My backlight has stopped working!

I turned on my laptop to see nothing.. The hardrive was spinning and the lights where flashing but there was no display.

I thought maybe it was a loose connection so I wobbled the screen a little then saw at a certain angle with the light that the LCD was working except there was no lights so I couldn't see the screen unless its very bright and even still its very difficult to work it.

Any ideas will be appriciated!

Thanks

1337

IceCreamTruck

I have fixed many of these. Read the whole how-to before touching your laptop. You have been WARNED.

There is a device that powers two florensent light bulbs on either side of the laptop screen and it is called the "Backlight Inverter"

If you know how to take apart the screen of the laptop you will seen wires going to LCD, and wires going to "Backlight Inverter". Just replace this little yet long circuit board and the computer should work just fine.

If you don't know how to open the laptop screen here's how. There will be tiny rubber nobs on the screen that usually touch the laptop body when the lcd is closed. dig these out carefully to reviel the screws below each. Small screw driver will remove them easily.

Once all screws are removed the top, and bottom plastic can be "snapped" apart using a little pressure on the seam near a corner. The "snap points" are spaced about two inches apart all the way around the screen, and you will need to be careful not to break the plastic screen housing as your slowly and carefully work your way around.

Careful not to put too much pressure on the laptop screen hendges either as these are weekened with the screws out. Sometimes it's best to do all this work with the laptop open as far as it will go. well, it should be laying flat on a table and all the way open.

The backlight inverter is just a matter of a screw at each end, and incoming and outgoing wires will of course have to be unpluged.

Once you have the board in hand, make and model of your computer. You should be able to get a replacement very easily for about $80-150. Depends on where you shop.

you have, however, cut out about $100 dollars in labor if you followed this post.

GOOD LUCK!!!

PS. sometimes the blubs themselves have gone out. I've fixed over 100 laptops with this issue and not one has had bad blubs. I am willing to bet money that this is the problem IF you can still see the screen but it's SUPER dark.

IceCreamTruck

Hey!! ... any luck on the project yet, or was that not quite what you wanted to hear as a response?

BTW, I figure I could also explain that you should be counting your lucky stars that the LCD is actually still good. LCDs being expensive to fix, and this will send most laptops to the grave evenually.

Also, another great piece of info on the subject... and this is for EVERYONE!!! remember to at least make sure that the seporate monitor is "enabled" on the laptop, so that you can hook it up to a monitor in the event that the lcd does go out. This will tell you if the laptop is still post/booting correctly even with a blank lcd screen.

I've seen CRT monitors fall off desks, be treated really badly in storage, and generally be abused, and they will still work when you plug them in. We all know that this is not the case with LCDs. If you look at them funny they will break... which is why I think my next laptop is going to be a touchscreen computer. I don't feel I need to explain why this is a good idea, because you get the picture.

Link to example of what your "Backlight Inverter" MIGHT/could/notevenclose look like <-- I think your computer has a problem here.

This device is located right in the middle of the bottom part of the laptop screen. It is vital to the opporation of the LCD screen, and it's no wonder they made it easy to replace this unit because it burns out.

Stop suffering!!! just buy a laptop screw driver and order your specific inverter on ebay/tigerdirect/bestbuy/randomcomputer store and go to town on the sucker until it works. Just be gentile.

Oh, and be aware that the small parts and edges in your system can have an effect similar to a razor blade on human skin so you should be careful and diligent to the safety of yourself, the working LCD screen should also work when you are finished, and the new backlight inverter should be firmly in place. Don't pinch any wires snaping the screen back together, and screw it back down.
Remeber that you want the laptop to look unscratched when you are done with this whole experiment, and remember that you can test the laptop while it is open. Just be sure you are on a good surface like wood, or glass table. Metal and carpet are bad news for laptops!! Also be aware of screw lengths. Putting long screws in the wrong hole might damage case or internal components.

IceCreamTruck

Day number three and the person who posted this problem is apparently sufferening more problems. This time the problems are on his desktop computer, LOL!!!

I have been checking back because I was excited to have found an answer to this guys problem, and trust me people as I am correct in how to fix the laptop, however, we can do nothing to solve his desktop computer problems until he comes back here and let's us know what is going on.

HAHA, it's a catch 22.

Trust me on this as well... when your laptop goes bad the desktop is usually going to follow right behind it unless you take quick steps to get the computer up to speed as fast as possible. When the computer you most often use goes out there usually is no good replacement either.

Well good luck in the computing world dude, but I think I'm finished here.