Anyone deal with an inverter for a laptop?

[TheFullEffect]

My friend handed off an Compaq Presario v2000 laptop to me, asked me to help him out get files from it because the screen was no longer visible and he had trouble booting from his hard drive. I hooked it up to a monitor and worked out a way to get his important stuff off it. Afterwards, he told me I could keep the laptop for the trouble since he had no use for it.

I have reason to believe that the laptop backlight or the inverter is probably broken. I called a few places and they want as much as $40 for the part and then $50 to do the installation of it! Outrageous if you ask me.

I've found the part to order on online parts stores, an inverter is roughly $20.

My question is if anyone has had any experience with fixing a laptop screen. Is it difficult? Should I just buy the part and find someone who knows what they're doing and just save money on the part by ordering it myself?

[Kenny]

I have no off hand experience in fixing laptops, but for the screens, it really depends how bad it is, I would imagined it would be a question of just replacing the whole screen and lid, best thing would be locate the model and make and do a search on laptop screens.

[Thor]

Diagnosing a problem and repairing it at a laptop is usually pretty difficult, so I'd suggest you get someone who's done this sort of thing before - especially since it's the screen and can be especially tricky to fix.
I've never actually had to repair anything as major as the screen on a laptop, but opening up a laptop and messing with it's insides is always a tricky thing since everything is basically just stacked up inside.

[TheFullEffect]

Thanks Kenny and Zigga.

Well I managed to save about half the cost of the part by ordering it. I think what I'll do is give it to the repair person I had contacted, let them open it up, and if they diagnose the problem as the inverter I have the part, if not I can return it within 30 days.

The most I've ever done was add ram to a laptop--even that was a hassle.

It's just a shame to let this thing sit around. It's got a great hard drive and runs well, and I'd love to put it to better use than having to hook it up to a monitor every time.

[hippy]

It is a shame just to let it sit idly by Joe, i agree with though with what has been said. Laptops are very difficult to work on as you know a lot is packed into a small place. Letting the repair man take a look i think is a good decision Joe