erkme73

About a month ago, my new puppies got a hold of my x51v in its deliciously smelling leather SENA case. They shredded the case, my credit cards, and my driver's license looks like someone shot it with birdshot.

I found the x51v under the couch. Surprisingly there were no pretty rainbow colors from leaking LCD material, but... the touch screen had more dimples than a golf ball. It still turned on, but tapping an object resulted in a missed target (by about 2-3 inches).

I did a little research and found an 'aftermarket' screen from Hong Kong (eBay), and for $30 (and a week later) I had a new screen. Unfortunately, they shipped it in nothing more than an envelope and bubble wrap. The new screen was cracked. I sent them an email, and they had a free replacement sent the same day. A week later, the second one arrived. Again, in bubble wrap. Again, broken. A second email was sent, this time a bit more frustrated. A week later I had a third screen - again in bubble wrap. Fortunately, this time it was not damaged.

I read up on how to take the x51v apart, and found plenty of warnings from service companies that compared it to brain surgery. Those same companies, for a fee, would do the surgery for me. No thanks.

Turns out, only four external torx screws and four internal phillips screws hold the thing together. I removed the LCD/back light, which had the touchscreen stuck to it. There were two ribbon cables - one for the LCD/backlight and one for the touchscreen.

The hardest part was getting the old touchscreen off of the LCD frame without scratching the LCD underneath. The black adhesive DELL uses to glue to the two together is nothing short of road tar. Because the touchscreen is nothing more than very thing glass with a plastic film on it, I was not able to get it off in one piece. The glass broke in many places. No big deal, as long as it broke up and away from the LCD.

Once the old touchscreen was off, I cleaned the metal frame around the LCD, pulled off the protective sticker backing of the new touchscreen, lined them up, and stuck them together.

After sliding the ribbon cables back into their sockets (you have to push pretty hard to get it in all the way), I put it back together just enough to power it up. It asked to recalibrate - I did. It's worked great ever since.

On a side note... I've had a problem with this unit (since day one) with the power going off anytime it was bumped. I'd get the error that the battery latch was opened. I tried the simple remedies mentioned here (finger nail polish, tape, etc) to build up the catch on the door. But that only worked for a few days...

So, while I had it apart, using a very, very small screwdriver, I gutted the micro-switch on the back circuit board. It left a small plastic body with the two switch contacts. I filled that with solder.

Ever since, it's like having a new PDA. I can drop it (from several inches) and it will not shut off. It is awsome.

I post this simply to encourage those with broken touchscreens (or even LCDS - as you can get those cheap too) to try the fix. It really is simple, and literally took me less than 20 minutes to do (not including shipping time)

Zaniax

Thanks for the info, erkme73 :approve:

I have a broken X51v waiting for a very long time to be repaired.
Even got a new touch screen without any trouble from China, but I stopped the procedure when I couldn't remove the old touch screen without using force.
But now I'll give it a new try.

Quote:

The black adhesive DELL uses to glue to the two together is nothing short of road tar

How did you taken them apart ?
and, did you use glue to keep the new pieces together ?

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