Can a laptop LCD screen crack without abuse?

[Adrian Caspersz]

A neighbour has a laptop (Lenovo Edge E520) that has the classic LCD shattered symptom, their kid says it's never been hit to cause this.

There is a defective item warranty on it. On the third year. What's the likelihood of it being covered for a replacement screen?

Yesh, I know it's not an especially difficult job to DIY (done a fair few), the screen is about £40 but if it's covered why pay?

I'll phone the warranty line tomorrow (it's a third party company - not Lenovo) but for general interest - has anyone had luck with such a claim?

[Bob Eager]

We claimed on a Lenovo after about 10 months. It was apparently a knwn problem (not screen, but cracks near hinges). They accepted it all...took about 2 weeks but good as new.

[Scott M]

He's shut a biro in it - second most common cause (probably.)

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Getting a paid-for repair probably means sending the machine away; make sure that someone has it properly insured and make sure that you have a backup of any vital files on the machine, in case it never comes back.

If there's anything confidential on it, remove it before you send the machine away.

[GlowingBlueMist]

As already mentioned leaving something on the keyboard when closing the lid is the most common breakage but other things can occur.

If the hinges are extremely tight, just the fact of opening it can fracture the screen, especially if one constantly opens it by pushing on the same corner each time, rather than pushing it open from the center of the screen.

Bumping into someone on public transportation while it is in one of those flimsy cloth carrying cases (no padding) has been known to result in the screen being broken when you get home and open it.

If you have the ability to "clone" the hard drive to another by using an external monitor if needed would be a good idea. That way you could restore things back to what it was in case the repair shop trashes or adds something to the system while it is out of your sight.

And has already been mentioned have the neighbor remove anything they don't want the repair shop to see, like financial info or other stuff ;) before taking it in for repair.

[Brian Gaff]

Dunno about claims, but the answer is yes, they can crack or go intermittent or do almost everything if their not mounted without stress.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Its usually a wire, but nonetheless it should have enough give to cope I'd have thought. The screen in my Dell seems to have some kind of rubber mounting wotsits, and the lide does not fully close by design, as there are small rubber feet to stop it doing so. Brian