Laptop Monitor problems

[Stee]

So 2 weeks ago my laptop monitor started blacking out for no reason however if I pressed the button to turn the laptop monitor off then release it the laptop monitor would stay on for a few minutes then go black again. The next day however it pretty much went out completely, the button only made the screen flash a little bit.

The screen more or less is black but if you squint you can make out the image of what it is displaying.

At first I thought it was a graphics card problem but I hooked it up to a external monitor and it worked fine. So then I thought it was the inverter problem so I opened up my laptop monitor and bought a replacement inverter. But yeah the inverter doesn't work, either the inverter isn't the problem or I received a bad inverter. I thought it might be the backlight problem but I heard that if the backlight was dead you couldn't make out the image in the laptop if you squint.

Anyway at this point I'm out of ideas, I don't want to pay 200 bucks just to take this to a store and wait months before I get it back. So does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Priran]

I thought it might be the backlight problem but I heard that if the backlight was dead you couldn't make out the image in the laptop if you squint.

Whenever the light in my laptop's screen doesn't turn on for whatever reason, I can still see what's being displayed (not so much by squinting, more like reflecting something bright onto it). So that might be wrong.

[Charla]

It sounds exactly like the backlight is dead, actually. The LCD is most transparent, so incoming light will still be able to get through, reflect off the backing and come back out, just not much of it. No idea how to fix/replace it though.

[Stee]

Hmm thanks, looks like its going to be a lot harder then replacing the inverter.....but at least I have an idea with whats wrong it now.

[Senji]

Its your back light power supply, if your techie enough you can swap the parts out, otherwise take it to a shop. Ive seen em go for $60-200 for ones I've gotten for people, they can go higher I'm sure.

[Dwyer]

I would doubt its the power supply, sounds exactly like a backlight failure to me. You can buy the new bulbs for $10-20 but replacing them can be a pain..

[Fooma]

I had this happen to me not more than a month ago. I did some internet detective work and it turned out it can be two things:
The 'inverter' which I can only assume is the magic device that conjures up the images upon my screen, or
The bulb, which is the back light.


When I took it in, the technician says "Yea I can still see a faint image, in a reddish tint, so it's going to be the bulb that's burnt out'

ProTip: You may still be able to get a faint image if you view it in the dark (or intense direct light, do whatever you can to get an image). Take that opportunity to hide things on your desktop you may not want the technician to see when they get it working.

Good news: The bulbs don't cost much
Bad news: The bulbs are very specific to manufacturer and model so the repair shop will likely have to custom order it which can take up to a week or two to arive.
More bad news: it's a labor intensive job that can go up to 2 hours


All in all, the repair cost me about $200.

[Stee]

I decided to try to replace it myself, dissected the monitor then found the backlight. When I was trying to get it out I snapped the bulb in half but oh well its probably the broken piece anyway. I'm worried however once I receive the new backlight I might snap it and thats 20 bucks + shipping down the drain. Other then that though I think it should be a pretty straight forward job.

I called a lcd repair store earlier to see how much it would cost, I had removed the lcd screen from the monitor at this point and the person said $175.......at that price I could just buy a whole new lcd screen.

Anyways thanks for the advice guys.

[Charla]

If there's a Frys or something nearby you could probably get the bulb yourself and save the time + shipping.

[Ishido]

Same thing happened to me when I shipped a laptop home from college last year. It was the bulb, and unfortunately it was a laptop made by a small custom company, and the guy who was repairing it could not find a bulb that would work. The laptop still works with a separate monitor, but that kind of defeats part of the purpose of a laptop.