Unofficial Guide to Aftermarket LCD Replacement

Thank you for this! I had to replace mine because the screen was broken out of nowhere when I opened it one day. This guide helped a lot and I was able to replace it successfully

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Hi and welcome to the forum.

That’s bit worrying ~ the screen just breaking. Was it a single crack or many lines of break?

@John_Perez What thickness of doublesided tape did you use?

@John_Perez Thanks for the awesome infos - do you know where to get the correct cable for this panel? I want to make a “first connect” to a bare motherboard (with the same problem of customs and cost)
Thanks

The tape measured 0.2mm. I recommend using the thinnest tape you can find. Otherwise, thick tape may not make the panel flush against the lid or bezel.

Sorry, I am not aware of what this specific cable is as I only reused the original one. Although there is an existing discussion on a project that may be similar to yours. Hopefully the thread can help you out.

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If I were to mail you a matte panel, how much for it to take a ride on your fancy robot machine?

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You are joking, all the way to Taiwan and to interrupt the production, not cheap I should imagine. :slight_smile:

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is it possible to replace it with a touch-enabled model?
I guess not. They probably ask for another cable.

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Thank you John, you directly pushed me into finical ruin. Just kidding, these were the missing parts I were looking for - now I could not hold back anymore and just ordered the panel ;). Thanks a lot!

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Hi @John_Perez , I am in the same situation with you.
My Framework Laptop was arrived to Hong Kong in 2 weeks ago. And today when I was trying to apply a screen protector, the screen cracked :sob:
Actually I don’t mind to pay for $179(+shipment and freight forwarding) for a new screen replacement but it is currently unavailable in the Marketplace
I might try to follow your steps to DIY unofficially.

Matte screen option please!!! It is quite hard to use when I am taking bus under sunlights

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Updates: Got my new display panel and done my screen replacement :innocent:
It takes me about 15 minutes to complete, very easy to do!

So why other brands like Lenovo / HP / even Apple is extremely difficult to do screen replacement :frowning:

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Depend on the model, HP displays are not as daunting.
A lot of their mid-low range models have un-fused displays (much like framework, where the display have its own “bezel”, are framed and attached to the top cover
separately.

However, their bezel is certainly not magnetic, so removing that can be a pain in the [_], but having a tight bezel also means less ingress, so I dont really have anything against that.
This also applies to my (2016) Dell XPS. The bezel I have no idea how to remove, and while the display is glued to the back cover, there is a “pull string to cut” that allow you to remove the display quite easily.

My Lenovo Thinkpad T14S have a fused display, but is connected to the bezel and is held to the upper cover via clips. And so a replacement is not too difficult.
Apple, heh, well. Is Apple.

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I’m very glad that your replacement was a success! I hope you found the guide useful. Congratulations!

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Just adding another data point, used this guide to replace by screen with a matte version. No surprises and everything worked on the first try. It would be great if Framework would sell the aluminium strips for and/or offer a matte variant.

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Just curious, regarding the eDP cable how does it actually work?

Is it resolution specific or is it panel specific.

If I find a panel with compatible pinout, does it matter about the panel size as long the resolution is the same?

I have no clue.
Supposedly it should just work, since eDP is basically just a displayport but sized different.
I can sacrifice my laptop(s) to try that; I have a 17 inch panel and I only have a 13 and 14 inch monitor

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A suggestion @John_Perez : it might be better to disconnect the battery via the UEFI vs physical disconnection to prevent needless wear on the connections. External displays can be utilized in the event that the broken display is truly and completely FUBAR.

Update:
The connector on the 16 inch (or 17 inch) panel is identical to the one on my original 14 inch panel (on the Thinkpad T14S). You can plug one into another.
However, when I plug in the big panel I get a “0288 beep code” which according to the manual means “computer display error”.
The 16/17 inch panel do come from the recycle bin, so it is plausible that the display is non-functional in the first place (perhaps the display PCB get damaged).
I will post more updates if I get to swap around my HP’s 15 inch panel.

Do you think this one is worthy to use any other screen?
Alliexpress
or find something similar, to reuse old laptop´s lcd?