Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech Laptop screen problem

Daughter has a dell laptop it won't work unless plugged in with charger, battery doesn't charge and she gets an on screen message saying battery isn't detected. Screen also flickers onand off and to get screen back on she gas to tap the screen a few times. Any ideas?
Thanks

It sounds like two separate faults.

The battery not charging could be a duff battery or the fuse on the charging circuit has blown (working on the assumption that she is using the correct charger).

The screen sounds like either a faulty ribbon connector or the screen board is failing (it's part of the screen). If you take the back panel off the screen check that the ribbon is connected properly, check that the ribbon has no kinks or breaks visible and if possible try another screen to see if shows the same fault.

My son has cracked his netbook screen, is there anyway of replacing it and if so how much would it cost?

We replace them all the time, if you send me a pm with the make/model I'll let you know how much

Depends on the screen, I did the gf's recently for £42.50 incl delivery, after she cracked it and (well her mum) had taken it into a local PC shop before she even told me she had cracked it, who wanted £120 to fix it, and then arsed her about holding onto the laptop for 19 days (the gf is a student, and requires the laptop for Uni, which made it even more of a pisstake), claiming the screen was unusual and was hard to get ahold of.

A search on Google bought up the correct screen for £68.99 on Amazon.com of all places... the screen I bought in the end was a refurb with a 6 month warranty iirc, and it was a 5 minute job to install. In fact it was that easy, I showed the gf and she re-installed the old screen in under 10 minutes herself.

Not entirely sure what the problem was with the shop, but there we go, lesson learnt for her and her mum I guess?!

Just do a Google and search on eBay, they generally arnt that hard to replace, usually a case of unscrewing screws and common sense will do, and you could potentially save a fortune (and time as well as hassle) by doing it yourself. If the inverter is gone, they are usually only a few quid, as are ribbons from dismantlers.

Speaking of which, its the second time she dropped it and cracked the screen, expecting it to happen again any time soon - lucky girl keeps getting away with an intact hard drive.