Replacing a laptop LCD

[Freedom Kira]

Alright, one problem to the next.

I got a new laptop LCD screen to replace a cracked one. So far I've successfully taken it apart and removed the old one, and connected the new one and put it back together. At this point, the laptop is plugged in and the battery indicator shows that the battery is charging. When I attempt to power on the laptop, the power indicator lights up, the fan turns on, and about one second later everything shuts back off. There is no screen reaction. When an external display is connected, the results are the same.

I've checked the connections. Actually, the connector for the LCD cable is reversed for the new screen so I had to twist the cable around. There was also a second cable that consisted of two wires, which was not a problem as far as I can tell. But to be safe, the connector was pushed in pretty firmly, but just how much firmness is generally required?

So I'm wondering what the problem might be. I suspect that the laptop is performing a self-check on startup, and is not detecting the LCD screen and thus shutting itself back off.

I've worked with laptop refurbishing for a four-month work term, so I have a good idea of what I'm doing, though this is the first time I've worked with a laptop LCD screen.

Laptop specifics:
Sony VAIO VGN-X360, 2005
RAM/CPU/HDD unknown (friend's laptop)
LCD purchased from oemtogo on eBay
The item description page has some tutorials that I am looking at but so far they haven't been much help, mostly because it's a generic display that is used for other models too.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[JoonasTo]

Haven't messed around with any Sony's but at least in every other brand it's just plug and play. So you sure the panel works in it? Laptops tend to be a little too sensitive with components sometimes. Positive that all the cables connected?

If it's connected with a zif, as most are in these days, then no force is required. Just push it to the hole slightly and then lock it.

So did you just leave the other wire free? Just thinking that it might also be a grounding problem. Very unlikely but you never know with electronics.

[Freedom Kira]

Apparently most laptop brands, Sony included, are pretty much the same when replacing screens. According to a tutorial anyway.

Yeah I didn't expect it to be a cable problem... though some of the wires are loose. I shoved them back in but it didn't help. Do they need to be soldered in?

The other cable I was talking about, the two wire one, is HCA1. AFAIK it's pushed in pretty firmly, thus my conclusion that it's not a problem.

BTW it appears this is a generic LCD. There's an adapter plugged in to the screen. Is that perhaps the problem?

Edit: One of the soldered wires on the adapter seems to have broken off. Looks like I might have to resolder it. Actually most of the solder shows cracks... But I think the cracks weren't there when I initially pushed the cable in and still had the same problem.

[JoonasTo]

Loose? Do they come loose by themselves? What kind of cables are we talking about? A normal push in connector?
None of the laptops I've tampered with have needed any soldering. In any connector.

If the soldering wasn't broken in the beginning then what caused the soldering to broke?
Did you try to turn it on when you had just connected the screen and not put the machine back together? Maybe you cracked the solderings when you put it back together and that's why it doesn't work?

Can't say anything about the adapter as we use official spare parts at the place I work.

[Rebs]

Hmm, I am by far not qualified to give advise here. Just want to make that clear.

However, could the malfunction be related to what cracked the LCD in the first place
A cracked LCD screen sounds a bit extreme to me.

[Freedom Kira]

If the soldering wasn't broken in the beginning then what caused the soldering to broke?
Did you try to turn it on when you had just connected the screen and not put the machine back together? Maybe you cracked the solderings when you put it back together and that's why it doesn't work?

I think it wasn't broken in the beginning but some of the wires were loose (likely a result of pulling the connector cable out of the old screen), but I didn't notice until later.

Yes I did try to turn it on before putting it back together. Well, I at least mounted the screen without putting the case back on.
The soldering shouldn't have been affected by putting the case back together but I think I might have cracked it when I tried to push the connector in a bit too firmly.

Hmm, I am by far not qualified to give advise here. Just want to make that clear.

However, could the malfunction be related to what cracked the LCD in the first place
A cracked LCD screen sounds a bit extreme to me.

Heh, I highly doubt that dropping the laptop would have any clue to the problem, especially if the old screen still worked aside from half of the screen, which showed some fancy colors and a haphazard black shape.

Any LCD screen can crack from enough of an impulse force.

[JoonasTo]

So why did you put it back together if it didn't start?
Or did I misunderstand something?

I'm out of ideas currently. Something came into my mind just before going to sleep last night but can't recall what it was. 

[Freedom Kira]

I thought maybe the laptop detected that the case was taken apart and refused to start. Obviously not the case

[daveLovesIt]

Heh, I highly doubt that dropping the laptop would have any clue to the problem, especially if the old screen still worked aside from half of the screen, which showed some fancy colors and a haphazard black shape.

You're right it's the screen alone, or was before you dismantled it, given this.


Even if the screen isn't hooked up properly, you should be able to power the laptop on okay, just not seeing anything. If it's starting to power up and cutting out, you might have a loose wire or a short somewhere or the battery may need charging. I'm assuming you left the cable in and allowed the battery to charge a bit before trying to turn it on?

Your first problem is getting the laptop to turn back on with either the old screen or no screen, if you can do that, then you know you haven't introduced a new problem, like a bit of solder floating around the case somewhere or too much pressure at some point when screwing stuff back together that's causing it to cut out during POST checks (does it get as far as making a beep of any sort when trying to power it?)

Someone might be bale to help your more easily if you could put up a pic of the connectors on the new screen, particularly showing detail of the damage you are talking about. But again, a broken screen should not be stopping the thing booting.

A lot of BIOSes are set to allow both VGA and LCD output by default, you don't expect an incompatible screen to case a shutdown, but it can't hurt to see what happens with if you hook it up to a standard CRT monitor, I've actually found this useful in the past simply for verifying the components around the mainboard were working correctly before attaching the new screen. (I had a similar problem following an "accident" with an annoying youtube video and a slightly overzealous gyaku tsuki)

[JoonasTo]

(I had a similar problem following an "accident" with an annoying youtube video and a slightly overzealous gyaku tsuki)

Totally off-topic but I just had to quote that.
Anger leads to the dark side. Karateka must follow the light.

[Freedom Kira]

Even if the screen isn't hooked up properly, you should be able to power the laptop on okay, just not seeing anything. If it's starting to power up and cutting out, you might have a loose wire or a short somewhere or the battery may need charging. I'm assuming you left the cable in and allowed the battery to charge a bit before trying to turn it on?

Like I said...

So I'm wondering what the problem might be. I suspect that the laptop is performing a self-check on startup, and is not detecting the LCD screen and thus shutting itself back off.

I've spent a few weeks troubleshooting some malfunctioning DS Lites, and they also have this feature. If one of the two screens is not detected, the system automatically shuts back off. Older laptops may not do this, sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the problem.

No loose wires as far as I can tell, and the battery status doesn't matter, as a laptop should turn on when the power cable is attached, regardless of how much juice is left in the battery. I also didn't touch the motherboard, which is where the battery hooks in.

Your first problem is getting the laptop to turn back on with either the old screen or no screen, if you can do that, then you know you haven't introduced a new problem, like a bit of solder floating around the case somewhere or too much pressure at some point when screwing stuff back together that's causing it to cut out during POST checks (does it get as far as making a beep of any sort when trying to power it?)

Problem is, the connector cable is stuck in the adapter. I've tried for 15 minutes to remove the cable from the adapter without any luck. And it was to try exactly that, to see if it's fine with the old screen.
No beeps. I've described exactly what happens in my first post. A beep or some audible response would have been nice though. Beep code would be even better.

Someone might be bale to help your more easily if you could put up a pic of the connectors on the new screen, particularly showing detail of the damage you are talking about. But again, a broken screen should not be stopping the thing booting.

I guess I could do that, but don't expect it to be soon...
And no, the broken screen doesn't stop anything. In case you missed it:

Heh, I highly doubt that dropping the laptop would have any clue to the problem, especially if the old screen still worked aside from half of the screen, which showed some fancy colors and a haphazard black shape.

A lot of BIOSes are set to allow both VGA and LCD output by default, you don't expect an incompatible screen to case a shutdown, but it can't hurt to see what happens with if you hook it up to a standard CRT monitor, I've actually found this useful in the past simply for verifying the components around the mainboard were working correctly before attaching the new screen. (I had a similar problem following an "accident" with an annoying youtube video and a slightly overzealous gyaku tsuki)

... Why CRT? Any external monitor would work as long as it connects to VGA. I don't have an old CRT monitor lying around. And, like I said before:

I got a new laptop LCD screen to replace a cracked one. So far I've successfully taken it apart and removed the old one, and connected the new one and put it back together. At this point, the laptop is plugged in and the battery indicator shows that the battery is charging. When I attempt to power on the laptop, the power indicator lights up, the fan turns on, and about one second later everything shuts back off. There is no screen reaction. When an external display is connected, the results are the same.

Granted, the external display was an LCD monitor, but I honestly don't think it would matter if it was a CRT monitor instead.

I really don't think I have to check if the mobo is fine if the laptop had worked the day before I took it apart, broken screen and all, especially if I didn't touch anything near the mobo.

(I had a similar problem following an "accident" with an annoying youtube video and a slightly overzealous gyaku tsuki)

Totally off-topic but I just had to quote that.
Anger leads to the dark side. Karateka must follow the light.

QFT.

[fohfoh]

How far do you get before it shuts off? You might have "borked" the mobo. I know that mobos are a little more tempermental on Sony laptops. (In fact, many times, you can't even find good info about your mobo, only a certified Sony repair place has access to such info). But it was rare (but it did happen a few times) that my Sony would turn off by itself when I accidentally killed my mobo with too much heat. (The Asian weather wasn't being nice to my laptop... clogging it with gritty dust etc. and causing too much heat buildup). Mine in the end just kept on getting stuck at a certain screen. (Worked fine in safemode, but never normal).

Reopen the whole thing and double check everything ranging from connections from other random crap like the keyboard etc. and double check the connections on everything to make sure nothing is loose. If that's the case, try cleaning it with some compressed air and see if there's anything else that looks like it could be an issue. Unplug some things if necessary and reconnect them. However, I'm quite convinced that this might be a mobo problem of sorts and not the other stuff. Unless you did something like shorted out some ram or something and it's causing memory issues. (But does that actually cause shut down? My brother's Lenovo just showed a black screen for a bit of time and loaded up SUPER slow)

[daveLovesIt]

Like I said...

And didn't you just! I could now put up a similar post, nit-picking your nit-picking, and re-quoting myself in response to your re-quoting yourself, and then you could do the same, and then the thread will have zero readers left before very long. Instead, let's try to focus on your notebook. I'm sensing hostility; if you don't want my input, just say so, and I will respect your wishes and stop posting. But sometimes I do exactly what you just did, and I really don't mean anything by it, so....

I've spent a few weeks troubleshooting some malfunctioning DS Lites, and they also have this feature. If one of the two screens is not detected, the system automatically shuts back off. Older laptops may not do this, sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the problem.

If it is the case (and I suspect not) You would expect an error code from the post, which equates to "No Screen". I have yet to do diagnostics on a laptop that refuses to boot without a screen attached, and this includes a Sony VAIO. But still, this is partly why I suggested an external screen; however...

Granted, the external display was an LCD monitor, but I honestly don't think it would matter if it was a CRT monitor instead.

...I genuinely did miss this. My bad. No, It won't make a difference; I thought you had only tried the broken screen and the new one.

...the battery status doesn't matter, as a laptop should turn on when the power cable is attached, regardless of how much juice is left in the battery...

Laptops often won't boot even with mains power, unless at least a minimum level of charge is present. I guess the act of turning it on first causes a large drain on the battery which drops after a few seconds. Also, if you have a problem with dissipating charge, you will be losing power more quickly than the mains is supplying it. Charging the battery fully (I gather you still have normal output from the LEDs) is a staple trick of troubleshooting the exact problem you are experiencing; if the notebook takes noticeably longer to cut out when the battery is full, you have a *big* clue. Any technician will tell you to charge the battery, and see what happens.

Problem is, the connector cable is stuck in the adapter. I've tried for 15 minutes to remove the cable from the adapter without any luck.

Seriously... what have you done to these poor connectors!? It's vital to seperate the new screen at this stage, and get back to where you were before attaching it. Good luck!

I really don't think I have to check if the mobo is fine if the laptop had worked the day before I took it apart, broken screen and all, especially if I didn't touch anything near the mobo.

Well, you'd know what you are likely to have interfered with. But dropping a screw or some solder (you did mention solder) inside the case may cause a short, and in the case of the the laptop I mentioned earlier, my problem had turned out to be a cable was slightly out of place and the motherboard was being strained - simply loosening the screws in the area I had been working suddenly brought the machine back to life. In your case though, I think it has more to do with the new screen or the battery/power supply.

EDIT - Forgot to ask - got a part/model number for that new LCD screen? And does the adapter belong with the laptop or the screen, and does that have a part number on it?

Anger leads to the dark side. Karateka must follow the light.

Haha... you didn't see the video. I assure you, it was an act of pure self-defence. In the tranquil moments that followed, I had no regrets. Staring at the interplay of black cracks on a field of white, I was centred, and my soul was at peace.

[Freedom Kira]

How far do you get before it shuts off? You might have "borked" the mobo. I know that mobos are a little more tempermental on Sony laptops. (In fact, many times, you can't even find good info about your mobo, only a certified Sony repair place has access to such info). But it was rare (but it did happen a few times) that my Sony would turn off by itself when I accidentally killed my mobo with too much heat. (The Asian weather wasn't being nice to my laptop... clogging it with gritty dust etc. and causing too much heat buildup). Mine in the end just kept on getting stuck at a certain screen. (Worked fine in safemode, but never normal).

Heh, same friend as the broken screen laptop had this exact problem, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Turned out the fan was getting rusty or something and wouldn't spin properly, so I replaced the fan. Somehow it still shut off after a while, but it was a longer while than before, at least, about an hour compared to 15-ish minutes. Side note, is thermal paste necessary in a laptop? I noticed there wasn't any when I opened that one up (not the broken screen one). That family has three laptops now, excluding a netbook. Sheesh.

As for how far I get, it's about 1 second after seeing a response from hitting the power button (as mentioned in first post). It's always the exact same time.

Reopen the whole thing and double check everything ranging from connections from other random crap like the keyboard etc. and double check the connections on everything to make sure nothing is loose. If that's the case, try cleaning it with some compressed air and see if there's anything else that looks like it could be an issue. Unplug some things if necessary and reconnect them. However, I'm quite convinced that this might be a mobo problem of sorts and not the other stuff. Unless you did something like shorted out some ram or something and it's causing memory issues. (But does that actually cause shut down? My brother's Lenovo just showed a black screen for a bit of time and loaded up SUPER slow)

Granted, it's a really dirty laptop, but it powered on fine the day before I took the screen out, and I didn't touch anything on the mobo side (keyboard, RAM, HDD, battery, etc.). Except someone was bored and screwed around with keys on the keyboard while I was working, but the keys were put back in properly. So I don't think it's even possible that I screwed something up on the mobo side.

Hmm, from past experience, bad RAM causes an error at POST and possibly a beep code indicating bad RAM (depends on manufacturer and year of manufacture), at which point the computer stops booting. The screen stays black IIRC. I haven't seen shorted RAM before though.

And didn't you just! I could now put up a similar post, nit-picking your nit-picking, and re-quoting myself in response to your re-quoting yourself, and then you could do the same, and then the thread will have zero readers left before very long. Instead, let's try to focus on your notebook. I'm sensing hostility; if you don't want my input, just say so, and I will respect your wishes and stop posting. But sometimes I do exactly what you just did, and I really don't mean anything by it, so....

Why don't we leave this as a misread hostility point?

If it is the case (and I suspect not) You would expect an error code from the post, which equates to "No Screen". I have yet to do diagnostics on a laptop that refuses to boot without a screen attached, and this includes a Sony VAIO. But still, this is partly why I suggested an external screen; however...

...I genuinely did miss this. My bad. No, It won't make a difference; I thought you had only tried the broken screen and the new one.

I'll keep that in mind. But the thing is, the laptop doesn't even make it to POST, as it shuts off about one second after powering on.

Laptops often won't boot even with mains power, unless at least a minimum level of charge is present. I guess the act of turning it on first causes a large drain on the battery which drops after a few seconds. Also, if you have a problem with dissipating charge, you will be losing power more quickly than the mains is supplying it. Charging the battery fully (I gather you still have normal output from the LEDs) is a staple trick of troubleshooting the exact problem you are experiencing; if the notebook takes noticeably longer to cut out when the battery is full, you have a *big* clue. Any technician will tell you to charge the battery, and see what happens.

Come to think of it, the laptop whose fan I replaced didn't power on with the battery removed. I guess it depends on brand, because HP laptops don't do that (at least, mine doesn't, and neither does another friend's).

But no way it's the battery, because I didn't even take it out (I realize I should have, actually) and it powered on fine the day before. I feel like I've said that 10 times now...

I ended up unintentionally leaving the charging cord plugged into the laptop. Eventually the battery indicator stopped flashing, so it's fully charged. No difference.

Seriously... what have you done to these poor connectors!? It's vital to seperate the new screen at this stage, and get back to where you were before attaching it. Good luck!

I tried... I'll see if there's a clip somewhere that I have to click out. I don't have the laptop ATM. Next chance I get to work on it is Wednesday.

Well, you'd know what you are likely to have interfered with. But dropping a screw or some solder (you did mention solder) inside the case may cause a short, and in the case of the the laptop I mentioned earlier, my problem had turned out to be a cable was slightly out of place and the motherboard was being strained - simply loosening the screws in the area I had been working suddenly brought the machine back to life. In your case though, I think it has more to do with the new screen or the battery/power supply.

EDIT - Forgot to ask - got a part/model number for that new LCD screen? And does the adapter belong with the laptop or the screen, and does that have a part number on it?

I never even opened the case. Feels like I've said that 10 times too.
The only screws I worked with were the ones holding the LCD panel in place.

Edit: If my Internet wasn't so crapped up right now, I'd grab the page off eBay for you. Remind me later.

Haha... you didn't see the video. I assure you, it was an act of pure self-defence. In the tranquil moments that followed, I had no regrets. Staring at the interplay of black cracks on a field of white, I was centred, and my soul was at peace.

I suspect it's one of those videos where you're asked to turn up your volume and concentrate on something, and suddenly a zombie pops up and screams.

I don't know if I'd feel at peace when I see the broken screen, knowing I'd have to spend $100+ to replace that...

[costi]

Laptops often won't boot even with mains power, unless at least a minimum level of charge is present.

I disagree - in 99% of laptops they don't care where the power comes from and the presence of battery is not necessary if it is plugged in. In fact, if you're planning to use your laptop on AC power a lot (like a desktop replacement), it is recommended to remove the battery.

[daveLovesIt]

Why don't we leave this as a misread hostility point?

I'd very much like to yes =) I suspect we're similar, in that every sentence we read in a post tends to spawn at least ten ideas for a response... before you know it everyone is confused and it comes out like a battle in pedantics; not to mention you forget or overlook things that have been said.... For the sake of avoiding confusion, I'll just avoid quoting three different posters and just use topic headers. mostly for my own benefit.

RAM
Ram issues are about the one thing that a POST can be expected to consistently detect, because its usually among the first things that get tested. Apart from subtle RAM problems, which will allow a boot but then cause errors, you would almost always expect error beeps. So we are agreed, the RAM is not the issue.

POST and the screen
I know your laptop isn't making it to the POST, that's the point! If it was intentional for the system to dissallow a screenless boot, you would expect it to do the self-test, fail, then cut-out, hopefully with an error. This means your problem is not expected by or not handleable by the motherboard (more specifically, its not powering sufficiently to do anything much at all by the sound of it - this is why it was important to assess power/shorting problems - most times I've seen one flick on for no more than a second, this has been the culprit.)

Batteries/Power
A brand-new or mint-condition laptop of any age should be fine from the mains, yes. (I do not know if some brands require the battery to boot by design, though, purely for the purpose of creating a circuit)
The condition of the battery, power-supply and internals as they degrade over time can drastically change the expected behaviour. I'm sure ancient laptops never had the burst issue I mentioned, because they didn't need a lot of power, and it's very likely that modern or more high-end mid-age ones address(ed) this with a capacitance trick to fire it up. I've mainly worked on laptops between about 4-6 years old, and (mostly) cheaper ones, so my experience is probably a bit skewed. I've definitely seen some that worked fine with no battery + mains, but did not work with flat battery + mains. It's still a standard diagnostic to test with a full battery (with and without mains), and also with no battery at all, this I am sure of. Sounds like you should test without the battery, just in case you get a different symptom that might mean something to someone. Probably not, but it only takes a second. You've succesfully charged the battery, so we should be able to rule out a power issue... (unless the new screen is actually sucking far more juice than the laptop you have can provide, but insufficient power is usually accompanied by very slow spinning fans and flickering/dim lights as the thing tries to boot in slow-motion, at least with desktops.)

So what's wrong with it!?
I'd put money on it being the new screen, pretty unfortunate given what you've told me if you somehow managed to break something else simply by handling it, as you haven't really opened it up at all (he finally gets, you say!), and the battery charges okay.
Best case scenario, you need to do something with the extraneous wire or adjust the connector / buy a different adapter piece. Worse cases could be, you jammed a wrong connector into a similar-looking hole, and fried something important or you (your friend?) have splashed out hard cash on an incompatible screen... But I'm 90%+ sure this new screen is causing the cut-out, let's just hope not permanently! Maybe you just need to prise apart the connector a little with screwdriver and it'll slide out. You do seem to think something wasn't right when you first inserted it though.


I could explain why I would drive two knuckles deep into a piece of semi-useful electronics (it was only an Advent) at blinding speed, but It's way off-topic and this post is big enough already. Its one of those "had to be there" things anyway.

[fohfoh]

I'm leaning more towards mobo. Something maybe to do with "borking" something when making the fix, so maybe a combination of the screen and the mobo. Even without a screen, it shouldn't turn off. In my experience a computer a Sony laptop turning off is usually only 1 of 3 conditions. 1. Battery is out of power AND there is no AC power available. Even with a dead battery but with AC, it will still not turn off. 2. Power saving mode of some sort. 3. Mobo/something on it has issues and the BIOS (Phoenix) turns things off to try and save your hardware.   

AFAIK, Sony's mobos for laptops don't make noise. Dells do, yes and quite a few others do, but I've never heard any noise from my mobo at all. Seriously. And I've hit certain scenarios several times where if I was on my dell, it'd beep like there's no tomorrow. But on my Sony... "Fuck? I think it's hung up? No indication or noise... don't want to wait..." *Force restart*

It's an oddity, I know.


- I truly don't think it is the RAM. (As stated in my last post, which though full of doubt, did not explicitly say so). But shorting something is still a possibility.
- NOT HDD. Even without HDD, the laptop will boot.
- Video card? I doubt it's that, but it's probable. However, I can't even imagine how you'd mess this part up, so it's on the low possibility side.
- Battery. Now that I think about it... did you ever test with no battery to maybe see if the AC cable is screwed up and you have a dead battery? Also, Sony unlike many other brands has a 2 piece AC power cable. Double check to see if they're not loose.
- Screen. Pretty sure the laptop(s) that I have can run without the screen, but I haven't done proper testing to check. However, if it was indeed the screen's problem due to lack of connection etc. or something, then it's the mobo telling the unit to shut down.
- Screwed something up on the mobo. IMO this is most likely. Or, like the point above, the mobo is turning off because it believes something is wrong.

Something could be wrong and you wouldn't even know it. I mean in all seriousness, my Sony laptop "functioned" with a partially damaged mobo for over 9 months after I purchased it before it totally went to shit and I didn't even know. I found out later that (it was a display model) due to the fact it was on for so long and it was placed in a way where the ventilation was poor, the mobo had partially melted the GPU chip's connectivity which caused me to have a failure of my screen booting up every 1 out of 3 tries or so (Yes I lived with this "issue" for 9 months). It was especially bad due to the fact my laptop was a turbo cache video card based laptop. What the guy told me was that due to it being "loose" and not proper, the mobo was at certain points failing to recognize that the "main" integrated graphics chip was even there. Thus, my laptop was powering up but not doing anything due to the fact it didn't have a method to use the display. (See point 2 about why it's a low possibility)


What to do now?

Back track.

Try to see if you can get the unit back to step 1 by putting the broken screen in and checking things. If it goes back to normal. HEY! It's the shitty screen! Sigh of relief, anger at screen. If not, well... now we know it's not likely anything can be done... Cry tears. It's over and it's a sad day.

[daveLovesIt]

I just don't see how the motherboard got damaged in this case if Kira is being honest about everything...

Note that I did mention a improperly installed or incompatible screen may have fried something when first powered on, naturally this would include the motherboard.

I'm starting to build up an inherent distrust of the Sony VAIO range. Seems to me you pay twice as much to have them break twice as often.

[Freedom Kira]

Alright, I'm back again. This time with another one.

This time it's an Acer Aspire ZG5 netbook. Same problem, changed the screen out (this time there was no adapter). Now the book doesn't start. There is no reaction whatsoever, not even the power light.

Admittedly there are a few steps I skipped that I shouldn't have. For instance, I forgot to remove the battery before doing anything. I also forgot to check to make sure the thing still started up before changing it. I also may have been more rough than I should have been, but that is subjective.

So it's possible that the battery is out of juice, but usually it should still light up to acknowledge that I tried to start it up. I don't have the charger on hand, so I will have to update about that later.

If anyone's got any experience with this problem, please enlighten me. I swear no one who has changed a laptop screen has ever encountered this problem... at least not on Google... maybe I'm just careless enough to bork two mobos trying to change two LCD screens? I haven't had a single successful change yet >.>

Edit: Plugged in the thing and it works. Whew, I seriously thought I broke something... I would have expected some kind of reaction though, at least an acknowledgement that I pushed the power button, like the power indicator would light up or something. Especially if the battery still had juice only 2-3 weeks ago. Or are Acer batteries that bad?