I have a feeling what you're going to say but I thought I would just see what everyone has to say.
Here is a picture of my mom's laptop, with a line on the screen.
What do you think?

Should I replace the inverter? Is the screen toast?

It's not the inverter... Was the laptop dropped or sat on?

Not that I know of. But she does take it with here everywhere. Its not a crack, just a line that she claims would come and go.
Now it is there all the time.


On another note... know any decent laptops for around $650? I'm looking at Dell, thats what we use at work.

Could be a loose connection from the LCD screen to the motherboard...

"On another note... know any decent laptops for around $650?"...

Check with your local laptop retailers... In store or online. With the $650 limit, don't expect to do any major gaming and multitasking with it

Well... Per mom, she noticed the slight line about three weeks ago. Then sometimes when she typed the wrong character would pop up. I sat it happen once, when she typed a lower case L the little ... would appear as one character. Then on Sunday morning she booted it up - beeping and hollering.
She's not exactly a gamer. She just needs email, and the ability to play flash stuff like youtube on there. I think any $600 or $700 laptop will do.