What is easier: Replace display or palm rest? Lifebook E780

I consider buying a used or refurbished Lifebook E780 on Ebay, but it seems I might not get all the specifications I want. I prefer a scroll button to a fingerprint reader between the left and right touchpad buttons, and I want the HD+ display, but I haven't found one with both. Therefore, I consider either buying a machine with a WXGA display and scroll button, and a separate 1600x900 display, or a machine with a 1600x900 display with no scroll button, and a separate palm rest.

Then I wonder what is generally most difficult: To replace the display or the palm rest? Consider that Fujitsu doesn't provide much information about how to do either, so I might need to look at how it is done on similar machines. I am not a practical person at all, so I will probably have difficulties in both cases unless I can have somebody help me (with a relatively clear guide on how to do it).

 

noranalyst1, display is harder to replace and easier to mess up. While disassembling notebooks is usually easy with service manuals (except for LCD part), Fujitsu provides none. I'd recommend settling with what you get unless there is a teardown guide available.

 

Indeed. And choose your laptop manufacturer in part on the quality of their hardware documentation.

 

Note sure about the construction of this particular Lifebook, but I just changed a noisy fan in the wife's AH550. I had to remove the display before I could take off the palmrest, before I could take the mobo out to get the the heatsink/fan on the underside. It was relatively easy for me, but I am very used to taking laptops to bits.

So I would say keyboard<display<palmrest<CPU/motherboard.

Also looking at the E780, I would not bother. It is an old first gen i5 and nothing special. As others have said, Fujitsu really doesn't want their users repairing or modding their laptops and provides jack sh1t in the way of maintenance and repair manuals. I'd go with a Dell or Lenovo if it was my $$.

 

The LifeBooks aren't really meant to be modified much. Basically business oriented machines. Not hot rod machines.

 

timfountain, removing display assembly ain't hard, usually; removing display itself is always the most troublesome work, requiring disassembling both main unit and display assembly.

Kent T, I'd say Fujitsu are made to set their owners back for $$$$ on accessories. However, T734 and T901, unlike most tablets, are upgradeable to i7 quads, support eGPUs well, etc.

 

eGPU for me is irrelevant. I need a discrete GPU, I have a workstation from the office. I don't game. And if I want an i7 Quad, I don't expect it to be lightweight and have top cooling. I like Fujitsu machines, but they're not ordinary machines. They're often a cut above many machines in quality. But not the only great machines. But you get that money back in years of reliable service too. Agree with you about what the tablets offer their users.

 

You're giving yourself an awful lot of work. There really isn't anything special about a Toshiba Lifebook E780. It's a pretty mediocre laptop in terms of performance, weight, and display. IT's going to be a lot cheaper and easier to just buy a new laptop with superior specs (performance, weight, display), and also has an active warranty associated with it.

Is there a particular reason why you chose a Toshiba Lifebook E780?

 

And the serviceability in general. Some laptops make things more difficult than others - generally business machines are easier to service because companies buy so many of them with long term warrantys, so the OEMs want to make it easy for them to get in there to fix things.

 

Indeed. As most corporate IT shops do their own service unless major. Well put.

 

I want this particular machine, Fujitsu Lifebook E780, because it has a non-chiclet keyboard, a touchpad with a surface which seems similar to ones I have previously liked, and a scroll button where you can scroll with one finger press (instead of having to move the finger without precise control over the scrolling, like on the scrolling areas on the right side of touchpad, or with trackpoint middle buttons).

 

noranalyst1, why not T901 then? It has a traditional keyboard, similar touchpad with scroll button - and so much more! T901 can also be be upgraded to i7 quad, and will rip E780 to pieces in all aspects. The only possible downside is 1280x800 display resolution - but it's a great screen.

 

Look closer at the two touchpads. I don't like the texture on the T901.