The replacement part for my laptop has finally arrived, and works – my screen works again. Hewlett-Packard originally quoted me 8 days delivery for the part (which is only available in the US, so I couldn’t order it in advance!), but quoted over a month in the confirmation mail. After a sharp conversation with their ordering department, they promised to do what they could to speed it up. The subsequent mail still quoted the one-month delivery, though. Yesterday, ten days before the quoted date, a thin but large package arrived, containing a very small part!
I’ve been using an old laptop so far, which did the job OK. Now, I have a reasonable screen resolution and a higher speed, which makes Skype work much better. The old laptop is smaller and lighter, though, and looks better 🙂