Replacing the display on an HP Nx7400

 

Blank screen disease is something that plagues not just Macbooks but other computers as well. Recently my uncle's HP Compaq NX 7400 was infected by it. While most of the time blank screen issues can be traced to a software bug, on this occasion it turned out to be a dead LCD. In fact dead LCDs are a very common issue with the NX7400 and some similar laptops.

 

 

We weighed the options. My uncle wasn't keen to buy a new laptop locally since his son is in the US and can easily buy and send one from over there. The quality will be better than what you get in Asia, and the price is much lower. So we looked at getting the lcd replaced - the shop he called wanted 20K for replacement. Swo we tried trusty old Ebay - the cheapest available was around 120 dollars (13k in local currency).

 

 

But while we would be happy to just order the LCD, we were not quite sure if it's the LCD or the inverter that had died - apparently both have a tendency to die off. Secondly it would take month for the LCD to be delivered and uncle wanted his computer back in a hurry. then I realized that I had a dead Toshiba laptop lying around (used to belong to my sister, she replaced it with a Macbook)

We were fortunate that the LCD was exactly the same size / resolution as the one the Compaq. Yet my uncle argued that it wouldn't be compatible. I was pretty confident that it would work cause none of the computer vendors make their own stuff any more. And I was right it did work! We replaced both the inverter and the LCD because there were some incompatibilities with the cables.