Has it been an unusually successful day? Let’s find out!
The replacement screen was due to arrive on Friday, but I had STUPID WORK on Friday & Saturday, so redirected it to be delivered today (I am grateful that, in the Year of our Gourd 2026 of the Common Era, we have the ability to select when we want parcels delivered, rather than poor posties having to try and be unable to deliver them when we’re not in).
The packaging wasn’t greeeeeat, but, thankfully, the screen was fine. I did a functional test, just connecting the cable, and the display displayed the display, so on with the repair. Luckily I’d only taken the laptop apart a week ago, so I remembered where all the screws & parts went. It proceeded smoothly until it came to attaching the new screen’s antennae cables’ connectors to the WiFi card: they simply would not click into place. I took the board out and tried to press the cables into the connectors, but they just fell out.
For the time being, I found a USB WiFi dongle and tested the rest of the functionality: flawless! The screen seems even better quality then before (maybe owing to a different outer layer) and the touchscreen works, as promised, perfectly. Sure, there are indeed some blobby glue smears (probably where someone has refitted the touch layer) but I’m not fussy enough to care about that, they’re not as bad (obviously) as a cracked screen, and what can I really expect when buying the absolute cheapest possible option on eBay?
[Back to the WiFi card though…
I admitted defeat, and went to find some reading glasses, with the dual sinking feelings in my guts of aging eyes, and the possibility that I’d wrecked the WiFi card.
The ability to see more clearly revealed that I had indeed ripped the connectors off the PCB… I then NEARLY spent another £8 (which would have taken the total for this repair to a whopping £22) but decided to try something else…
The card was a write-off, and I had an old screen with its antennae cables so why not try …soldering the cables to what was left of the card…?
Some wire-stripping and tinning later, and I was ready to attach the tiny wires to the even tinier connections in the board. Thankfully, this wasn’t my first festival; I’d done some tiny soldering work in the past (mounting SSOPs to PCBs which my old boss could barely see, but he knew how they worked; I was just the eyes, back when my longsightedness wasn’t as bad) so this was straightforward.
Functional test using the old screen cover as a temporary antenna: WiFi is back in action! I can’t believe that worked!
Emboldened, it was time to do all that work AGAIN, but this time using the antennae cables coming from the new screen.
Desolder, strip, tin, solder, test: working perfectly!
I even thought ahead a little: the screen cover actually contains two antennae, for WiFi and cellular. I have no plans to install a WAN card, so used the cellular antenna’s wires for this repair (they were also what I used for testing on the old screen, with this plan in mind). This means that I haven’t chopped and wrecked the two cables which are actually meant to be connected to the WiFi card; if this all goes to hell in the future, I can still buy and install a new card.
A dab of flexible glue over the wires to support & insulate them:
…and it was time to finally close up the laptop, with everything working perfectly!
I did consider replacing the outer shell of the laptop lid, to preserve the barcode-decorated lid, and though I’d pretty much decided against it, it was forcibly decided for me as they aren’t interchangeable: the new lid is a couple of mil deeper to accommodate the touchscreen layer.
This extra thickness also means the (vanity) hinge covers don’t fit properly:
It was an unfortunate time for the WOD, but £14 wasn’t bad for a replacement, which is actually an upgrade with the new touchscreen capability.
Today we’ll end with an appendix:
Appendix 1: iFixit guide plus my additions:
https://archive.ph/wxTCT
Step 3 &4: remove the battery?? What the zark for?? Just unplug it.
Step 5: my power port plate has TWO screws.
Step 8: not “carefully”; what they mean is: CAREFULLY
Step 13 to step 14: after removing these four screws, and the display assembly won’t come out, realise that they have neglected to mention two screws on the rear face of the laptop (despite them being present in the guide’s photos) which also need removing.
Appendix 2: the much-talked about barcoded-lid:
