Compaq presario laptop trouble

[liljim]

Im afraid of the most obvious answer but i have to run this by the Pro's that browse this site.My mom has a compaq presario 12XL500 laptop.She called me and said her screen started to turn black,fading out,in the top right corner.In less than a minuite,all but a small area in the bottom left corner(over the start button) was no longer viewable.Solid black as if the screen had no power.She lives 900 miles from me so i couldnt exactly go see what was taking place.My best guess is that the monitor has craped out after 3 years of use.What could be the cause and if its dead would it be worth replacing?I would also assume that a regular monitor can be hooked up to it,but will it display as it should?

[brad]

I'd try hooking a desktop monitor to the laptop. It should display fine although you might have to tweak the display settings.
If the laptop displays on the monitor then the issue is in the LCD screen.
You can get LCD's for that laptop on Ebay extremely cheap. Just got one for $35.00.
brad

[liljim]

Thanks alot brad,She hooked up a 14in lcd flat panel and it works fine.I did find a replacement on ebay for $65 so im sure that will be next.Compaq wants nearly $600 for a new screen.Thats rediculous.Thanks again.

liljim

[Restek]

Is it that easy to switch a laptop screen over? I've never tried