as above.. Colleague says back lights are heading west and it likely needs a new screen. Is this £ viable. Tesco has the equivalent but better at £229.00
Which way to go?
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If it is the screen, (it could be other things) and its a 15 inch model, the new screens about 40 quid, and a backstreet shop will charge about 30 quid labour
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Yeah would normally be about £80, you can probably do it yourself, I get the screens for £30 for the standard 15.6" ones but it does vary. I rarely do screens these days though.
However the question to if it is worth doing or not depends on exactly what your current laptop is, what model is it, what processor? what hard drive, what condition is in etc?
When I get a machine in for a screen I always do a hard drive test, and also check the rest of the laptop first.
I know this sounds stupid have you checked that the screen is on maximum? Usually modern LED screens don't go dim with old age, only the old florescent type do but these haven't been made since about 2008. If yours is one of them the laptop is old and probably not worth repairing but also the cost of these screens is now huge as they have not been made for nearly 10 years.
Personally I also hate consumer grade laptops with a passion especially anything sold for less than £200, but at £230 you can get some stuff that is ok for light use. Myself I use a £60 Thinkpad X200 which I have rebuilt and upgraded to the max (8GB RAM, SSD etc) and my desktops.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Mon 21 Dec 15 at 22:26
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If this laptop with a failing screen is a bit old (sounds like it might be the backlight but I don't fix laptops).... but
Go and look at newer laptops. The standard of screen and performance might make you realise the improvements are worth the investment in a new machine rather than putting money into fixing the old one.
I've recently tried to get someone's old laptop in use (nothing wrong with it)... but it seemed slow to me. Eventually I put it back to the factory state... still seemed slow. I put on a clean install of Windows 7. Still seems slow to load many websites. But it's around 6 years old. After the clean/fresh install, the performance issue is probably it's poorly performing WiFi. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 tablet loads the web pages faster!
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I have to confess it has become slower over the last 12 months an no amount of sorting seems to make any difference. I've probably answered my own question regarding new or fix, but I hate the faff of getting everything over to the new machine. I also despise the change of operating system whatever it's called, I.e. XP was good then Win' 7 then you have to re-learn where everything is and now it will be Windows ruddy 10.
I am told though that 10 can be made to look 'almost' like 7.
Right then. Without breaking the bank which laptop. 15.6 screen is ok for me. Not watching films. Just Word, Spreadsheets and general ruggering about. Thanks.
PS. I've been happy with Acer.
Last edited by: MD on Tue 22 Dec 15 at 07:15
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You'll find Windows 10 is very similar to Windows 7 in look and feel. Much more so than Windows 8.x.
If you are backing up your key documents to some external media (as often recommended here) then restoring them to your new machine ought not be too onerous. I do find that getting stuff set up how I like it, and making email work etc is always a pain, but that happens over weeks not hours.
Do remember to use the tools which are available, and you can export and import things like Explorer favourites. If you use Chrome, and log into it, then your browser settings are stored in the cloud and will come back once you log on. (May be true for other browsers too).
But first - I suppose you've checked you haven't just inadvertently turned the brightness down...? (Often a combo of a blue Fn (function) key and one of the F keys along the top).
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>> You'll find Windows 10 is very similar to Windows 7 in look and feel.
Except of course for the completely different look and feel!
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I am not a very "mechanically minded person" but I managed to replace the LCD screen on my son's Toshiba laptop a couple of years ago.
The local shop was quoting £150. I got a screen off Ebay (from a seller with 100% rating) and it has been working fine since.
I would suggest being careful when taking the screen bezel off, they are easy to crack. Also, you may need to take the section of the case off that sits behind the keyboard to access the relevant connectors.
Be very careful with the connectors that the ribbon and other cables go in to, they seem to be designed for one use only.
Would add that if buying a new budget laptop, try to see it working first, some of the screens being currently used are appalling - very dull colours and only about 70% of the RGB colour spectrum used, this includes some "premium" brands like Toshiba.
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 22 Dec 15 at 09:00
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Just to add, if the screen is dull, I recall on a very old Acer that I had years ago and took apart once it had truly died, the lights were separate, behind the LCD screen and were like fluorescent tubes, only clear. Perhaps one of these has died and can be replaced separately?
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>> >> You'll find Windows 10 is very similar to Windows 7 in look and feel.
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>> Except of course for the completely different look and feel!
Having just gone from 7 to 10 I would say the look/feel, while different, is sufficiently similar to be useable out of the box. The change of terminology from programmes to apps was mildly confusing and I've struggled with some picture editing but I suspect latter was due to permissions as pics were on my phone rather than copied to PC.
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Yeah I had in mind how Windows 8 was significantly different versus 7 whereas 10 is pretty similar. A half competent user should be able to find the basic stuff, without keep referring to help text or internet, whereas 8.x was a mystery to all.
(I never had to use 8 in anger so had no familiarisation time).
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Use Win 7 at work.
Purchased a new desktop PC in april 2014 that had Win 8 on it. Immediately upgraded it to 8.1, and subsequently to Win 10.
Can use all the PCs with no issues switching between any of them, and still occasionally use my old laptop which is running Vista.
There isn't "that" much difference with the operating systems. Certainly not enough to get worried about anyway.
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The Windows operating system has evolved from NT to Windows 10/Server 2016 today. The GUI is where most users will see the differences. And if you choose to install the full desktop GUI on Windows 2012 or Windows 2016 what you get is essentially the GUI from Windows 8 and 10 respectively. You can of course choose not to install the full GUI.
The Windows 8/8.1 GUI was a mistake on Microsoft's part for desktops and traditional (non-touch) laptops and the finally admitted it with Windows 10.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 22 Dec 15 at 15:49
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>> >> You'll find Windows 10 is very similar to Windows 7 in look and feel.
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>> Except of course for the completely different look and feel!
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I would agree the 'as installed' GUI is very different, although a much lower WTF factor than my first look at 8.0. With a bit of tweaking it's reasonably close to 'as installed' Win 7. I tend to run Win 7 machines with 'Windows Classic' theme, which makes it look like W2K.
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It may be just the backlight inverter, if it is these are a cheap, easy repair, however some screens have the inverter built in, these are dearer, I would try changing the inverter before buying a new screen. (if it's the seperate type)
This type of thing: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-5552-Inverter-/221957370480?hash=item33adb0b270:g:qtIAAOSwNphWXuZf
Last edited by: devonite on Thu 24 Dec 15 at 17:36
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Thank you. The darn thing is back to normal today. It's been going on for yonks, but not consistently.
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>> Thank you. The darn thing is back to normal today. It's been going on for
>> yonks, but not consistently.
Four things - Could be a power setting in windows being influenced i.e. software, could be the cable into the lid, or the switch that tells if the lid is closed. Still could be the screen panel itself.
test the cable by wiggling the screen half open or closed to see if the screen flickers.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 25 Dec 15 at 21:59
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I had the screen go on my 12 month old MacBookAir two weeks ago. Bummer. John Lewis replaced the clam, it was back here within by Tuesday of this week. Very good service. Second year warranty by JL has just kicked in.
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>> test the cable by wiggling the screen half open or closed to see if the screen flickers.
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No flickering!
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Acer dull screen - Zero
