Replacing Screen Glass on Penryn? It cracked.

[Agentflit]

Hi, I have a late 2008 penryn model macbook pro -- that's right, the one for suckers who couldn't wait for the unibody. Anyway, I broke the screen. More specifically, I believe I have broken the glass but not the actual display. Photo:

I see some dark pixels in there, but honestly, if there is some way to replace the glass without having to buy a whole LED display unit I don't mind having a tiny splotch on my screen. It might just be the glass pressing against the display causing the discoloration, anyway.

I see repair shops online selling "glass only" for unibody macbooks but for previous models I only see full LCD replacements. There's a substantial price difference. Is the glass non-removable from the LED panel? Am I out of luck? (I'm completely confident taking my computer apart, by the way)

Thanks!

 

[dan5.5]

If it's a pre unibody laptop, there is no glass. The LCD is exposed, u broke it. You need to replace the whole LCD

 

[l.a.rossmann]

(I'm completely confident taking my computer apart, by the way)

Thanks!

Confidence doesn't help if you're doing it in your bedroom.

You need a heatgun to remove the old glass. Or something like a hakko 851, if you know someone who already has it. Don't use a hairdryer.

Then methyl ethyl ketone and some CD wipes to remove old adhesive.

Then some good adhesive to put it back on. The stuff that comes with the glass sucks.

Then lastly, a clean room. This is what you don't get in your bedroom. You put the glass back, and there's a tiny black spec.. so you'll remove the glass, wipe it off with a CD wipe and isopropyl, and then there'll be another spec on the other side.

Becauses homes, apartments, and offices, have dust.

The old models can be done on a subway station, but doing this in a room without an air filter will leave stuff behind.

 

[l.a.rossmann]

edit:

I'm a moron. I didn't read it through.

You broke the LCD on an A1226/A1260 model, not a unibody. It's one piece.

Buy either

a) LG Philips LP154WP2(TL)(A*) (NOT (C*)

b) AUO B154PW04 V.0 or V.6(NOT V.3) <--- this is my preference

c) Chi Mei N154C6-L02

d) Chi Mei N154C6-L01

C and D are the easier ones to find. sometimes A and B have month long lapses where the prices go up if you're buying under ten at a time.

Don't buy the samsung one, it looks like ****. Some of them had yellow tint issues.

And don't buy on ebay, or you'll get scratched, scuffed second hand generic garbage.

When taking this apart, be careful around the bottom black screws on the side of the frame the LCD screws into. When the back bezel is off, all the pressure is put on this point. It is cracked already on 25% of the machines I open, but it can completely crack and fall off(like a paper clip bent too many times) if you don't watch it.

 

[harperjones99]

Non glass covered LCDs are not that hard to replace...just lots of screws usually. The glass covered unibodies are a whole different animal from the videos I have watched. I wouldn't pause at all about changing out a normal display but I don't think I would be happy about working on the glass covered MBP.

I know just like cars stuff is designed often more for ease of assembly than repair but it's a bit ridiculous when you have to use heat guns, clean rooms and the like to change a damn display. I much prefer things you can just unscrew and screw back together.

 

[l.a.rossmann]

Everything's easy to do once you've done it a ton of times and know how to, and everything seems near impossible before you try it.

Underestimating the difficulty of something and ****ing it up is all too common.

The new machines are actually less of a pain in the ass than the old macbook pros once you have a procedure. Less screws, less nonsense to keep track of. No brackets for screws coming off the corner of the bezel on 20% of the machines, no ****ed up frame because all the pressure is on the bottom of the frame. No need for a right angled screw driver to remove screws to bezel

The display data cable is terribly short in the unibody, which IMO there's no excuse for, it just makes things unnecessarily annoying.

You don't need a perfect clean room, but without an air filter, you're going to have issues with stuff behind the screen. 90% of the people on ebay offering it for $30 more than it costs for one sheet of glass do it in their bedroom, or office with all the dust flying around, it shows.

I am not a fan of displays covered by glass. I understand why they are, because these ones are more delicate.

 

[Agentflit]

Wow, thank you everyone. My initial reaction was that I had broken some sort of replaceable glass since there was cracking but no bleeding. It's an A1260, so yeah, I can see now that the display is definitely one piece. I assume it's still just glass that I broke, though? Don't all LED displays have glass?

Anyway, what's the difference between the V.0 and V.6 of the AUO B154PW04? Does anyone have an especially recommended vendor?

Thanks again!

 

[l.a.rossmann]

I am still looking for an officially recommended vendor. Most of them suck.

avoid screencountry.com, betamacs, and lejclip on ebay.

The difference in revision numbers is something you won't get an answer about from AUO, much less anyone else. V.0 and V.6 fit, V.3 doesn't.

It's not an LED display, it's an LCD display with an LED backlight. A good way to tell whether or not the supplier you are using is decent or clueless is if they call it an LED opposed to an LCD display. It's an LCD with an LED backlight, opposed to an LCD with a CCFL backlight.

 

[Agentflit]

Oh, right, I'm aware it's still an LCD. I just kind of suck at being clear. I believe most of the non unibody macbook pros were not LED backlit, so I wanted to differentiate.

Thanks, you've been a huge help.

 

[reverai]

l.a.rossmann is correct in regards that it's quite a pain to replace a screen on a Macbook Pro. There is just so many little screws(I think there are four different sizes) and unless one feels at ease with such things, it's easy to make mistake and create a new problem. On the other hand, one can find a replacement screen on Ebay fro much less than a replacement from Apple. There a nice fellow who would replace the screen for A1260 for $260. And it was a good looking screen too as I had two friends take a change on him and both ended up with a better screen than I have.... On the other hand, l.a.rossmann is also correct in regards to those ebay sellers to avoid too, just from reading some of their feedback.

Steve

 

[jahbadaboo]

I broke my screen as well

I have a A1260 2008 Early Penryn Model as well.

I threw a pencil at and this is what happened. Won't do that again. It was mentioned earlier but a BP154PW04 V.0 or V.6 would fit in a A1260.

I opened mine up it says its a BP154PW04 V.7. Is there a difference between V.6 and V.0.

Also I checked on ebay and they have the Chimei model mentioned up for pretty cheap. I am not particularly picky on the image as long as it looks decent enough.

Thanks for the help!