My Screen Cracked. Help!

The LCD screen on my 6 month old Sony FW laptop is toast. It looks like a window that was hit by a speeding baseball (only worse). The laptop itself still works, but it is unusable due to the broken screen.

Questions:

1. To get it fixed, should I go through Sony or a third party? (anyone know the best phone number to call for help?)

2. Should I have the work done for me or should I order a new LCD and attempt to fix it myself?

3. I have an XBRITE-HiColor screen. How can I be sure that the screen I am getting/ordering is indeed a HiColor LCD and not an Eco?

Thanks in advance.


P.S. -- for those that wanna know how it happened: Long story, but it happened on an airplane.

 

Well, if you have a warranty I suggest going directly through Sony or the place you bought it from.

Tip for the future: Dont play Baseball on an airplane...

 

It is still under warranty, but I doubt this would be covered.

Duly noted.

 

That sucks that happened to you, but I would still call Sony and see what they could do. Although I'm very curious on what happened.

 

Tell them it happened while you were carrying it in one hand, and while you held it with safe pressure you heard it crack.

Bigger chance they'll cover it if it sounds like it cracked because of being faulty.

Unless it's blatantly obvious it broke because it was hit by something.

I can think about two ideas, either just hand it over to Sony and pay a crapload for a new screen+repair (probably about as much as you paid for the laptop in the first place), or if you're technical, try to obtain a working screen from eBay.

Good luck having it fixed!

 

Yeah, like that will be believed.

Gary

 

Well, I just found out that Sony wants $700 to repair/replace the screen. That's not gonna happen.

I spoke to the parts department and they want $400 for the LCD screen. Better, but still expensive. Time to look at eBay.

Does anyone know how to find out the EXACT part number of the screen that is in my laptop? Sony gave me two different part numbers for my screen, and I want to see what I really have in my unit.

 

how you opened your computer to replace the screen, can you show or tell mw how pleasseee, i cracked my screen and i dont know how to open my fw vaio because of the power thingy and on/ff button and hidden screws at bottom, thanks

 

It was a major pain in the neck that I'll (hopefully) never do again.

All I can say is that I did it *without* removing the power thingy since I had no idea how to remove it.

If you can figure out how to remove it it will not be hard to replace the screen. But if you, like me, can't figure it out, it will be very difficult. Possible, but difficult.

I don't have any pics, sorry.

 

mm what did you do? what screws did you removed, im very afraid if i open the whole pc to see only if i can get access to hidden screws or how you opened the front vessel? thanks

 

No, don't open the whole PC. Just the screen bezel thing.

I found some tutorials online on how to replace a laptop screen (like this, for example). Then I grabbed a tiny screwdriver and dug in.

 

but, how you removed the bottom screws :S it would broke the vessel, its impossible to open wihout grabbing all the screws apart. You really did this to a vaio FW?

 

I didn't. It would be much easier if you could remove those screws, but you can't. So I did surgery on the screen with only the top opened. Not fun.

Yep. I'm typing on it right now.

 

By the way... I hate the fact that Sony made it so difficult to do this. Most laptops allow you to easily remove all 4 screws -- which makes this MUCH easier.

I called Sony to see how much they wanted to do the repair for me. Answer: $700.

 

yea i returned it hoping it to be repaired but they phoned me said 749 usd. :O plz give me it back. I only wonder how you removed the lamps, and cables wiht only top opened, omg. you only grabbed te 2 top screws? how you removed all inside omg, im starting to think i will cut the vessel with a knife and do only with top screws

 

Once you remove the top two screws and open things up there's a metal frame with a bunch of screws. Take those all off and the screen will slide out. Then remove the connectors (two on bottom, one on top) and take out the screen.

Getting the new screen re-connected is A LOT harder. The connector on top is tricky but the two connectors on the bottom are very difficult to get to (since we can't remove those two screws on the bottom! ). I ended up using a pair of tweezers to help guide them into place. You'll see what I mean when you get in there.

Good luck!

 

wow man i did it!!! i removed the cracked lcd, now i gona wait the new one to arrive and install it. It seems harder putting the new one than removing the old one, god help me because its f**** hard to connect the connectors at the bottom!!!

 

duhh,. i was training skills removing and connecting the old screen so when my new ones im ready to do what i know, but i plugged the old one, and only white light at screen, what i did wrong maybe u know?

 

Are the two color-coded connectors on the bottom in the correct places? If so, try switching the direction that they're connected (turn them upside down and re-insert).

If that doesn't work try re-inserting the one connector on top.

Like I said... this is not fun.