Laptop screens come into our Erina workshop most weeks. Over 169 documented PC laptop screen jobs across the last decade and a half — Dell Inspirons and Latitudes, HP Pavilions and EliteBooks, Lenovo ThinkPads and IdeaPads, Acer Aspires and Predators, ASUS VivoBooks and ROG gaming machines, Microsoft Surface Laptops. The fix is almost always the same: whole-LCD-assembly replacement, 24-hour turnaround on stocked panels. This article walks you through what a laptop screen actually is, why the repair is straightforward (and why a few specific cases are trickier), what it costs across different brands and panel types, and how to decide whether the repair is worth it.

If you've already broken the screen and want a quote, call (02) 4311 6146 or book a slot online. If you want the background first, read on.

How laptop screens differ from phone and tablet screens

A laptop screen is fundamentally simpler than a phone screen. There's no digitiser layer (unless it's a touchscreen model), no front-glass that's fused to the panel, and no Touch ID or Face ID hardware bonded into the assembly. What you've got is an LCD panel — usually 13.3", 14", 15.6" or 17.3" — wired to the motherboard with a single LVDS or eDP ribbon cable, mounted in a plastic or aluminium bezel, with the rear cover and hinges holding it onto the chassis. When the screen breaks, the entire LCD assembly goes — there's no useful sub-component you can replace separately, because the panel and its protective layer come as one bonded part from the panel manufacturer.

This is good news for repair cost. Standard 15.6" FHD IPS panels from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Acer are commodity items — they're made by AUO, BOE, Innolux, LG Display and Samsung Display and used across dozens of laptop models. Stock is good, lead time is short, and the labour is straightforward (bezel removal, screw out the brackets, unplug the cable, install the new panel, reverse). It's bad news only when the panel is unusual — gaming laptops with 240Hz panels, business ultrabooks with OLED, or older specialised business displays where panels are end-of-life.

How laptop screens actually fail

The breakdown of what walks through the door is heavily weighted toward physical damage. Roughly two-thirds of the screens we replace are cracked panels — dropped laptops, lid closed on something hard, kid stepped on it during a video call, dog brushed it off the couch. Of the remaining third, the failure modes are: dead backlight (panel goes black but the laptop still runs and you can see the desktop with a torch held against the screen), failed display cable (image flickers when you move the lid), dead pixels and pixel-row failures, and panels destroyed indirectly by failed hinges.

Hinge-driven panel failure is the one to watch out for. Cheap consumer laptops — particularly the Acer Aspire, HP Pavilion and ASUS VivoBook lines from the 2018-2022 era — use plastic hinge mounts that fatigue and crack after a few thousand open-close cycles. When the hinge breaks, the rear cover starts to flex every time you open the lid, and the panel underneath gets twisted. After a few weeks of that, the panel cracks from the corner. If you replace the screen without fixing the hinge, you'll be back within six months with another cracked panel. We always check the hinge mechanism during a screen replacement and call you if it needs attention before we proceed.

The brands and models we cover

Dell — Inspiron 13/14/15/17, Latitude (every recent generation), XPS 13/15/17, Vostro, Precision mobile workstations, G-series gaming, Alienware. Latitude and XPS panels are typically the easiest to source; Alienware high-refresh panels add lead time.

HP — Pavilion, Envy, Spectre, Omen gaming, EliteBook (every G-series), ProBook, ZBook mobile workstations, Chromebook. EliteBook and ProBook business panels are widely stocked; Spectre x360 with OLED is the slowest to source.

Lenovo — ThinkPad (T, X, P, L, E series), IdeaPad (every recent generation), Yoga 2-in-1 (note: touch panels add cost), Legion gaming, ThinkBook, LOQ. ThinkPad panels are commodity-stock; Yoga touch panels are the slowest because the digitiser layer needs to match.

Acer — Aspire, Swift ultrabook, Predator gaming, Nitro gaming, TravelMate business, Chromebook. Predator high-refresh panels add lead time; Aspire 15.6" FHD is same-day-stocked.

ASUS — VivoBook (every generation), ZenBook ultrabook, ROG gaming (Strix, Zephyrus, Flow), TUF Gaming, ExpertBook business, Chromebook. ROG and Zephyrus 165Hz/240Hz panels often need to be ordered in.

Microsoft Surface — Surface Laptop 1 through 7, Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Pro 7/8/9/10/11, Surface Book 2/3. Surface screens are bonded differently — the glass is fused to the digitiser and the LCD on most models, so the part is more expensive and the labour more involved than a regular laptop. We do these regularly but they're a separate quote conversation.

If your laptop isn't on this list, we still probably do it. MSI gaming, Razer, Gigabyte Aero, LG Gram, Huawei MateBook, Dynabook (formerly Toshiba), Samsung Galaxy Book, Microsoft Surface, Chromebooks of every flavour — call and we'll confirm.

Got a model you're not sure about? Send us a photo of the laptop's bottom-cover label (the one with model number and serial) via SMS to (02) 4311 6146 or book online and attach photos. We'll confirm panel availability and price within the hour during business hours.

How we do the repair

The process is the same across brands with minor variations on bezel attachment.

First, we power the laptop down and disconnect the battery. On most newer laptops the battery is internal and we disconnect it via the bottom-cover access — this prevents any chance of a short during disassembly. Second, we remove the screen bezel — usually plastic clips around the edge with hidden screws under rubber pads at the bottom corners. Third, we unscrew the LCD brackets (4-6 screws), tilt the panel forward, unplug the eDP/LVDS cable from the back of the panel, and lift the broken panel out. Fourth, we fit the replacement panel, reconnect the cable, secure the brackets, snap the bezel back, and reconnect the battery. Finally, we boot the laptop, confirm the display is recognised at native resolution, test for dead pixels by running a full-screen black-then-white-then-RGB cycle, and confirm brightness and viewing angles match the spec.

On touchscreen models we add a digitiser calibration step. On 2-in-1 Yogas and HP Spectres we also verify the hinge tension hasn't been disturbed during the bezel re-fit.

The honest pricing conversation

PC laptop screen pricing is the widest variation in any repair category we do. The cheapest 15.6" FHD panel for a 2020 Acer Aspire is around $180 fitted; the most expensive 16" QHD 240Hz OLED panel for a recent ASUS ROG Zephyrus is over $900 fitted. Surface Laptop screens land somewhere in the middle, but the labour is significantly higher because of how they're bonded.

What drives the price: panel size (13.3" cheaper than 17.3"), resolution (FHD cheaper than QHD or 4K), refresh rate (60Hz cheaper than 144Hz, much cheaper than 240Hz), panel technology (IPS cheaper than OLED), touchscreen support (touch panels are typically $80-150 more), and panel age (current-gen widely-stocked is cheaper than 2017-era end-of-life). Brand is a secondary factor — Lenovo and HP business laptops are slightly cheaper than equivalent Dells and ASUSes, mostly because Lenovo and HP sell panels into the spare-parts channel more aggressively.

When you call we'll ask for the model number and check current stock and price for your exact panel before quoting. There's no flat "laptop screen" price because there's no flat "laptop screen" — the part varies by a factor of five.

Outside the Central Coast? Post it to us

Most of our PC laptop screen work is local — Erina, Gosford, Wyong, Tuggerah, Woy Woy, Terrigal and across the broader Central Coast NSW region. But we receive laptops by post regularly from Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, the Hunter Valley, Canberra, the South Coast and interstate. The workflow is: call or message first to confirm your model and get a quote, post the laptop to us tracked and insured for its replacement value (around $20-30 from most metro areas), we screen-replace within 24 hours of arrival on stocked panels and ship back tracked the same day. Round-trip is usually 4-7 business days depending on your location and whether the panel needed to be ordered in.

Cracked, dead, or flickering laptop screen?

Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, ASUS, MSI, Razer, Surface — we replace them all. 24-hour turnaround on stocked panels, 12-month workshop warranty, postal repair Australia-wide.

Call (02) 4311 6146 Book Online

Common questions

Can you replace just the glass on a laptop screen, or does the whole panel have to go?

On 99% of PC laptops the whole panel goes. Unlike phones and iPads where the front glass is fused to a separate digitiser and LCD, laptop screens are a single LCD assembly with a thin glass cover bonded to the panel — the glass isn't a replaceable layer. There are exceptions on premium ultrabooks with edge-to-edge glass (some XPS, Spectre and ZenBook models) where a specialist refurbisher can sometimes resurface the glass, but the cost is rarely lower than just replacing the panel, and the result is usually less clean. For Surface devices the screen is bonded to the digitiser and motherboard side, which makes them harder again.

My laptop screen has lines through it but no visible crack — is that fixable?

Almost always yes, and it's almost always the panel itself. Vertical or horizontal lines, half-screen blackouts, weird colour banding, or single-row dead-pixel stripes are panel failures, not graphics card or motherboard failures — even when there's no visible crack. The fix is the same: replace the LCD assembly. The only diagnosis cost is confirming it's the panel and not something rarer (a failed display cable or, very occasionally, a GPU fault on gaming laptops), which we do on the bench in 15-20 minutes.

Will my laptop work the same after a screen replacement — same resolution, touch, colour?

Yes, provided we fit the same panel specification. Laptop LCD panels are matched to the laptop's spec — resolution (HD, FHD, QHD, 4K), refresh rate (60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz on gaming models), panel type (TN, IPS, OLED), and whether the original was touchscreen. We always confirm the exact panel part number before ordering so the replacement matches what came out. The one situation where there's a choice is older laptops where the original HD (1366×768) panel is end-of-life and we can offer an FHD upgrade — usually $40-80 more, often worth it.

How long does a laptop screen replacement take?

24 hours on stocked panels (the common Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and ASUS sizes — 13", 14", 15.6", 17.3"). Less common panels — gaming laptops with high refresh rate, OLED, 4K, or older specialised business panels — typically need to be ordered in and add 2-5 business days to the timeline. We always check stock and quote the actual lead time before you commit, so there are no surprises. Drop-offs at our Erina workshop get same-day status updates; postal repairs leave us within 24 hours of arrival on stocked panels.

My laptop's hinges are also broken. Can you fix both at once?

Yes, and we'd usually recommend doing it together. Broken hinges are one of the leading causes of cracked laptop screens — the hinge fails first, the panel keeps getting twisted every time the lid opens, and eventually the panel cracks from the bezel corner. Replacing the screen without fixing the hinge means you'll be back in 6 months with another cracked screen. We can replace hinges (or the rear cover and hinge assembly together) in the same job. The cost addition is usually $80-180 depending on the brand and how the hinges are mounted.

Is it worth fixing an old laptop screen, or should I just buy a new laptop?

Depends on the laptop's age and what else is going on. For a 2-4 year old business laptop (ThinkPad, Latitude, EliteBook) or a working gaming laptop with a 2080/3060/3070 GPU, a screen replacement is almost always worth it — these laptops easily run another 5 years with a fresh panel. For a 5+ year old budget consumer laptop where the battery is also tired and the SSD is small, the maths gets uglier. We'll always give you a straight answer when you call — sometimes the right advice is to buy new, and we'd rather tell you that than do an uneconomic repair.

Other related repairs: MacBook liquid damage repair if a spill caused the screen issue; data recovery if the laptop won't boot at all and you need the files off the drive; Apple SSDs explained if your MacBook needs storage work; our booking page for the rest.