Problems with Inspiron 1520 screen.

I'm posting this for my friend since he can't see a thing on the screen. He left the laptop on hibernate for around 3 hours and when he came back, the screen was very dark. He says he's restarted several times since then and the only thing which seemed to "light up" the screen was taking the power out; allowing the laptop to run on battery. However, just 5 minutes ago, even though the laptop was on battery, the screen has gone dark. He can barely make out MSN conversations by shining his lamp onto the screen but he can't see the mouse cursor.

Any ideas on what's gone wrong? The laptop is around 1 and a half years old.

 

Dead backlight lamp?

 

Yeah, I agree. It seems that the backlight lamp either has a loose connection or the backlight is dying. The only way to get it serviced is if your friend has a warranty with the Dell. If your friend does, then you should call Dell to have them look at it. You can probably do it yourself, but you will need to purchase very specific parts on eBay or try to get them through Dell, though I'm not sure how much they are going to charge or whether it will work. It is a tedious process: opening the bezel, pulling out the LCD screen/backlight, and putting in another one and put it all back together again.

Good luck.

 

Sorry guys, I have to disagree.
You've got really a few possibilities:
-Bad lamp
-Bad connection or cable
-Bad power inverter.

Based on what you described, and based on the fact that 80% of the time an issue like this is caused by a bad inverter, I am going to say this is a bad inverter.

You can usually tell when a lamp is dying, it gets a red/orange tint.


@JohnByeBye - your sig is way too big

 

It is changed. However, I really do not like it when users try to be the moderators. I have been posting here for nearly a month and you, a user, is the first to say anything. I do not care how many posts you have, your status doesn't show you as a moderator. If the forum has rules then I expect the moderators to enforce them. Anyways, that's just my opinion.

 

Hes just telling you so that you dont get the PM your getting from me now

 

Well that's what you're here for. Thanks.

 

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way, but I think on a forum of this size, user moderation is important. All I was doing was reminding you of the rules. You were pleasant and complied with them, so that's that. But if you hadn't, there's a built in form of user moderation - the report button. I use it regularly.

 

People like you must be fun irl. =(

Thanks for throwing forward some suggestions, though!

 

Does opening and closing the lid make it work at all?

Try pulling off the keyboard and make sure the connections to the motherboard (for LCD) are secure.