replace screen or buy new laptop?

Se7ven · 1 Dec 2010 at 22:14

hey guys i gave my father my 3+ year old Dell XPS M1730, he dropped it and the screen cracked i had a look at it and it definately needs a new one.

but as the laptop is now out of warranty and 3+ years old, i dont quite remember the specs but i would say they are fairly mediocre for todays standards. Do you think he would be better replacing the screen (£100-200) or buying a new laptop for £250-300

thanks

koolpc · 1 Dec 2010 at 22:16

Replacing the screen would be a good option

Bubba · 1 Dec 2010 at 22:17

They are a good laptop but you will need to buy an original Dell panel as they have their EDID chip modified so you cant buy based on the part number alone.

Hook it up to an external and run the diagnostics to ensure nothing else is damaged first.

koolpc · 1 Dec 2010 at 22:22

Bubba said:
They are a good laptop but you will need to buy an original Dell panel as they have their EDID chip modified so you cant buy based on the part number alone.

Hook it up to an external and run the diagnostics to ensure nothing else is damaged first.

How do you do that?

Bubba · 1 Dec 2010 at 22:28

On Dell laptops press F12 on bootup and select diagnostics, as long as the machine has not been reloaded from cd (no reason to as this laptop has recovery partition) then it will have full diagnostics that check every aspect of the laptop.

Regarding the original dell screens it can vary, I used to stock them but I have been unable to get them in again for this screen size.

That laptop is a very good laptop and you are talking £700-800 to replace it with something as good as it.