Nothing is worse than a cracked laptop that has the most important files for your college or your workplace. It might get cracked when your laptop screen gets pressed or when it falls from the table. And we know, it’s pretty frustrating.
It is even worse when you don’t have a backup of the files that you need and you have an assignment at hand or a project to submit. Replacing the screen may also be not that great for your wallet and you may not be confident to leave your files with the repairer.
So, we would like to recommend some ways on how you can deal with a cracked laptop screen without replacing it.
What To Do At First?
Not freaking out is the most important before you do anything else. We know this is too much to ask for, but try to keep calm and figure out the degree of damage to the laptop.
If it is a minor crack, it can surely be fixed by yourself in no time! We will provide you with ways on how to fix minor cracks in this article that works very well.
If it is more than a minor crack, there is no easy solution and you have to replace the LCD panel with the help of a repair shop, and your laptop will be as good as new!
How To Fix A Cracked Laptop Screen?
Replacing the protector
As long as it is a minor crack, chances are that only the glass protector of the laptop is broken. If that is the case, consider yourself lucky and all you have got to do is just replace the cracked glass protector with a new one.
- Buy a new protector for your laptop
- Remove the cracked protector by starting from the corners
- Clean the laptop screen with a microfiber cloth or screen-safe alcohol wipes
- Peel the film off from the adhesive face of the new protector
- Position it as accurately as possible over the laptop starting from one end and press it down gently to the other
- You can use a card to smooth out the air bubbles starting from the center to the edges
- When you are done, peel off the film from the top
Car creams and erasers for scratches
There are special creams for car scratches with which you can get your cracked laptops fixed without replacing them. Note that it only works when the cracks are minor. You will apply it on the screen of the laptop just as you will apply it on your car.
You can also get your hands on scratch erasers too since they use adhesives that can hold the cracked optical panels of your device together.
Making use of the toothpaste hack
This is quite trendy nowadays and it would be surprising if you haven’t come across it by now.
This is a simple hack that involves the use of toothpaste, cotton swabs, and a piece of microfiber cloth. You can use this hack for a very simple crack.
First of all, clean your laptop. Take some toothpaste on the cotton swab and apply it to the cracks with gentle pressure. Pat lightly in the areas around the screen cracks so that the toothpaste inside comes out of the cracks. You need to repeat the process a few times. Finally, clean it with a cloth or wipes.
Replacing the LCD panel
In case the laptop is damaged severely to the point no “hack” will work, you will have to replace the screen. If you don’t want to do it, you have the only solution to change the LCD panel inside the laptop.
However, the problem may be elsewhere. Before you decide to change the LCD panel, you have to ensure that the graphics card is functional. If the graphics card is damaged, replacing the LCD panel will change nothing.
You can check if the graphics card is undamaged by connecting the laptop to an external monitor or by installing the card to another computer to test it out.
If everything else is fine, then you can proceed to replace the LCD panel. The tools listed below are the things you will need to do it.
- New LCD panel that matches your device
- A flat working area
- A safety pin or something pointy to remove small stickers hiding screws
- A small screwdriver with a magnetic head for screws
- A thin plastic object to pry off the bezels
- A container to keep the screws safely
Now you can do the following to replace the LCD panel.
- Shut down your laptop and remove the battery
- Look for the screws holding the screen and take off their covers using a safety pin
- Place the covers sticky-side up gently
- Remove the screws and keep them in the container
- Pry off the bezel from the screen with a plastic knife
- This will lead you to the LCD panel within a trim frame of metal, now unscrew the screws attaching the LCD to the frame
- Pull the LCD and take it down carefully. The wires will be exposed at this stage
- Disconnect only the wire that connects the laptop with the monitor carefully
- Once you have detached the old LCD, take it off delicately and replace it with the new one
- Connect the wire that connects the laptop with the monitor
- Rescrew and reconnect all screws, parts, and connections, just how you did it when you started, just in the reverse order!
Using an external monitor
It may feel like a lot of hassle for you, and if you don’t want to do all this on your own, you can just connect your laptop to an external monitor and have an enjoyable experience!
Conclusion
If you have gone through the article, you will know what to do if you have minor cracks on your laptop. You will also know what kind of damage might be done to the laptop and what to do if there is a high degree of damage.
Using the above guidelines, you can solve your problem without visiting a professional and spending a lot of money because we know, it is expensive.