Screens are totally replaceable. Unless you've got a local pc place (I'm assuming you're not on a Mac) that can replace the screen in-house, you'll likely have to mail it off for a couple of weeks. If you can't find a local repair guy, contact customer service at your laptop's manufacturer's website and they'll point you in the right direction.

It's prolly gonna cost you more than you want to spend I bet. That's the bummer. And, it's also why I always tell folks to buy laptops from Dell, or TOshiba, or really, anyone who will offer what Dell calls "Complete Care", which covers damage from "accidents" like spilling coffee on your laptop, or dropping it accidentally, which of course, is what really happened to you screen! Of course, that doesn't help you right now.

One thing you probably could do, except it means you lose that whole portability thing, but you could buy a normal, desktop LCD, and hook it up to the laptop. Most laptops in the last 6-8 years have the ability to output their video to an external source, whether it's an LCD projector, or 20" LCD. The only downside, of course, is the loss of portability.

I have kept an old laptop alive with parts from eBay. Figure out what is broken, and order it. . there are many sites which tell you how to take it apart. . .

If you are successful, it will give you a new feeling of empowerment.

ah, a little slow on the uptake here, but count mine as another vote for checking eBay for parts, or your local repair shop for parts, or just seeing if you can find a cheap display to plug into a video out port. (of course, a new display is new canvas space for lots of No on 8 stickers...)

and yeah, 8 passing makes me want to break a lot of things: glad you chose something replaceable to break, I had other things in mind....

I have done this before. It is NOT a brick. What kind of laptop do you have?

You can easily order a new lcd screen either directly or via a 3rd party provider (I got mine on ebay). Once you have it, it should take no more than 30-45 minutes to replace it yourself. It's not difficult, just that there are about two dozen screws. The basic idea is to remove the bezel, then detach a cable connecting the lcd to the motherboard (it just snaps off). Then attach the cable from the new lcd and fasten it back in place.
If you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, a local computer repair guy can do this for you while you wait.

Also, I too was heartbroken when I woke up this morning. (((treepour)))

In the meantime, you can just hook it up to an external monitor and still use it.

I, too, have a fairly ancient laptop (two of 'em, actually, but I only ever use one) which I've kept alive through with tiny screwdrivers and eBay visits and online disassembly instructions. It's not too tough, and, for me at least, it's pretty satisfying.

protip: during any laptop assembly/disassembly, it is STRONGLY advised that one do the entirety of the operation on a large enough sheet, towel or similar catch cloth so that the eetsy teensy leetle proprietary and pretty-much-unreplaceable (without further hassle) screws do not bounce/roll/fall/disappear into the rug / under the radiator / refrigerator / etcetera.

trust me on this.

Dude, anger management classes.

(Is it me, or has Sarah Palin totally taken the fun out of "dude"?)

It's an old laptop, so maybe I'll try it myself -- it sounds like fun. I had no idea it didn't require a factory full of complex machinery. Thanks for the tech advice.