LCD replacement on an Inspiron 9300?

I am yet another new laptop owner who was faced with the WUXGA vs WXGA dilemma. I went with the WXGA because I game a lot, and I don't want to run any games in 1900x1200 (I don't want 1900x1200 desktop either because my eyes suck). Either way, I think the WXGA screen blows. I would have wanted the lower resolution with the TrueLife finish. I'm trying to find a happy medium - I've been contacting various companies about screen repolarization, AR films you can apply to your screen, etc.

Sooo.. I've noticed that Toshiba's 17" laptops are WXGA with the TruBrite finish. I've seen them in Best Buy and it's the finish I want, in the resolution I want. There's one vendor on eBay that sells these and Dell screens as well, and both Dell and Toshiba listings say that they use a 30-pin connector (I don't know crap about notebook displays, though).

My question is: Is there any reason I couldn't just buy a Toshiba TruBrite screen and put it in my Inspiron? I assume they're all coming from the same few manufacturers (LG, Samsung, etc) and would probably fit? I figure if I did this and put my original display up for sale, I wouldn't lose much cash doing this (and have the resolution/finish I wanted in the first place).

Has anyone tried this before? Trying to research this stuff has been a huge pain in the butt.

Thanks for any help!

Sorry to bump.. nobody has experience with this?

Well, like I said I use it to game quite a bit - I don't want integrated graphics. Not to mention, I only paid $980 for mine. I highly doubt I'll get anything comparable from Toshiba, or any other company for that matter. :/

I bought a Toshiba TruBrite screen and I'm going to see if I can get it to work in my Inspiron. I figure if it works I can just resell my Dell screen for almost the same amount.

I'll post my progress (hopefully good news and not bad)!

Of course!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6807419967

I know that 1680x1050 17" panels exist as well, might be a good intermediate resolution if you can manage to find one.

You can find lots of panels in here on eBay:
Computers & Networking > Laptop Parts & Accessories > Screens, LCD Panel for Laptops

When I talked to the guy on the phone to verify everything, he said he's switched screens before and it worked for him (hopefully he wasn't just saying that so I'd go ahead and buy it).

Hmm.. I do know that my existing panel and the new panel are both LG (pretty sure, at least). Maybe that'll keep the compatibility issue at a minimum (I hope). If it doesn't work, I've only had the laptop for 2 weeks so I'll just return it and get one with a WUXGA (not an ideal solution, but oh well). The guy I got the LCD from said not to worry about a restocking fee if I have to return it.. I hope he'll keep that promise.

What's special about the Fujitsu 1440x900 LCD? I picked Toshiba because it was the only one I could find that had the shiny stuff and that resolution - unless I wasn't looking hard enough.

Oh yeah, does anyone know if I can swap just the screen and use the existing inverter? I think the new screen might come with one, but I figure the less crap I switch the better..

I'll be sure to take some nice pictures of the surgery in process, so I can write a guide if it works!

So far it isn't too cheap, I paid about $320 for the replacement screen but I'm hoping I can resell the Dell one for about the same price. I wish it would hurry up and ship!

So if I run into a firmware issue, I can't do much aside from return the panel, right?

And this'll sound kind of newbish, but which firmware might be an issue - the LCD itself? I've really only heard of firmware on stuff like routers and CD-ROMs before.