exams, I didn't have too much time to dig around for information, so after a bit of reading and asking a sketchy-looking repair-shop-guy, I hastily ordered a replacement screen. This hasn't fixed the problem, and after more reading I realized that I should have probably first tried ordering an inverter-board, which would have been cheaper. However, from what I understand, if it was simply a dead inverter board, I should still see a faint image on the screen, but I cannot see any signs of any image, neither on the original nor the replacement screen.

I have already ordered a new notebook, as this one is getting old anyways so the battery usually lasts an hour or less under light usage, and it became a bit too big once I started university and found it useful to bring my laptop with me quite often. But I'm not sure what to do with the z96j.

So my questions are as follows:

1. Basically, I want to know whether its worth more broken or fixed, considering that I would surely have to invest some money into fixing it.

If I don't sell it as complete (i.e: not fixed), I could use the Windows XP SP2 that came with it to install XP on my new laptop which will come with Vista Home Basic (though my primary OS will probably be Ubuntu 8.10 or some other linux distro). And I could buy a casing for its 100GB HDD and use that as external storage (though my new laptop will have a 320GB HDD in it). This would leave 2GB or ram, power chord, (probably) working screen, battery which holds some charge, and whats left in the chassis to be sold as parts.

The problem is that if I don't fix it, I am still not sure what the problem is... and I could not advertise the screen, the inverter board, nor the connector wires to the aforementioned as positively working, which from what I've been able to find on ebay would be of most value if sold individually.

This brings me to my other question:

2. If I do try to fix it, any suggestion on what the problem might be, considering the mentioned symptoms (no visible image on the original or replacement screen).

Thanks.

 

1. your Z96j will be worth more if fixed, but given the amount of money and time you'll be investing to fix it, it may not be worth it.
Also, you won't/shouldn't be able to install your OEM XP OS from your Z96j to your new notebook. An OEM OS should only be installed with the original notebook and not on anything else.
If you do decide to sell it, you should advertise it as a broken item and be truthful about what parts you think are faulty.

2. If you can connect your notebook to an external monitor, then it's an inverter board problem.

 

Ah, I see... I thought that since the z96j was a barebones notebook and came with a CD full of drivers, that it would come with some "default" version of windows. Does this mean that even if I borrow/download a retail version of XP, I would not be able to use the key that I got with the z96j to activate it on another laptop?

 

Yes usually it's the inverter board problem, I have one extra inverter board and if you want it you can have it, if you are in US just PM me your address.

 

Thank you! Unfortunately I am in Canada... but I am willing to pay for shipping (and the inverter board) as I am having trouble finding one except on ebay... but the seller isn't responding to my inquiries.

On a related note, I feel quite silly, but I can't seem to figure out how to pm people... must I have a certain amount of posts before I can do so?

 

Yeah, you'll need 15 or 20 posts before the PM feature is available. Best to send Ken (gentechpc) an e-mail instead.

 

Canada is fine, email me your shipping address.

 

Email sent.

Thanks a lot!

 

Just got the inverter board from Ken. Unfortunately switching it with the old one doesn't seem to change anything. I only tried it with the old screen though... I still have the new screen that I ordered... but I highly doubt that it would be the inverter board AND the screen the completely blew simultaneously. I'm thinking then it must be the wires or then something closer to the GPU/motherboard.

 

Have you test on a external monitor David suggest?

 

Yes, it works fine on an external monitor.

 

Then it's not motherboard or video card, your laptop is working fine except the screen, make sure you connect everything correctly with the inverter board.