Laptop screen - Dell Studio 17 shipment damage

[Cubdriver]

Hi All -

On my last trip out to the west coast, Windows with it's exquisite timing chose to load a gazillion updates as I went to shut the computer off just before making my dash to the airport.  As a result, I was forced to leave it behind in the office and have them ship it back to me the following week.  Despite being what I would consider to be well packed (wrapped in several inches of bubble wrap), it seems that the screen was damaged along the way.  I know enough about computers to be dangerous with/to them, but before I go tearing into this I want those more knowledgeable to comment.

The screen now shows some black splotches, larger ones to the left of center and smaller but more widespread ones on the right side.  The randomness and roughness of the markings makes me think that this is NOT any sort of drive problem, and my assumption is that the LCD is toast.  I'd like to confirm this before trying to hunt down a replacement.  (The computer drives an external monitor perfectly.)

Laptop display - left of center:


Laptop display - right of center:


Thoughts, comments?

Thanks

-Pat

[Ian.M]

Looks like pressure damage.  The lid and screen bezel flexed enough for the screen to make hard contact with the keyboard.  When shipping a laptop or LCD panel, a rigid outer box with enough clearance to prevent pressure oon the lid or panel face is essential. When packing a laptop bag, never put hard lumpy objects in any pocket where they could press against the middle of the lid., or leave any loose objects like pencils or rulers that could slide between the screen and keyboard in the main section.

[Cubdriver]

Ian, that's about what I figured.  Thanks for confirming.  I'll start hunting for a replacement LCD.

-Pat

[BMack]

Definitely toast, luckily laptop screens are generally easy to find. You may want to get some nylon pry tools if you don't already have them, often it's a pain in the butt to open. Be careful with the ribbon cable and the connector that ribbon cable has to the motherboard.

If you want to verify you don't have a motherboard problem you can always hook the laptop to a monitor/tv.

[rrinker]

 This place has pretty much any possible one, for reasonable prices. The web site is a complete mess, but you can find your model on there, or should be able to:
https://www.laptopscreen.com/

My work laptop, an HPO, came with the lower resolution screen (it was offered with 2 different ones). It was too low for what I needed, so I bought the higher res one from this place and swapped it out. It was actually pretty easy to do, two screws to take of the bezel and 4 screws for the panel. The connectors fit on the new one just fine, but it turns out they used a different pinout in the cable, when I turned it on only every other row worked. So I had to order the other cable, and replacing that was NOT fun, since it was routed down through the hinge and into the lower chassis behind the heat pipe. I had to completely tear the thing apart to get at the motherboard end of the connection, but I got it done and all back together without any leftover screws, and it worked - still works, over a year later. Just swapping the screen should be fairly easy.

No connection to the company, just a satisfied customer.

[Cubdriver]

Thanks for the tips on sources; I'll do some digging tomorrow.

And if it ever needs to be shipped again, I'll make sure they put some thin cushioning between the keyboard and the monitor face.

-Pat

[Ian.M]

That can increase the pressure on the screen.  OTOH a strip of closed cell foam tape, on top of a strip of easy-peel masking tape along the top bezel of the screen could give you a little extra safety margin.

[Cubdriver]

I'm thinking the best thing will be to simply shut the damned thing off earlier so Microsoft can't complicate my life like it did in this instance, and carry it myself rather than getting it shipped (though it was nice not to be schlepping the bloody heavy thing about the airport for the return trip!)

Cross fingers; I just ordered a replacement from the site rrinker suggested.  It will hopefully arrive on Tuesday.

-Pat

[Carl_Smith]

Don't get me started on Windows Updates...    Well, too late.   This is another good reason to change your update settings so that they don't install without your permission.

I have my system set to download updates but never install.  I did this one day after Windows 8.1 had nagged me several times about updates and I dismissed the install several times.  After a day or so, it decided to force a shutdown when I had stepped away from my laptop, and install the updates.  I had unsaved work in a spreadsheet that I lost.  That was enough, and I set it to never install updates.

Problem now is that I never know if I have pending updates to install because the people at Microsoft who set up the system are morons.  The only place where it tells me I have pending updates to install is when I go to the shutdown screen.  Well, this is a laptop, and I don't ever shut it down unless I do so because it needs a reboot.  I have the power button set to go to sleep mode.  So I don't see those notifications on the shutdown screen, maybe sometimes for a couple weeks.

They could put a update icon in the systray, or pop up a box when I hit the power switch that asks if it's OK to do the updates now.  If I don't click yes in like 10 seconds just go to sleep mode so it doesn't install updates while stuffed in my laptop bag. 

Oh, and the don't install updates until I say so also applies to the virus/malware definitions for Windows Defender.  So it no longer updates automatically.  Annoying.  It's update settings should be separate.  Ridiculous...

[Cubdriver]

One of my favorite things are the little notifications that sometimes pop up in the lower right corner.  You shift your attention to them and just as your eyes begin to focus on the notification and read the first word or three it disappears.     Then on the other hand, it will tell me I have unused icons on my desktop - do I want to delete them?  No, I don't.  I have to click to make that one go away.  Then five seconds later it pops up again and I need to dismiss it once more.  Who writes this crap?!?

I guess on the bright side, this repair might also prompt me to install the SSD I bought for the laptop like a year ago.  Might as well while I have it apart.

-Pat

[imidis]

Yeah, do the SSD at the same time, since you will have it partially apart anyways. Of course I'm not sure about that model, some have the hdd on the top side, some on the bottom - which since it's so expensive to put access panels in, sometimes it involves taking the motherboard out. The key is patience and figuring out whether resistance is a missed screw or just plastic clips. +1 for getting a nylon pry tool. You can use metal but it will surely leave marks and if you are like me it will bug you.

Oh and on the old screen salvage the backlight and inverter board, those are still good and can come in handy.

[grumpydoc]

This is another good reason to change your update settings so that they don't install without your permission.

Good luck with that in W10

It is one of the two big things that mean I will only go to W10 if dragged, kicking and screaming (although I need to get my head around whether W10 Pro is the answer as I believe it can be turned off in that version).

The other is the snooping but I think that turning off what can be turned off will suffice for my needs. I know that probably dosen't disable everything but it's almost certainly close enough - for now at least. My main concern is that stuf will get turned back on (or altered a bit and the new setting will default to on) when updates are applied resulting in a constant battle to keep the settings sane.

Its a pity because otherwise W10 seems fine - I have it on one laptop which is used for non critical stuff and a bit of Photoshop; even that mostly gets booted to Linux.

[imidis]

Good luck with that in W10

It is one of the two big things that mean I will only go to W10 if dragged, kicking and screaming (although I need to get my head around whether W10 Pro is the answer as I believe it can be turned off in that version).

The other is the snooping but I think that turning off what can be turned off will suffice for my needs. I know that probably dosen't disable everything but it's almost certainly close enough - for now at least. My main concern is that stuf will get turned back on (or altered a bit and the new setting will default to on) when updates are applied resulting in a constant battle to keep the settings sane.

Its a pity because otherwise W10 seems fine - I have it on one laptop which is used for non critical stuff and a bit of Photoshop; even that mostly gets booted to Linux.

Yeah, I am not a big fan of forced updates, they are shooting themselves in the foot. If you rely on your computer for work and you get an update that ruins your workflow, yeah it's just no good. I am not sure if windows 10 pro does. From what I understand you gain full control running your own update server on enterprise. I am not sure the limitations to 10 pro, but I do know control is not as robust as enterprise.

[rrinker]

 You can set it so updates are not installed until you say so, but if there are pending updates and you go to shut down the computer, the default is install updates and shut down, and if you are in a hurry and not paying attention, you will click it and you usual 10 second shutdown will take 10 minutes and you will be cursing the whole time. There are ways to bypass it, but it's not right there on the default menus.

[GreyWoolfe]

If Dell is still like what it was when I was a Certified Systems Specialist from 1999-2004, you just can't order a screen based on model number.  The service tag will tell Dell what specific components are installed including the make/model of the LCD.  You need to take the LCD out and order the part number on the screen.

[Monkeh]

If Dell is still like what it was when I was a Certified Systems Specialist from 1999-2004, you just can't order a screen based on model number.  The service tag will tell Dell what specific components are installed including the make/model of the LCD.  You need to take the LCD out and order the part number on the screen.

They're generally interchangable these days.

This is a great example of why they make business class machines.. good luck doing that to a Latitude without crushing it.

[imidis]

If Dell is still like what it was when I was a Certified Systems Specialist from 1999-2004, you just can't order a screen based on model number.  The service tag will tell Dell what specific components are installed including the make/model of the LCD.  You need to take the LCD out and order the part number on the screen.

It's pretty easy to get compatible screens now a days, the suppliers have a lookup on the site, just brand model and screen size all you really need.

Never bothered getting dell certified, between the yearly cost and the bottom low rates they had never found it worth it.