DELL E5400 - LCD problem? Please help me with a solution

Hi Guys,

My Latitude 5400 LCD went dead 10 months back. I got it replaced by Dell authorised service center. Now after 4 months I have a unique problem.

The display is alright when the laptop is plugged into the power socket. Once I remove it the display is still on. But when I replace the plug, the display blanks out. I can see faint background of the desktop. When i restart the laptop, the display comes on once again.

Please let me know what needs to be done.

Thanks,
Arun

 

My first thought is the inverter (which powers the display backlight) doesn't like a small voltage change which happens when you switch from battery to mains power.

John

 

My god. I just got my LCD replaced 4 months back. Right now, this problem seem to disappear and now another problem seem to comeup. Now when my laptop is on for several hours with inactivity, the display seem to go off and then I have to put the machine to hibernation or restart for the display to come on? is this related to the same problem?

 

The inverter is related to the display but is a separate module. See the service manual for more details. I had an inverter problem on one of my previous notebooks and it gave the symptoms you describe.

John

 

Thanks John. Let me have a look. The dell support guys said that the inverter comes along with the display module.

 

Is the machine still physically on when this occurs or does it sort of go into a shutdown/hibernation mode? Something like this happeneed on my old D620 and it was actually the motherboard. Mine would sort of shut off in the process, that is why I asked.

 

The machine is still on when this happens. The strange thing right now is that, the problem has disappeared since the last couple for days. I called up the dell customer service and enquired, support guys want me to reinstall VISTA once again and check. They suspect it could be some faulty driver that is creating this mess. I am confused.

 

Can you try this for me, boot into BIOS. From there just start plugging and unplugging. If it happens while in there it is not a drivers issue.

 

Try running a Linux live CD. This will avoid messing up with your Windows installation.

John

 

Ok guys, let me try it and let you know. None of the dell guys are able to tell me what exactly the problem is. One fellow says it is the display inverter and the other says it is a problem with the I/O board! What did i learn after soo many calls? *not to buy dell outside India*