Adventures in computer maintenance

So my laptop has been giving me trouble. I've had it about 2 1/2 years now. It was dirty, the plastic was cracking, and lately the screen had been freaking out. It was at the point where I hoked up a CRT to it so it could be used. In my kitchen. Kind of defeats the purpose of a "portable" computer.

I plan on getting a new XPS from Dell later in the spring, courtesy of my fancy tax rebate. But until then, I'm short one laptop. So thanks to my good friends, the team of Google and The Internet, I found the repair manual. Turns out it's not all that hard to take one of these things apart.

So I take it apart. Turns out either the screen itself, or just inverter is bad. The screen is in rough shape anyway, and the corners of the bezel are cracked, or even broken off. So back to the internet and I find the parts I need. I'm ordering a new screen and a complete housing set for the screen.

I took advangage of the laptop being apart to really clean out the system. Dust trapped inside from the fan got all cleaned out. I was able to really clean out the hosuing without fear of getting the electronics inside wet. Once I put it back together, without the screen, I have a practically brand new looking laptop ready to go. Add in a reinstall of XP and I'm practically there.


The current state of my laptop

The only downside, for now, is the antenna for the WiFi is in the screen itself. I just installed the old WiFi card I had for another laptop, and I'm back in business.

Once I get the parts for the screen, I can assemble those and my laptop will be good as new. The best part is my wife and daughter can continue to use it, while my brand new XPS will be ALL MINE! Bwahaha!