Rant And Moan About Stuff

[Bramrash]

So, over summer i searched for ages for a summer job, and i eventually got one, but it was the worst job in the world, i got maybe one shift a week, if i was lucky.

This was terrible, as i was desperate for money for uni. Anyway, i told myself that i would get a part time job at uni and all would be well.

However, on the monday night of freshers week, i fell and broke my ankle kinda ruined the job idea, i still have three more weeks to go in the cast. So i am getting very low on money.

Now, today i was holepunching some notes, to put them in my folder, and i had music playing on my laptop at the same time. If you've seen a small holepunch, it has a little slidey plastic thing on it, so that you can set it for different sizes of paper, well, when i had finished i closed the laptop lid and the end of this plastic thing was still on the laptop, so it got trapped inside. I've just opened my laptop again, and found a big crack in the top right of the screen. :angry:

I've spent a little while looking for repair places in England, one site quoted £250, and i dont really have that much.

My laptop is a sony Vaio PCG-K315Z and aparently the screen is a 15.4" WXGA X-Black Screen.

I don't really know what i'm expecting from people, i suppose advice about laptop repair places in England and screen prices and such. Suppose i just needed to voice my "fed up ness".

 

[craigix]

Can't you just keep using the laptop if the screen is only damaged in the corner? I kept using mine with a crack on the screen for about 4 months, i could still see the screen apart from around the cracked part.

You could plug it into a monitor...

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I work in the technical support section of our University, and we repair equipment like this all the time, there is obviously only one resolution, replace the screen.
This will not be cheap and Sony are well known for their replacement parts to be expensive. If I was you I would look on eBay for a second hand working screen and then get someone to replace it for you.

Failing the above, do your parents have household insurance? If so, then get them to say the laptop is theirs and it fell off a table, in most cases you will get a replacement unit of equivalent specifications, or they may even pay for the repairs. This is what household contents insurance is for.

Anyway, good luck with the laptop and I hope your ankle heals soon.

Clare.

 

[Bramrash]

Thanks for the replies, feeling a bit better this morning.

Craig, sorry for the confusion, but the crack is in the right side of my screen about halfway down, and anything above the crack is just white, so the whole of the top right of the screen is messed up.

Clare, do you know if laptop screens are interchangeable, as long as they have the same connections and are the same dimensions? I'm asking this as replacements of the screen I currently have are about £80 more expensive than a dell screen that looks pretty much the same apart from it doesn't say "matrix" in the description. Also, how much did your university charge for replacement of screens?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Thanks for the replies, feeling a bit better this morning.

Clare, do you know if laptop screens are interchangeable, as long as they have the same connections and are the same dimensions? I'm asking this as replacements of the screen I currently have are about £80 more expensive than a dell screen that looks pretty much the same apart from it doesn't say "matrix" in the description. Also, how much did your university charge for replacement of screens?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but generally laptop screens are not interchangeable. You need one for that specific model. It's usually the case that laptops of the same make have different screens too. It's a pain in the bum about them being non generic. If anything breaks on a laptop, you usually end up paying through the nose for replacement parts. Here's one story of something that happened to a guy 5 months ago.
He had a laptop that started to corrupt data. I diagnosed the fault being with the on-board IDE interface, so I sent it to Toshiba to get a price for a replacement motherboard. Okay this is what they said: The IDE interface is faulty, so a replacement board is required. Because we do not carry that exact revision board anymore, we will have to change the motherboard, the video module & the modem module. The price for parts, labour and VAT will be £669.58p.
He ended up buying a batter laptop for £400 and scrapping the old one.

I really hope you get it sorted out within your budget. And glad to hear you're feeling a little better.

TTFN,
Clare.

 

[sam fisher]

I work in the technical support section of our University, and we repair equipment like this all the time, there is obviously only one resolution, replace the screen.
This will not be cheap and Sony are well known for their replacement parts to be expensive. If I was you I would look on eBay for a second hand working screen and then get someone to replace it for you.

Failing the above, do your parents have household insurance? If so, then get them to say the laptop is theirs and it fell off a table, in most cases you will get a replacement unit of equivalent specifications, or they may even pay for the repairs. This is what household contents insurance is for.

Anyway, good luck with the laptop and I hope your ankle heals soon.

Clare.

Fraud

 

[gp32rich]

I work in the technical support section of our University, and we repair equipment like this all the time, there is obviously only one resolution, replace the screen.
This will not be cheap and Sony are well known for their replacement parts to be expensive. If I was you I would look on eBay for a second hand working screen and then get someone to replace it for you.

Failing the above, do your parents have household insurance? If so, then get them to say the laptop is theirs and it fell off a table, in most cases you will get a replacement unit of equivalent specifications, or they may even pay for the repairs. This is what household contents insurance is for.

Anyway, good luck with the laptop and I hope your ankle heals soon.

Clare.

Fraud

:rolleyes: Is it any wonder insurance premiums go through the roof :rolleyes:

 

[Bramrash]

Hey ya'll, I've been doing a lot of research today, and apparently some laptops are interchangeable. I opened my laptop and the screen I have is a Hitachi TX39D88VC1AAB, and the only laptop screen i can find in the U.K that comes close to it for cheapish is £119.99 and is a TX39D88VC1FAA.

I've sent them a message tonight to find out if it is compatible. I shall give more info tomorrow, im going watching extras

Cheers, Dave

 

[Mudi]

I accidentally fried the motherboard on my HP laptop, but after some research I found out that Compaq X1000 and nx7000 motherboards were compatible, and then was lucky enough to find a working nx7000 motherboard on ebay for $75. My computer still lives, yay! (Unfortunately the hard drive died and I lost 6 months of data a couple weeks later :angry: )

Anyway, I'd recommend checking ebay to see if someone is selling a motherboard-dead version of your computer to grab the screen from.

 

[Bramrash]

Hey dudes, think i've cracked it (Great Pun huh).

I put "laptop parts" into google, after searching for my specific gave me only two results (one being what appeared to be an expired ebay auction. Anyway I scrolled through pages and pages of links today, most of which led to laptop accessories. But then i found one page which proved quite helpful, it allowed me to search for screens which are compatible with sony vaio's. I found a screen which said it was compatible with some laptops of the same series as mine, k series. But mine wasn't in it.

However, I am stubborn so I looked up the laptops that are compatible on amazon, one of them has exactly the same specs as my laptop. I then looked up my laptop on amazon, and it wasn't there. So i'm thinking that sony at some point changed the name of my laptop, dunno why.

So anyway im gonna go ahead and get this screen as it is only £130 including shipping and from looking round that looks like a good deal, and it should work, hopefully. If not i'll just whack it on ebay.

Cheers guys, Mr. Bram

 

[Bramrash]

Helloooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Just got my new laptop screen yesterday, and fitted it today (took about 20mins). I fitted it all myself aswell, so im really proud and feel like a mega genious . The new screen isn't as high quality as the old one, however, it does the job fine.

Cheers guys.
Mr. Bram

 

[subin]

hahah, glad to hear everything worked out fine.

 

[Alex.]

So, did you use any duct tape? I forgot to tell you to use lots of duct tape.

- Alex

 

[Mudi]

My computer is literally held together by duct tape, and a little piece of wire insulation that holds the motherboard->video cable connection down. It's awesome.

 

[Ravnos]

And remember, keep your stick on the ice.

 

[Alex.]

Good old Red, I never had the patience to watch a full half-hour of his antics

- Alex