Samsung Series 3 11.6” Screen Laptop $350 at Staples next Week

Promotion of this deal is jumping the gun a bit, but it’s good enough to warrant.  Next week Staples will be selling the Samsung Series 3 11.6” screen laptop with a Core i3 processor for $349.99.  The price is set to drop from $699 to $349.99 on December 18th (Sunday).  The specs on this laptop are as follows:

Screen: 11.6" LED HD screen (1366×768 pixels resolution)Processor: 1.30GHz Intel Core i3-2357M processorStorage: 320GB SATA hard drive, 5400RPMMemory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAMGraphics: Intel GMA HD graphicsOS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OSSoftware: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 preinstalled with product key for activation includedWireless: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n built-in, Bluetooth 3.0Ports & Slots: 4-in-1 memory card slot: SD, SDHC, SDCX, MMC, (3) USB 2.0 ports, VGA port, HDMI port, headphone/microphone combo jack, Gigabit EthernetBattery: 4-cell 4000mAh Lithium-Ion batteryDimensions: 10.9” (W) x 7.9” (H) x 0.87-1.04” (D)Weight: 2.84lbs

Furthermore, Staples has a trade in your old laptop for $100 program.  Basically, if you trade in a clunker of a laptop you get a further $100 off any laptop that’s regularly priced $599 or above in the form of a $100 Visa Prepaid Card.  Since this Samsung is currently $699 it qualifies, even though the price will drop to $349.99.  But wait, that’s not all (I feel like an As Seen on TV Marketer).  You also get a free Microsoft Office Home and Student product key with this purchase, that’s about a $70 value if you don’t want it and prefer to sell the product key on eBay.

The laptop itself is well designed and has great specs for its size.  At only 2.84lbs you’ll barely notice the weight in your backpack and it’s very thin at 1.04”.  Samsung has a great reputation in the laptop industry for making durable and portable laptops, so it’s not like you’re buying an ugly budget laptop for cheap here, it’s a premium design machine.  There will probably be a lot of demand for this when it goes on sale, so you might want to try and get to Staples early when the sale hits on Sunday.

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Fix Laptop Screen By Yourself

We can certainly refer laptop repair manual guide to fix laptop screen.In case your laptop LCD screen is not displaying anything and is blank or that the screen is probably shattered, don’t worry as there is still some hope for you.It is not that difficult to repair lap top screen, it is much easier than you thought. If it is possible for you to handle a mini screw driver and read an easy diagram then you’ve gotten all the mandatory skills to fix your own laptop screen. A substitute or a replacement screen is necessary if your screen is shattered completely. A few things you might have considered trying to test when there isn’t any picture are the level of brightness in the laptops and whether the image displays when linked to an external monitor. The level of brightness is generally adjusted by a  key combination in the keyboard, dedicated buttons or on the BIOS. If ever the notebook shows video on being connected by an external monitor then almost definitely the LCD or perhaps a component within the LCD might be dead or faulty. So from will you get the parts? the best place to buy the parts is from ebay.

Certainly one of the easy and simple replacement screen options is to search for an entire laptop lid that features a functioning LCD screen. Now you take off your laptop lid, by taking off the plastic cover , and then removing the screws, and now you disconnect the cable out of your motherboard as well as in some cases the built-in wireless card antenna wire. Now you put the replacement lid. Another option that i see is to exchange only the LCD screen with the lid. This choice is a little more harder and involves dismantling within the lids LCD screen housing components. It normally involves removing the stickers that conceals the screw holes, after that you have to remove the screws and finally the plastic casing that covers the LCD screen. In case you are uncertain about dismantling your laptop many of the prime laptop companies provide, the servicing manuals along with diagrams easy method to dismantle the laptop.You can download it through the Internet.

When you make an ebay purchase don’t forget to read the listing details and make certain that the model of the laptop matches what the vendor is selling. If you want to buy from other place instead of ebay, then you certainly can but it will be very expensive, and only the parts of new models will be available. It is very difficult to get parts of the older models.You can also refer some Laptop repair manual for further instructions to fix laptop screen.

Laptop screen shows strange colors. What could be wrong?

Laptop screen started showing strange or wrong colors. What could be wrong? I’ve been asked this question many times and today I’m addressing the issue.

In this post I explain some basic troubleshooting techniques in case if your laptop screen started showing strange or incorrect colors.
You have to know how to disassemble the laptop in order to use following troubleshooting techniques.

TEST LAPTOP WITH EXTERNAL MONITOR.

The main step is testing how laptop outputs video on an external monitor (or TV).
You can connect your laptop to an external monitor using VGA cable, DVI cable, HDMI cable or S-Video cable, it depends on a type of connector you have on the laptop. Most laptops have VGA connector, so it would be the most common way to connect.

In my example I’m connecting to an external monitor via VGA connector.

Some laptops detect external monitor automatically and start showing image on both screens right from startup.
Other laptops can detect the monitor but display image only on one screen (internal or external). In this case you’ll have to switch video between internal and external using the Fn key and one of the F* keys in the top row of the keyboard. This combination varies for different laptop brands, for example it’s Fn+F5 for Toshiba, Fn+F4 for HP, Fn+F8 for Dell, Fn+F7 Lenovo etc…

WHAT VIDEO ON EXTERNAL MONITOR CAN TELL?

If both, the internal screen and external monitor (or TV) show strange or incorrect colors or any other image distortion, this is the graphics card failure.
If only the laptop screen shows strange colors or any other distortion but external image appears to be normal (as in my example), the problem is somewhere inside the laptop display. It could be bad connection, bad LCD cable or bad LCD screen.

Let’s narrow down the problem one by one.

TRY RESEATING LCD CABLE CONNECTOR ON MOTHERBOARD.

The laptop screen receives data signal from the motherboard via LCD cable. If the LCD cable not making good connection with the motherboard, it might cause image or color distortion on the screen. Try reseating the LCD cable connector and see if it fixes the problem. Make sure the LCD cable connector plugged correctly.

In most laptops the LCD cable connector located under the keyboard bezel (aka keyboard cover). If it’s not there, most likely you’ll find it somewhere under the keyboard.

WIGGLE THE LCD CABLE.

The LCD cable runs inside the laptop display, under the LCD screen. For this test it’s necessary to disassemble the display, so you can access the cable.
A pinched or damaged wire inside the LCD cable also can cause color distortion.

Try wiggling the LCD cable while the laptop is running. If wiggling the LCD cable affects image on the screen in any way (it starts shown different colors, lines, or image clears to normal, etc…) most likely the LCD cable is defective and has to be replaced. Try replacing the cable.
On the other hand, if wiggling the cable doesn’t affect image on the screen at all, most likely the cable is good and your problem related to the LCD screen failure. In this case you’ll have to replace the LCD screen.

APPLY SOME PRESSURE TO THE DISPLAY.

Try applying some reasonable pressure to the top part of the display assembly. Squeeze it with your fingers.

If the screen starts showing different colors, lines, or clears to normal when you squeeze the top part of the display panel, most likely this is LCD screen failure. In this case you’ll have to replace the LCD screen.

Also, you might be interested in the following posts:

Troubleshooting laptop with backlight failure.
How to test LCD screen inverter in a laptop.
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems.

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