When my LCD was damaged, I went around finding for a replacement but they all cost too much. I wondered, since it was damaged, could I get a replacement and also upgrade it at the same time? I went to research and the answer was YES! I then decided what kind of panel I wanted and the resolutions. I looked up many places and they led me to Panellook, a place where suppliers went to decide what parts their laptops can handle. I had decided on the specs of the panel I wanted:
- 1.3 gamma
- 16.7 million colours
- 17.3″
- 8bit as 10 bit was not available
- Making sure my eGPU connector matched the panel
With those specs in mind, I finally decided to buy it online, but could not find a proper supplier in the normal online sites, like Amazon & Ebay. I then searched on Alibaba, AliExpress and Taobao. I eventually found a seller with good reputation and a low reasonable price. I bought the screen and it took 5 days to arrive. I made sure to record my whole unboxing and repair, in case I got scammed and I was held accountable for damaging the screen.
I took apart the laptop and disconnected the eGPU connector from the board. I then placed the new screen in and turned on the laptop, but nothing happened… Only a black screen greeted me.
I was devastated, I thought I had wasted my money on a screen that doesn’t work and probably the drivers weren’t compatible or something. I lamented my choices and took out the screen. After sulking for a couple of days. I remembered I had a old spare monitor hanging around in my living room. I scoured my house for a HDMI cable and attached the laptop to the monitor. It came to life and I started messing around in the bios.
There was nothing to change there, so I decided on a whim to reinstall Windows, backing up first, and attach back the new LCD. Lo and behold, after the reinstallation, the new LCD came to life and started actually working. I logged in to my desktop, when it all went wrong again. The screen started flickering badly, so I had to rely on my external monitor to find a solution. After hours of searching, I came across a Linus Tech Tips video where they did a similar upgrade, but used a software to set the refresh rate(Display Changer 2)/(Custom Resolution Utility). Turns out, the high refresh rate was causing my screen to remain black initially. I followed their guide and it all finally worked. I was contented, or so I thought.
But, I was not done yet, I went on to update my drivers after reinstalling windows and the flickering started again. I had a hunch that the newer Intel graphics drivers might be causing the issue, but instead of just downgrading, I reinstalled Windows again and went on to download the original drivers from my laptop’s manufacturer’s site. After I installed the older but custom made drivers, there was no more issues.
I was finally relieved that all was working, and have been running the laptop well ever since.