Dell Latitude XT Gets a New Screen and Gets Naked

The replacement screen for my Dell Latitude XT arrived today. I was quite hopeful that it would address the gridding issue I’ve been talking about.

I am pleased to report that the new screen is quite the success. I do not see near the amount of grid that I previously saw. It is now only visible when the screen is off or very dim. Even when it is off, it is nowhere near as visible as it was before. Under normal brightness and working under fluorescent lighting, it is practically invisible. On the old screen, under the same conditions, all it took was a slight tilt of my head and I could see it.

Needless to say, I’m very, very pleased. So much so, that any thoughts of returning it have vanished.

This was the technician’s first time working on a Latitude XT and he remarked at well it was built compared to other notebooks he’s worked on. We worked together to figure out how best to take it apart and put it back together.

While the technician was here, I took the liberty of photographing the process. You’ll get to see the XT as never seen before. Click the individual pictures to see higher res shots.

The new screen – the wires coming out is the LCD and digitizer connector, plus antennae wires for WWAN and WLAN	The battery removed, which exposes the SSD drive
The plate just above the keyboard has to be removed in order to remove the screen	The plate
XT with the plate removed, ready for the screen to come off . Next to come off: the keyboard	With the keyboard removed, some screws next to the spindle have to be taken out
The digitizer / lcd connector – lift to remove	Screen still not loose
Finally removed the keyboard	Antennae wires go underneath the motherboard
The cap along the rotating grip has to be removed	Then the screws removed  from the spindle
digitizer is loose, but the antennae wires in the back have to disconnected	With the digitizer loose showing the antennae wires
Remove the memory slot cover to remove the antennae wires.	Now we see the antennae wires for WLAN and WWAN.
Another view	Yet another view
Full view of the back	With the antennae wires pulled through back, the digitizer is finally loose
Old screen / digitizer on the left, new one on the right	Putting it all back together, pulling the antennae wires through first
Another angle of pulling the anteanne wires through	Only the WLAN get connected, the WWAN laying loose to the right. I don’t have a WWAN card.
With the wires pushed through, but the digitizer / lcd cable not connected yet	laying down the digitizer cable to ensure it is not crimped
Everything in place	digitizer / lcd cable connected, screen reattached. At this point, I had to leave. But the tech just put all the screws and plates back together in the order they came off