Feeling pretty badass this morning, in a tech-geek sorta way. I accidentally stepped on my netbook a couple weeks ago, smashing its LCD screen (well, it was still kinda useable but had these black, inky streaks all across the screen). Figured I'd have to buy a new laptop, and was looking around on sites like bestbuy.com and the deals for a comparable computer weren't too great. Was gonna have to pay several hundred bucks to replace it. Similar ripoffs to have the Geek Squad fix it. So I hunted around a bit and found a DIY tutorial on Youtube that walked me thru it. Then it dawned on me that I had enough points on my Amazon credit card to almost get it for free. $12 and a week later, it was at my door. Thanks to my artist wife and her fine motor skills (those screws are tiny!) we disassembled the computer, popped the old screen out, and installed the new one in just a few minutes. Works like a charm!
Anyway, just thought I'd share. If you're clumsy like me and manage to eff up your laptop screen, don't waste money buying a whole new machine, or taking it to a repair shop. Most screens are fairly standardized these days and this is a fix you can do yourself with nothing more than a new screen ordered online and 7 minutes worth of training from the Screen Surgeons page on Youtube.