@kevin:I think a new display, separately, would be hard to find, expensive, or both. You could look on Ebay or other places, e.g. for an Etrex that has an intact display but is broken for other reasons and cheaply for sale, then swap out the displays.

I still have one issue though - rubber cement does not work well for me. What is the original goo that was used? Is is possible to buy that stuff at some place?

Thanks.

P.S. In case that you rubber band expands for some reason, and / or is too lose, I found that gluing some tennis racquet grip tape underneath works great. And unlike for the rubber band, rubber cement works great for the grip tape (cut the grip tape appropriately and glue it to the housing).

@Michelle: good luck with it. If it doesn’t work, you can always blame this site instead of your husband, I will probably not mind as much as him ;).

After having removed the display board from the front (top) plastic shell of the unit to work on it I found it pretty easy to reassemble the unit by putting the two screws in last as was noted in the original post; this worked great and is the best way. In other words; connect the ribbon cable, orient the display board on top of the main pc board (as it would normally sit), place the plastic shell (top cover) on top, and flip the unit over so that it sits face down on the table. You can now lift the back of the unit (which is now facing up) and twist it slightly to expose the holes in the display board that accept the screws. You may have to move the display board slightly into position so that it seats properly and the screw holes line up. Use needle nose pliers to place the screws in the holes and tighten. You can then snap the case together and continue assembly.

In my case, the problem was that the screen displayed horizontal blank lines most of the time, due a faulty connection of the ribbon cable. But I had not excessive trouble reconnecting the ribbon cable, as you mentioned, it is better to detach the LCD panel first, then I reinserted the cable and gradually pushed the latch using a thin rod while maintaining ribbon inserted.

I was very careful when removing the several layers of tape - and was able to replace them instead of shaping new ones. I cut the tape at the bottom, so there is a potential weak spot re: leakage, but I don’t use my unit in the pouring rain, so I am comfortable if I am a bit more careful it should be fine.

Second, based on the discussions about the challenges of reinserting the ribbon cable I decided not to disconnect the ribbon cable - the LCD unit could be positioned off to one side so that the screws were accessible. I cleaned the unit as described in the instructions and tested it out before resealing the tape edges - it worked fine. So in my case I don’t think the connector was causing my problems with the joystick.

Ohter notes: it was not clear where to spray the contact cleaner into the joy stick - but whatever I did seemed to work.

And when opening the unit after removing the tape, it seemed like one should press in the latching tabs - however they do not bend but could easily break (as mentioned in the instructions) - next time I would try to lift the chassis over the latching tab - if that is possible

Thanks again!!

I was able to reinsert the cable by taking the two screws out of the LCD panel, but couldn’t get the screws back in without pulling the ribbon back out. So I left out the screws. Any tip on replacing the screws without pulling out the ribbon?

Just type in 401-1131-1-ND into google, you’ll find it

AxsDeny: rubber cement should give better results indeed - I didn’t have it lying around so I used epoxy; what helps probably is if you try to leave as much as possible of the originial goo on the rubber band and reuse it.

Thanks for documenting it!