D520 screen keeps going black.

Hey everyone,
I recently acquired a Dell Latitude D520 from my mother after she bought a brand new Dell Laptop. Well the ONLY problem with the laptop (other then the tiny hard drive, which may be fixed soon lol) is that the screen keeps going VERY dim, almost to the point to where the screen is black. The screen would be fully lit up for just a minute or so then it just goes very dim. (You can barely see the icons and what not..and i do mean barely) I`d love to keep the D520 to use as a second laptop...so how do i go about fixing this....and what causes this? And is it easy to fix? I havent replaced a screen on a laptop before, so i will definitely do some research before i tackle this project. Thanks!!!!!!!

 

Sounds like the backlight is having problems. The LCD may need to be replaced if the laptop is out of warranty.

 

Oh yea this laptop has been out of warranty now lol So should i try to find like a full assembly with the LCD screen and the back light?

 

I'm not quite sure if this is an inverter problem or a problem with the backlight. Maybe someone else can chime in...here are the parts:

Inverter:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220525857185

XGA (1024x768) LCD:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180446076615

SXGA+ (1440x1050, I would recommend this one) LCD:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350164181931

The inverter is cheap, so I would start with replacing that first. If it doesn't help, get the LCD and keep your old inverter as a spare.