Alot of laptops that have been manufactured in the last 18 months have used either LCD or LED screens, this is because LED screens are better alround for electrical consumption. All manufacturers will eventually switch all production over to LED screens only. They are not interchangable as the connections are totally different, so you need to know which one you have in originally.
What is the correct screen for your laptop?
On some laptop makes/models you can check this without taking the Plastic Screen Bezel (surround) off. But first let us explain the visual difference between the two types of screen.
1. Both LCD (CCFL Backlight) and LED (LED Backlight) Screens visually look exactly the same when you first look at the screen, and both look exactly the same when they are broken / smashed, they both leave an inky splodge over the screen when smashed so don't let this convince you that you have one or the other.
2. LCD (CCFL Backlight) Screens are used in conjunction with a Screen Inverter, as the CCFL Backlight requires a high voltage to operate, the LED (LED Backlight) Screens don't require this high voltage and a Screen Inverter is not required.
3. Because LCD ( CCFL Backlight) Screens require the high voltage to power the Backlight they use more electricity and generally from new the battery would only last 3-4 hours. LED (LED Backlight) Screens don't use this high voltage and the battery life from new would have been much better, between 6-8 hours. This is one of the main reasons that manufacturers are switching over to LED Screens.
Okay so how to find out which one you have?
The easiest way to check, but not always possible, is to pull back the Screen Plastics Bezel (surround), Take a peep inside and see if you see an inverter at the bottom of the screen.
Just so you know, the image below is a screen inverter, a circuit board which on average measures about 150mm x 10mm. The Inverter always resides at the bottom of the screen and always in the middle:
Now you know what an inverter looks like, i'm going to show you an image of the Laptop Screen Bezel being pulled back to show you how to determine which type of screen is fitted inside your Laptop, This is possible on 90% of laptops.
Example below is of a HP CQ60 Laptop with LCD SCREEN fitted.
Just pull the bezel back with your fingers to reveal if the laptop has an inverter or it doesn't.
INVERTER PRESENT = LCD (CCFL BACKLIGHT)
NO INVERTER PRESENT = LED (LED BACKLIGHT)
If you can't do this because the Laptop you require a screen for is in the 10% of laptops that can't just pull the bezel back on then you will need to remove the Bezel to reveal the same thing as in the picture below. You will find our Laptop Screen Replacement Instructions very helpful in removing the Screen Bezel.
