Aspire 7520-5168 screen goes black

A friend has this laptop. I was working on it a few months when I noticed that the screen would go dark. You'd still be able to make out that you were in windows. It would come back randomly. Now it hardly works at all. I did some reading and opened the laptop to look for loose wires. I also read that re-seating the memory would help. But nothing so far. I went to close the lid and noticed that the screen came back on when I was pressing down on it to close it. But after a few minutes it went dark again and could not get it back.

So is this a mainboard problem? Is it an inverter issue?

Any suggestions?

Laptop is out of warranty.

 

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

Hi,

can you see anything on the screen (perhaps with a lamp) when the screen gets black? If so, then probably the backlight is defective. I am not sure if you can get a replacement or if the whole screen needs to be replaced.

Another test would be to use an external monitor and switch to that using the usual Fn- key combination.

Michael

 

I tried using an external screen and there was nothing coming out of it.

When the problem first started to occur, you could barely make out the outline of your windows. But lately, it goes all black and you can't make anything out.

I'm worried that just sending it in for a repair quote to Acer will cost too much. My friend wants to know if he should just go ahead and buy a new one. It's hard for me to answer him since I could literally go and turn on the laptop right now and it might work for a few hours.