My son has a Toshiba satallite laptop with a 17" screen.
I believe the screen needs to be replaced. Has anyone attempted this task?

I haven't done it on a Toshiba, but have on a Dell Laptop or Gateway. Had one with a bad mother board, the other with a bad screen. Took a little time and had to be careful with the Ribbon cable, but it is doable.

Big D

Take a look here http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/ and here http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_toshiba.html

I did exactly that several months ago on my Toshiba laptop. Just a couple of small screws to take out. As said before, take your time and if needed, take a photo now and then so you can see how it came out. Took me under an hour.

shouldn't be a problem. I have repaired several hundred laptops over the years and the only thing that I caution about is keeping track of the screws. there are different lenghts and you don't want to run a long screw into a mainboard.

Make a cardboard (template/screw holder) As you take screws out, push them into the cardboard holder where they would go in the laptop. Take a pen and make notes if that helps (i.e. keyboard screws- 5) baseplate screws - 7 etc.

If you end up needing to remove the optical drive which I sort of doubt - they usually have a screw that once its removed there is a tab remaining which when pushed lightly with a small screwdriver releases the optical drive

"happy motoring :)"

Interesting this came up... I had to do a laptop disassembly today actually for one of our users here at work, wasn't a screen, it was just to chase a screw that was rolling around inside and move it back to it's home. Screen repairs are pretty easy, easier than tearing into the bottom of the case that is.

Berto is steering you in the right direction by telling you to keep track of screws, that is KEY to working on laptop hardware. My system is a bit different though. I will use stick it notes, tape the screws to them, and write a brief description of what they were used for, and mark each set of screws numerically, kind of like having a set of step instructions. Then when you replace your component, you just go backwards with the stick-it notes. I took a pic earlier of the laptop while it was apart, and you can see that taking this laptop apart was essentially a 6 step process.

Here's my pointers on doing the screen. 99% of the laptops out there, regardless of the brand have a panel above the keyboard. You will need to take this off. It usually just snaps on, sometimes there may be a couple screws below it, especially true with HP's that have batteries right there on the back side. Once you remove that you can clearly see how the screeen attaches to to laptop itself. First thing you do is disconnect the wire harness, usually at the left hinge area. Then at the right hinge area you will likely see a couple of wires, as well, these are the antenna's for your wireless. Detach them. You'll probably have to remove your keyboard to do that, but that's easy, usually it's already loose once you have that panel off from earlier... might be a couple screws on the back, there will be arrows with emblems pointing to them most likely. You can usually just roll over the keyboard without disconnecting the ribbon cable. Once you have the wires to the monitor off, locate the screws holding the hinges in place. Usually a couple going straight down, and a couple visible from the rear of the laptop that are horizontal.

The reason you want to take it off is because it's much easier to replace the LCD assembly off of the laptop, and really only takes about 5-10 minutes to get to this point.

Now you have to take the plastic trim ring off... all of your screws are going to be below the rubber bumpers around the perimiter, peel them off and save them, they will stick on just fine later. Remove the screws, and gently pry the screen apart, paying attention to the places it snaps. You have to be careful as you do this, cause if you're too rough, it will break the bezel, and you'll either have to replace it or live with a cracked laptop... either resolution sucks. Anyways, once you've gotten that far, it's easy to just swap out the LCD and reverse the process!

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg360/skeeveman/Computers/12-09-09_1127.jpg