Cracked screen on 13 MacBook Air Late 2010 model

[timeshifter]

A customer gave me a broken MacBook Air that has a cracked screen. I'm not fixing it for him, he gave it to me to do with as I please. I thought I'd fix it and keep it or sell it. But...

So far I only see screen assemblies for sale, not just the panel. And the assemblies are $300 or so. Looking further I see a raw panel here and there for under $100 but it's slim pickens.

Ever replaced a screen on one of these unit? Is it way too difficult to just replace the panel? Is it more common to just swap the whole assembly?

 

[GTP]

for under $100 but it's slim pickens

"Slim Pickens" aka. Louis Burton Lindley, Jr........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Pickens

 

[timeshifter]

Heat gun and remove frame, heat gun to remove bare glass panel, pick out little shards, remove tiny video and backlight cables, replace. Replace diffuser sheet, install screen, test, check for dust, test some more. Use heat gun to replace frame again. Hmmm...

 

[occsean]

I gave up replacing MacBook screens a LONG time ago. Assembly or I won't do the job. Just too damn hard if not impossible to get back to the way it was as new.