I have recently had the pleasure of replacing my first laptop screen. The Toshiba C655 below is not mine, I was asked if I could replace the screen in it by a co-worker. Having never done one before I called a friend of mine who I knew had and asked how difficult it is to replace one, he informed be it was a pretty simple process.
If the Toshiba C655 is the model you are replacing the screen on then here is how you do it, it takes about 15-20 minutes and is fairly simple. I recommend popping the screen out far enough to get a part number before ordering, just to keep there from being any kind of mix ups, the C655 actually has two different screen types that were used for the same model. I confirmed the type then ordered mine from LaptopScreen.com it came in about 3 business days through UPS.
Tools required:
- Small Philips screwdriver
- Exacto or other razor knife
- Patience
First thing I figured I had better do is remove the battery so I wouldn't accidentally turn this thing on mid screen pull.
Now carefully take a knife, carefully remove the screw covers and set them aside. I used my pocket knife for the first one but I would recommend using the exacto or razor blade as it is much easier to get under an edge of the sticker.
Here they are all removed.
Remove all four screws and set them aside as well. Now for the part that takes just the right amount of force and finesse, removing the bezel. It is snapped to the back pretty well honestly, so you must be careful not to crack the flimsy plastic as you pry it apart with your fingers. Pick a spot away from the corners and apply the kung-fu grip to the bezel pictured below.
Now carefully pry the bezel away from the screen until you can get your fingers under the front of it a bit more.
Carefully work your way around until you get it all removed, the corners are more difficult, I used two hands to apply gentle pressure to it coming from both the top and side. Slipping the hinge covers (circled below) off was probably one of the most nerve wracking parts of the process as you can't just tilt the screen back far enough that you can just lift it out, and the whole time you are pulling on it you are expecting to hear a click and see the lower half of it go flying away never to be part of the laptop whole again. I was probably being too overly cautious, but as I said before this is not my laptop so I don't want to break anything on it getting the screen out. Anyways, just be gentle and patient and they will come out without breaking.
Now for actually removing the screen from the laptop you will have 3 screws holding the screen to the frame on each side, I circled them in the horribly blurry picture below(my apologies). These are different than the screws holding the bezel together so make sure to not get them mixed up for reassembly. I recommend leaning the screen back a bit before removing the screws, it keeps the screen from plopping out and makes it easier getting the new one back in. Moving the frame without the screen is difficult to do without bending the frame itself, it is very flimsy with out the screen screwed in, so I would put it wherever you want it for putting the screen back in.
Now we need to identify our screen type, most of the C655 are LED from my understanding, but apparently some of them are backlit LCD's so before you order a screen check the connection circled in red below, and the part number circled in yellow below. If there is just one connection, as this one has, then it is an LED with a 40 pin connector, if there are two then it is a backlit LCD with a 30 pin connector and a connector for the back light.
The plug has a thick plastic sticker over the connector and the plug holding it in place, my guess is that this is to somewhat insulate the plug and keep it from wiggling loose over time. carefully take your knife and peel up a corner.
Peel it back to just the plug.
The cord also has some adhesive holding it in place to the base of the back of the screen, so lift gently from the back side of the cord until it is free.
Now you are ready to gently unplug the connector, I used the peeled up part of the sticker to hold on to and pulled straight down.
Remove the old screen and place the new one on the keyboard oriented as the old one was.
Plug the connector in to the new screen. Be sure all the pins have seated, pull the heavy duty sticker tight, but not too tight mind you, and stick it to the back of the new screen.
Apply some pressure to the cord at the base of the screen so that the cord adhesive sticks again.
Put the screen back in the frame, and put your screws back in.
Normally I would suggest testing the screen at this point, so slip the battery back in carefully.
Well crap, the battery is dead and he didn't bring me the charger, I guess we will test it when I take it back to him.
Snap the bezel back together around the new screen, be careful not to pinch any of the wires running around the inside of the bezel. Put the 4 screws back in.
Put your screw covers back on.
Now you are done, you can now enjoy your crack free screen, as soon as you recharge the battery. On a side note as soon as we got the charger plugged in to it and hit the button the screen came up and everything was working just fine.
Good luck with your screen replacement, and even if you don't have the exact model shown here, your replacement should go something similar to what is outlined above. You may have more or less screws, and if the manufacturers are jerks they will have some funky screw head on them so you have to buy a tool from them to remove the screws, but most are just standard tiny phillips screws. If your laptop has a built in webcam it will make things a bit different, TimBobSqrPnts from Reddit recommends unplugging it as well.
