Display of Affection: Laptop Screen Replacement

As consumers, we all know the sad fact is that things are manufactured to fail. The technology we use day in and day out will one day give up that virtual specter and need to be replaced with something new a shiny, that essentially does the same thing. If you've read many of my blog entries you'll know I buck against that to the best of my ability. I've always inherited friend's, and sometimes family's outdated technology to make the most of it. I figure if I can make use of it then it's not needlessly taking up space in some e-waste facility. Once a product is well and truly cooked though, I do begrudgingly let it rest in pieces. Those are truly sad days, but believe me I try everything within my power to keep them going.

Such is the case of a Dell Inspiron 3520, I acquired from a friend. This laptop has been through a lot, mostly with me in the past five years. It was given to me in about 2016 as not working. At the tail end of 2019 I fixed it up and used it as my daily driver. I had been using it for everything I usually do on a laptop, but a little over a year ago the screen started flashing. At first it only happened for the first few minutes of boot up. Then it became constant and wouldn't go away. This led to the screen slowly but surely fading into complete and total darkness. What am I to do with a thirteen year old laptop? Buy a new screen? NOPE!

In 2010/2011 I was given a brand new Acer Aspire 5552-3691, which I loved, but it too was eventually relegated to the closet in its travel case. The laptop worked, it was just so slow it wasn't worth using, but it had been my daily driver for most of my life between 2010/2011 to about 2017. It means the world to me, so I kept it even though its not in the best working condition. When the Dell's display decided it no longer wanted to work, I decided to see if the screen from my Acer was compatible. I tried searching online, but there isn't really a lot of information on laptop screen compatibility between models. 

Realizing I was mostly on my own, I decided to look at the connector that attached each screen to the motherboard, which were completely different. I then decided to dig further and check the connector on the back. They were both 40 pin, and everything seemed to look the same. At this point, why not try and see if it works. Long story short it worked just fine. No more flashing, no more dim backlight. The laptop that I loved, my Acer Aspire, had given it's vision to save the Inspiron 3520. Although my Acer Aspire is slowly deteriorating, and I hate to see it, I can now use the Dell I am currently writing this on for, hopefully, a little while longer. The best part, to me, is knowing I'll be doing it all through the same screen that I had enjoyed so much all those years ago.