[Archived] Sony Vaio Cracked Screen

[Paul]

My lad has a Sony Vaio on which the screen has "cracked." There is no visible sign of a crack but there is a curved line running under the "glass" from a mid point between the centre of the upper edge and the top right corner down to the bottom left corner. The screen is now multi-coloured in the right half and has a fe coloured lines running down the left handside. As a laptop it is currently unusable but works fine if plugged into a monitor. The machine is still in warranty but after long discussions in Comet the manager claims this is physical damage caused by applying pressure to the screen when closing it. His view is my lad uses his fingers to pull the lid down while his thumb rests on the screen and this creates a twist in the screen which has "cracked" underneath, to be fair one can make out a dark splodge under the screen.

I appreciate what he is saying though I feel a screen should be more robust than this. Sony want £50-75 to look at the issue and Comet advise the outcome will be Sony will simply want money for a repair. Comet suggest the new screen will be around £320. Considering the machine was £480 this seems an awful lot.

I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this re screen cracking. Is it common? Are Comet making a reasonable point? I think I may have noticed my son doing this but can't be sure. Can I look to get a new screen fitted for less money? Or is, as I suspect, the only answer to put a monitor on it?

[Tango]

My lad has a Sony Vaio on which the screen has "cracked." There is no visible sign of a crack but there is a curved line running under the "glass" from a mid point between the centre of the upper edge and the top right corner down to the bottom left corner. The screen is now multi-coloured in the right half and has a fe coloured lines running down the left handside. As a laptop it is currently unusable but works fine if plugged into a monitor. The machine is still in warranty but after long discussions in Comet the manager claims this is physical damage caused by applying pressure to the screen when closing it. His view is my lad uses his fingers to pull the lid down while his thumb rests on the screen and this creates a twist in the screen which has "cracked" underneath, to be fair one can make out a dark splodge under the screen.

I appreciate what he is saying though I feel a screen should be more robust than this. Sony want £50-75 to look at the issue and Comet advise the outcome will be Sony will simply want money for a repair. Comet suggest the new screen will be around £320. Considering the machine was £480 this seems an awful lot.

I'd be interested in people's thoughts on this re screen cracking. Is it common? Are Comet making a reasonable point? I think I may have noticed my son doing this but can't be sure. Can I look to get a new screen fitted for less money? Or is, as I suspect, the only answer to put a monitor on it?

I work for a company that repairs LCD televisions and we would probably take the same stance as the manager of Comet as it would take quite a physical force to actually fracture the LCD. Squeezing the LCD panel by pushing on it with your thumb could probably do that. Commonly, with televisions anyway, striking the LCD with a tennis ball or such can cause it to break.

The cost of a new screen sounds about right as well because, when it comes to LCDs, most (over 50%) are rejected at the production stage due to panel defects (multiple missing pixels etc.), hence their high retail cost.

Given that the laptop is manufactured by Sony you'll probably find that the LCD panel is manufactured by Samsung - as I believe they have a fairly long-running partnership - so, if you can find a second-hand LCD panel of the correct screen size on Ebay or somewhere, you may be able to get it replaced by a local laptop engineer for less.

[LeChuck]

You could keep an eye on eBay for broken laptops that you could take the screen from, they should be much less than £320.

Example: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-Vaio-Notebook-/220639417631?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item335f22551f

Obviously you'd need to do a bit of research into which screens are compatible.

[Iceman]

Paul just take it to a PC repair centre, and have them look at it and then quote you a price. The screen can also be damaged, if its not handled properly with the lid down. Ensure that the laptop bag, has secure panels on the inside. I normally use a piece of foam, or soft material between the screen and keyboard. I know it sounds silly, but when you move around with a laptop, you do run the risk of damage if not taken care of properly

[Paul]

Thanks for the advice folks. I've now found a much cheaper, but not cheap, alternative.