Andrew Breese

It’s been a decade or so since I had to fix a broken piece of IT gear, and unfortunately I dropped my old laptop and broke the screen. Repairing what we already have is important. As is finding ways of making sure we get the best life from the tools and equipment we have. Despite how disposable as old laptops are, I didn’t want this one going to the recycling centre just yet – and I paid a small fortune for it a long time ago.

Instead of throwing a few thousand dollars to replace the aging 7 or 8 year old unit I ordered a replacement screen online for a few hundred dollars, and crossed my fingers that it would work and arrive in one piece. Even though this is a basic fix it’s exciting to work on hardware.

My apprehension for the fix was due to the replacement screen not being a true match to the old screen, being far newer screen with the same basic mount hardware but twice the native resolution. I didn’t know if the old laptop would recognise it, and if the video card would be happy with it.

It worked well. The hardware displays beautifully using ultra high res, and it’s never looked better.

These are a few before and after images of the Gigabyte p56 laptop being wrangled. The laptop is still old but it’s good enough to last me a while longer, and then will probably go to one of the kids.

Happy fixing folks.