So my nice 14in Gigabyte notebook has been humming along, until I picked up the satchel and it slid out – falling 50cm onto the floor edge first.

This caused a crack along the left most 10% of the screen. I lived with it for a week or so, then bit the bullet to replace it.

A place on ebay sold me a screen for $100 shipped from the USA. After doing the swap I see the part number indicated the same screen is used in some SONY and Dell notebooks, so if I break it again I’ll be using a $75 part. The part number is b140xw02 V.1 (You can buy one here from Amazon. Note I get a dollar or two if you use that link).

I couldn’t find any instructions online, so I began with a bit of trepidation. The key things to know if you are going to do this yourself:

– the screen can be replaced without disassembling any of the laptop base.

– there are four screws under the rubber plugs at the corners of the silver screen fascia.

– The silver frame can be unclipped very gently. I used guitar picks to carefully prise it forward.

– The wedge shaped hinge covers can be removed by ripping off the mirror stickers on the outersides and removing a screw. I did this, but it may be possible to leave them in place if you are very careful.

– Once the front frame is off, there are only four screws holding the screen to the red metal lid.

– The wiring harness just pushes into place with a piece of tape to hold it.

– Now put it all back together!