Donation with Broken Monitor?

Hi Brandon,
it depends on your technical background and experience in your team. Even in Germany we only have very few helpers, being able to repair a "panel", that is the word for the screen itself. But there are so many various panels, sizes and connectors to the laptop...

Here are some options we tried in Germany:

• if the laptops is not too old you can check, if you have a matching panel in stock (we keep many panels from recycled laptops in our hub) or buy one. A new spare panel might cost between 30 -100 $. So it is a perfect, but very expensive solution. And you need to have a technical specialist in your team knowing how to mount it.
• A cheaper way is just to connect an external monitor via monitor cable to the laptop. In most cases the laptop will recognize the 2nd screen. Sometimes you to have to adjust the monitor settings using a tool like ARandR.
• Next "level" would to be remove the broken, internal screen and use only the external screen (see enclosed picture file). The laptop will look like a keyboard, but it works well. Bringing it abroad you have to decide, whether to include the laptop from your hub (might limit the range of a travel) or to buy a screen abroad. In our hub we use this solution often, if a spare panel is too expensive.

Hope this will help you to decide, which option is best for you.
Ralf, Hub Rhein-Ruhr (Germany)