Slashdot Log In
Options For a Laptop With a Broken Screen?
Posted by
timothy
on Sat May 02, 2009 07:05 PM
from the voice-activated-car-computer-or-giant-panel-slave-pc dept.
from the voice-activated-car-computer-or-giant-panel-slave-pc dept.
DefenseSupportParty writes "I recently traveled via an unnamed airline, and stupidly checked my laptop. Unfortunately, the screen broke in transit and they refuse to take responsibility for it, claiming that it could have been broken before the flight. I'm not really in the mood to replace the screen if I have to pay for it, as I have other laptops that I can use. At the same time, I don't want to waste computing power that could be put to good use. I've thought about the common stuff: file server, SETI@Home, but I'd like to do something a little more creative. Does anyone have good ideas for a relatively powerful laptop without a display?"
Related Stories
[+]
Built-in Kitchen Computer? 87 comments
shaun_gordon asks: "As a long-time geek and first-time home buyer, my wife are planning on a complete kitchen remodel. As part of the remodel, I want to put a computer into the kitchen to use for looking up recipes, controling the stereo, watching movies, etc. My only requirements are that it be Internet connected. My wife's requirements are that it be hidden. I am currently thinking of a flat screen that would fold down from under a cabinet and a keyboard in a drawer that pulls out. Has anyone had any experience installing something like this? Any recomendations on building or buying the integrated display? Anything else that I should consider?" Those looking into doing something like this may find a laptop with an 802.11-based wireless network adapter a better, and possibly cheaper, alternative for this kind of feature. Webpads might be another viable alternative, assuming they ever hit the consumer market at a worthwhile price. What suggestions might you have?
[+]
Portables as Servers? 99 comments
vincecate asks: "Do portables make reliable Linux servers? The power on the island where I live is very unreliable. With the screen off the battery should last through a long power outage. I could even put on a UPS and have it last a day. My servers have little load (DNS and some web). Prices on portables are getting reasonable. Can anyone report on using portables as servers?"
Submission: Options for a laptop with a broken screen. by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Braille Quake (Score:5, Funny)
Braille Quake is available for Windows & Linux.
Re:Braille Quake (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Braille Quake (Score:5, Interesting)
My dad had an old laptop have the screen go out. It's now hooked to my TV to watch streaming Netflix / Hulu / etc.
You could take the guts out and make some sort of robot brain out of it.
Put it in an arcade cabinet and host MAME ROMs.
Parent
NO. Sue them. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody's given the correct answer:
- Small Claims Court.
"It was probably broke before you checked it," is not a valid excuse for an airline to refuse baggage insurance (or any other company for that matter). It is THEIR responsibility to check the luggage/item and verify it is not broken prior to accepting it under their liability insurance, and since they failed to do that, the legal presumption is that the laptop was 100% okay when received and damaged during transit. In fact in many cases the mere threat of court action is enough to make the airline cough up the cash.
This is somewhat similar to how the law presumes a mail-order package is 100% the seller's responsibility, even if said package was lost by the post office, or stolen by the neighborhood teenager. It's the seller's fault and requirement to issue a refund. The law is designed to protect the *customer* not the airline or seller.
One other option:
- Call your credit card company. Many of them provide protection, such that if an airline damages your luggage, you can get a refund of all your ticket money and/or replacement of the damaged good.
Parent
Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Oblig. ^2 (Score:5, Funny)
*Whoosh*
For more information, read the last 10 years of Slashdot comments.
Parent
Re:Oblig. ^2 (Score:5, Funny)
Had you read the last 10 years of Slashdot comments, you would realise that the correct expression is: "You must be new here".
Parent
Re:Oblig. (Score:5, Funny)
Can you be my facebook friend? Can I follow your twitter feed?
You must be new here.
The correct way to say it is: "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."
Parent
PQ (Score:5, Funny)
Set-top-box (Score:5, Insightful)
2) add IR
3) add connection to file server with videos 4) ???
5) entertainment
Re:Set-top-box (Score:5, Insightful)
Most laptops already have IRDA built in. I'm not sure why exactly, but it seems almost ubiquitous. There are USB TV tuners that are supported by linux. These usually do MP4 encoding on device to keep the USB bandwidth down, so should be excellent for MythTV, even if the laptop isn't the most powerful.
Parent
Re:Set-top-box (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting, that's the exact opposite of my experience. The last laptop I saw with IRDA was one I bought in 1996.
Care to mention any models that do include IR?
Parent
You can (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You can (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to use a hand-me-down HP laptop (that had a broken screen) as a desktop using an external monitor. It's just like having a desktop, really.
Parent
Checked it? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Checked it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Travel insurance has become a much greater value as airlines cut back. For 5%-10% of the cost of your trip you'll get protection for valuables, medical expenses, and cancellation/delay coverage. Shop around for a reputable company [travelinsu...review.net], but most travel experts strongly recommend insurance for any trip.
Parent
Insurance a good value? (Score:5, Informative)
It should be impossible, in theory, and usually in practice, for insurance to be a good value for anybody who flies with any frequency. Insurance companies make profits, after all. They probably pay out half of what they take in, if that.
Insurance is only for risks where you can't handle the cost of the risk. For example, financially you could not handle replacing your house, so fire insurance makes sense. Life insurance can make sense to look after a family. Health insurance to cover a $300,000 operation can make sense, while dental or optical plans make little sense. Extended warranties (which are just insurance) make no sense and are very high margin because of that. Which is why they push them on you.
For anything small, it is far better to self-insure. That's a mathematical certainty.
Now there are two exceptions. One, if you know you are taking a risk that is far above average, and the insurance company hasn't figured out to charge you more or block you, insurance can be a value. Secondly, with medical insurance, you may find you don't want to have to consider cost when making medical decisions, you just want it covered. (Of course now an insurance company will be weighing cost as it decides if you are covered.)
Parent
Re:Insurance a good value? (Score:5, Informative)
Most insurance companies pay out nearly all the premiums that they take in. They make money through their investment portfolios by taking advantage of the timing difference between premium payment and claim time.
Parent
Donate it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Donate it? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, replacing the screen is not expensive at all. All you have to do is locate a LCD for your model laptop on a site like ebay. I have found LCD's for as little as $50. Then in a search for "lcd replacement on your model number laptop" and you should find exact instructions on how to remove and replace the LCD. I have done this many times and it is really easy.
Parent
Re:Donate it? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Donate it? (Score:5, Informative)
If you have an IBM Laptop, replacing the screen is really easy. You find full hardware documents online telling you exactly what you need to do, and there are plenty of screens on ebay. I have done this about 50 times now, no problems at all.
Parent
Re:Donate it? (Score:5, Funny)
You must be really, really clumsy.
Parent
Server (Score:5, Insightful)
Built in UPS, plenty of computing power as you say.
Best use I can think of is as a server - web, mail, mysql, whathaveyou. Wear and tear on the hard drive not an issue if you're using something set up correctly - the hard drive will be spun down most of the time.
Ebay (Score:4, Insightful)
MythTV (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MythTV (Score:5, Informative)
A great many laptops have S-video out. That is better quality than composite, if your TV (or other video component) has S-video in. Again, your headphone out is your audio.
My Mac has HDMI out, and if your laptop has anything like that, you also basically have TV out; you just need an adapter cable.
Parent
Fix it yourself. (Score:5, Informative)
http://computershopper.com/laptops/howto/replace-your-laptop-screen [computershopper.com]
Re:Fix it yourself. (Score:5, Informative)
They even have a warranty on them I think.
Parent
Make it into a desktop (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Make it into a desktop (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Use it as a media center (Score:5, Informative)
You may already be set up the way you like, but I'm not and others might also not be, so here goes:
Use it as a media center. That is, connect it to your TV and sound system, and have it play video and music from wherever you got it (sshfs/NAS, w/e).
For that, you want something which can start and stop (suspend/resume) quickly. You'll probably also want to connect a wiimote, so that bluetooth chip on your wifi NIC is going to come in handy. Saving yourself from running more cables (wifi) probably isn't going to hurt either.
Why fix the screen when you can replace it with a bigger and better one? :)
eBay to get the parts (Score:4, Insightful)
Quite often, the parts you need are available on eBay especially if you use a Dell. (Availability of parts is the #1 reason I recommend Dell, not because they are "better." The #2 reason is because new Dell laptops almost always have accidental damage coverage available as a purchase option in the warranty... accidents happen, BUY IT! By the way, Apple computer does NOT sell accidental damage warranty coverage. If you buy an Apple, make sure you get it through a 3rd party vendor that does offer it or never buy Apple laptops...they are too expensive for accidents.)
The position of the airlines is 100% correct. There should be a certain level of abuse that passengers should absolutely expect. If you don't expect it, then you are an idiot and need to learn the hard way. CARRY ON anything you believe to be valuable and/or breakable.
Its called a half-lap-top (Score:5, Interesting)
I used one to teach myself AutoCAD on.
Was a bench carpenter for 27 years and decided I was getting to old for the sawdust.
A co-worker had given me a busted lap top and and so I got a monitor I'd leave at the shop with my toolbox but would take the half-lap-top home with me.
I'd study Autocad during lunch...
Now I work in the cad deparment programming CNC routers and doing construction drawings for some stuff some may thing is cool.
Infinite Dimensions [id3group.com]
So there is certainly a place for half-lap-tops... especially with the low cost flat screen today.
Carputer (Score:5, Interesting)
That's what you get... (Score:5, Funny)
Answer a centuries old question . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Carputer... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why not install a touchscreen 7" monitor in your dash, and have a carputer? Mount the reasonably powerful laptop w/broken screen in the trunk, wire it in to a power supply, attach a USB GPS antenna, and go from the audio out to the amp / speakers?
All the MP3s you can store, instant access to the OBD-II information, "free" GPS, and (with Backtrack III or the like), war-driving capability. Have it get email from your wireless access point and read it to you on the way to work. Keep a copy of the local yellow pages on the drive, and look up the nearest Cuban restaurant.
There are a lot of great "front ends" out there, and most all of them are skinnable to your heart's content.
Hope that this helps / is something in which you might have interest.
http://www.mp3car.com/ [mp3car.com]
OH WHY DONT YOU JUST ADD AN EXTERNAL MONITOR? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh what's that? This has already been suggested six hundred and seventy four times, basically at a frequency of every 5th post?
Oh.
Well I don't care I'm posting it anyways, what good is the internet if I can't chime in about something?
Worlds most ridiculous door bell. (Score:5, Funny)
Rip the key board out mount the key board in some sort tin contraption. Now mount the keyboard and laptop in the tin contraption on the wall outside of the house/unit/apt/country lane.
Then put up a sign.
"Please enter the 64char apt code then hit enter. To gain entry or ring tenant".
Now load the laptop up with every annoying you got the answer wrong game show sound. Just randomly play one of the files, when ever someone hits a key other than say "+". Where "+" actually rings you and lets you know someone is at the door. :)
Let's Get This Straight (Score:5, Interesting)
...but...
Here's the rub. TSA opens and checks most bags. They check for bombs that might look like...oh...say...laptop computers. So they make you show that your computer actually operates like a computer.
They open your bag and your laptop either operates perfectly, or they don't let it on the plane and probably question, if not arrest, you. Really good chance that your laptop operated just fine when they inspected it. So what happened?
Option 1: TSA broke it while "inspecting" it. Real good chance there since they had it out and were handling it. But because they broke it themselves they put it back in and shipped it along so as not to have it be their problem.
Option 2: It was broken after the TSA inspection and before you picked it up again.
Option 3: There is no option three. It was broken during the baggage handling, the airline didn't tell you not to put laptops in your luggage because they get broken all the time, and now they don't want to pay for it.
You've already shown yourself to be stupid twice now. Once when you checked your laptop, and the second time when you let the airline bluff you out of what you're due for their damage of your equipment. Do you really want to go for three?
Re:How powerful exactly? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:How powerful exactly? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:External display (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Sue them? (Score:4, Insightful)
Read the fine print. The airline is not responsible for the damage. Do. Not. Check. Laptops. Carry it with you at all times. Common luggage offers little if any protection for a laptop. Have you ever watched how the baggage handlers "handle" luggage?
What? He doesn't have any form of insurance of his own? The cost of a screen is substantially cheaper than the cost of a new laptop. (unless it's an old and/or crappy laptop.)
Parent
Re:Sue them? (Score:4, Interesting)
"The cost of a screen is substantially cheaper than the cost of a new laptop"
Depends on the laptop model. I broke my laptop screen a couple years back. It's a 2003 dell model (D505) that's crucial for my work, but couldn't afford laptop replacement. New screen set me back around £50-60 (~US$80). I fit it myself (was rather simple to)... and now it's continuing to serve me well. But, that particular model did sell rather well, and many neighbouring models (such as D510 I believe) used the same screen, so it a very common, easy to find part. As for Unbranded Model(tm)... that might not be so cheap.
Parent
Re:Sue them? (Score:4, Interesting)
The fine print is NOT the law. Them stating arbitrary things in some fine print does not make it somehow ok.
What if they started to shred everything you check-in, and then pump the pulver in the plane. On check-out you would get a bag of that stuff with the same weight.
Then the airline would state that it were a big accident.
Do you really think that would bail them out?
This is the same principle. They break it, they fix it. A fine print is only a rule, if all parties obey it.
I know that here in Germany, there are many things you can state in the terms and conditions fine-print, but that have absolutely no meaning. You can even get sued for stating some especially evil things in there.
Parent
Re:Sue them? (Score:5, Informative)
I agree about not checking in laptops. That was a stupid thing to do. However, do not ever assume that the airline is not liable. So do read those fine prints, but also do not rely on your memory. Here are the links to the "conditions of carriage" or "contract of carriage" for a number of airlines.
http://www.independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=91&category=1&page=2 [independenttraveler.com]
And also know your rights, in the US you can try to recover up to $1,250 for lost/delayed/damaged luggage (unless you're on an international flight, which has its own limits governed by international treaties).
http://www.kevincoffee.com/airlines/lost_baggage.htm [kevincoffee.com]
Also if you travelled with British Airways, see if that class action lawsuit against British Airways is still going on. And on that topic of class action lawsuits, I agree that small claims court (depending on your State) is probably the most efficient way to recover your money after you've exhausted the airlines claims and claims appeals process, but it pays to use the word "class action lawsuit" in your legal threats. Most corporate lawyers know that threats of a class action lawsuit from a lay people are almost always empty threats, but no corporate lawyer wants to have a class action lawsuit come to him on his watch especially if it was so easily avoidable in the first place.
Well he could also have purchased additional insurance for a premium, or insurance for excess valuation, at the ticket counter as well, but airlines are also notorious for trying not to pay out on those as well. And as to the other types of insurances, the ones with your credit card, travel insurance, etc, he should check out if he has any there as well, but hindsight being 20/20 -- I doubt he would be asking us this question if he did.
Parent
Re:Somebody Had to Ask It... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah... on the list of "Stupid Ways to Get Your Laptop Stolen", we have:
#8: "Oh, it's okay, my friend's watching it"
#7: Leave it in the car
#6: Pass out at a frat house
#5: Two words: Finals Week
#4: Take a leak while "telecommuting" at Starbucks
#3: Work for a government agency
#2: Check your laptop with your airplane luggage
#1: Put child porn on it. (for a legal alternative, your social security number will also do.)
Seriously, to actually trust TSA to be doing their job 100% of the time and NOT screw with your valuables? You're nuts.
Parent