Question about the LCD screen

I have a 15.4 inch Macbook Pro that the LCD screen has been broken. Upon speaking to Apple, I was quoted a high price to fix it. Do I have to replace the screen with an Apple screen or will any monitor work? If so, how do I tell which screen will work and which ones won't? Found some on eBay that are reasonable.

thanks.

tabbicat18 said:

I have a 15.4 inch Macbook Pro that the LCD screen has been broken. Upon speaking to Apple, I was quoted a high price to fix it. Do I have to replace the screen with an Apple screen or will any monitor work? If so, how do I tell which screen will work and which ones won't? Found some on eBay that are reasonable.

thanks.

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It's not that simple. You need to find a screen with an appropriate inverter that also fits within the proprietary brackets. I would check out iFixIt.com, Macservice.com or TechRestore.com.

Thank you. I kinda figured that Apple would make it where only Apply products would work, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask

tabbicat18 said:

Thank you. I kinda figured that Apple would make it where only Apply products would work, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask

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It's not that, it's that the structural and aesthetic elements of a laptop design require a specific case and inverter. The same applies to just about every make and model of laptop I've ever serviced. If you could remove the display itself and get the manufacturer's model number from the back, you might be able to Google that model number and shop around a bit.

IMO, you're better off just going with iFixIt.com or MacService.com (the latter especially if you've never worked on a laptop before - Apple's tend to be very difficult to service compared to others I've worked on).

There's a "how-to" on the Internet of a guy who swap the 1440x900 screen for a high-res screen (1920x1200). If you are willing to do it yourself, and are confident with this upgrade, then it seems a great idea.

Hooking it up to a CRT

For the time being, could it be hooked up to a CRT so that I still could use it?

I don't see why not. If you have a USB mouse and keyboard you could just use it in clamshell mode.

How do I put it in "claim shell" mode? Is there a certain setting that I need to put the Mac on or will it just plug and play like a PC? This is my first Mac and I'm learning. I love it and I am so sad that I haven't been able to use it.

Thanks again to everyone who replied.

Attach a mouse and keyboard. Close the lid and allow the machine to go into sleep mode. You'll know it's in Sleep mode because the status light (near the latch release button) will begin to pulsate. Then, move the mouse to wake it up. Now your MacBook Pro is operating in "clamshell" mode.

Ah, ok. At this point, will it be displayed on my CRT or do I need to do further adjustments to the settings? I feel that a pain asking so many questions, sorry.

tabbicat18 said:

Ah, ok. At this point, will it be displayed on my CRT or do I need to do further adjustments to the settings? I feel that a pain asking so many questions, sorry.

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Well, hopefully, OS X will detect the presence of your external display and automatically switch it on.

thank you again