E1505 Backlight or Inverter LCD Problems

I have had this laptop for about a year and a half and it has been a very solid machine, up until yesterday.

I booted the system and the Bios Flash screen loaded, but the monitor flickered a few times and shut off. The computer would continue to boot into windows, and when it got to the Windows Vista circle that flashes before you get to choose to log in the monitor turned on again for a few seconds, flickered, and then shut off.

After further investigation, I realized that the display was actually still on, but there is no "lighting" to see what is displayed on the screen. If you tilt the monitor so that is it almost horizontal to your eyes, you can tell that there is a display, but it is not bright enough to actually see what it is. I tried brightening the display but it doesnt seem to help at all.

Luckily my TV can be used as a display, so i hooked it up to see what was wrong with it. After some researech it seems that the issue is either the inverter, or some sort of backlight lamp.

So has anyone had this problem? If so, what was the issue and how did you fix it?

Also, what is the diffrence between the display lamp and the inverter board, and how can I tell which is the issue?

Thanks for your time!!

 

Anyone?

 

I had a similar problem on an LCD PC from Eurocom.

I think the only thing you can do is open it up and check the connections. If you are not comfortable with doing this, I would seek Dell Tech Support.

 

Thanks for the reply, I shall open her up!

 

Well I reset all the connections earlyier today, but nothing changed.

Any program or anything that could help me diagnose the problem?

 

There really isn't a program for this.

Typically the solution to this problem is to buy a new lcd panel from ebay or some other place.

 

Check out this site:

http://www.lcdparts.net/LaptopInverter2.aspx

 

Thats like buying a new monitor when you only have a bad cable.

 

It is, but sometimes its a lot easier.

In all honesty though, It may not be the inverter but the switch that tells the back light to go on or off.

At my old job we had these crummy Toshiba Satellite laptops, and actually when that problem would occur, it wasn't anything wrong with the screen, but there was a little button that would tell the laptop that the screen was open or closed and it would turn on or off the back light. Sometimes that button would get stuck in the down position making the laptop think the lid was closed. To fix it, we would ...erm...rip out the button so that it couldnt malfunction anymore.

It's a bad place to be in without any spare parts to swap with to find the bad part because it could be several things.

 

Well I found a inverter board online for $25 shipped so I bought it. If it doesnt fix it, i suppose I will just have a desktop computer.....