laptop screen broken

so i turned on the spot light in the office for the first time, and i noticed that i can just barely see the the information on the laptop screen.

does this mean that I wouldn't need a whole new screen, but just a replacement backlight?  if that's the case, is this cheaper than a whole new screen?

That's what they did for me, I was still under warranty though.  Not sure about the cost.  Good luck!

Hiya
I had something similar happen to my acer laptop not all that long ago.. I could barely see the info under the darkened screen. Turns out that it was something fried in the graphics processing board and was not repairable or so i was told by the folks that took it away under my homeowners insurance. So they ended up replacing it with the next closest laptop of acer which was a lovely upgrade from what i had.. All it cost me was £60 deductible ... Course the fact that i had dropped it after tripping over one of my moggies..prolly helped in the frying process.. and why it was claimed under homeowners.. contents insurance..
Kay

i did not even THINK about looking at my homeowners insurance- let me check what my deductable is.

does this mean that I wouldn't need a whole new screen, but just a replacement backlight?  if that's the case, is this cheaper than a whole new screen?

If you can still just about make out everything on the screen under the right lighting conditions, then it may well be just the backlight which needs replacing.

Whether it will be cheaper or not depends upon the design.  If it's easily accessible it will be much cheaper than a whole new screen.   Unfortunately, there are some screens where the backlight was designed as an integral part and is simply not replaceable as a separate item.