dell inspiron 1440 inverter?

My friend has a laptop with a dim screen.As soon as you turn on the laptop it displays dell then goes completely black. I held a flash light up to the screen and I can see his desktop fine I also tried a external monitor and it worked perfectly so it's either his backlight or inverter... I can get a new screen cheap but for the life of me I can't find the inverter.. The manual doesn't even show it.. My gut feeling is telling me the inverter went bad.. Does anybody know the part number for it or can help me find it..

 

There is no inverter; it's and LED screen. All the equivalent circuitry is integrated into the display itself. Assuming it is an "inverter" problem (which it may be), you'd have to replace the entire panel; you may also have a motherboard issue.

 

Hello spawn1980

My name is Anue and I work for the Social Media and Community Team at Dell.

We understand that you have an issue with the display on the laptop.
As you confirm that the display is fine on an external monitor, it confirms that the LCD is faulty.
As rightly suggested in the above post, this particular model doesn’t have a separate inverter cable, hence the LCD kit has to be replaced.
Kindly update if any other assistance required, we would be glad to assist you further.
Thanks & Regards
Dell_Anue_A
Dell Social Media Responder
Dell | Facebook
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@DellCares - YouTube

 

i AM HAVING A SIMILIAR PROBLEM.I AM GETTING NOTHING ON MY SCREEN.I THOUGHT IT WAS A POWER INVERTOR BUT WHEN I HOOKED IT UP TO A DIFFERENT LAPTOP THE SCREEN WORKED FINE.SINCE THE INVERTOR IS WHITHIN THE LCD SCREEN,DOES THIS INDICATE A MOTHERBOARD ISSUE?

 

Hi donfoust,

Since, you have connected the screen to another laptop and confirmed that it is working fine; it indicates that the issue is with motherboard. You may consider servicing the laptop. Also please find the below link for the service manual for Inspiron 1440, you may refer to the same and confirm the connections again.

Documentation

I hope this helps.

Thanks and Regards
Swapnajan M C
#iworkfordell

 

The fact that you get a display when you hook up an external monitor shows that the graphics chipset is good. This leaves 3 possibilities...... (1) Bad cable from the motherboard to the display. (2) Failing display. (3) Loss of LED voltage as supplied by the motherboard. Personally I would go with the 1st 2 possibilities as they are more common. As far as the part number on the display it is on a sticker that is applied to the back of the screen. You can disassemble the clamshell for the display to get this number and do a Google search on it and find the best pricing for it. (I am saying this with the stipulation that the item is out of warranty)

 

I found this while browsing another post on a different dell model. It may apply .......

I am sure its probably not documented online as its a bit tricky to fix but within the range of someone thats handy with a soldering iron.

To clarify I am an alarm engineer that has worked in the electronics industry in surface mount manufacture and finds things like this a challenge. A friend asked if I could help with his sons 1545 with led screen. He had changed the screen as his son had cracked it and had a dim screen which you could just work out the Dell logo. I dived in with a multimeter and found the problem and fixed it.

My theory is that when the screen is damaged it draws to much current, possibly momentarily and it blows a fuse on the motherboard.

To find it look with a magnifying glass near to the screen connector. To do this you will have to remove the keyboard or move it to the side (assuming you have the laptop in bits with the screen already removed) fu. The keyboard ribbon cable connectors are well tricky to get back in place if removed fully.

You are looking for a small "surface mount 3amp fuse". It says F1 on it. Its a small oblong device with a solder pad at each end.

To confirm its blown get hold of a multimeter and touch the probes on each end. If you don't get low ohms reading or a beep if using the continuity test its almost certainly blown.

You can buy these from electronic supplies such as Farnell in the uk LITTELFUSE|0451003.MRL|FUSE, QUICK BLOW, SMD, 3A | Farnell United Kingdom

You will however need a friend etc with a small soldering iron, good eyesight/magnifier and a decent light source.

Unsolder and replace the fuse (or short out with a bit of wire for a quick test to confirm but don't leave like this as it could cause damage to the motherboard if the screen went again - fuses are there for a reason - protection)

No new motherboard needed or screen if its just gone off for no reason with the fault listed in the posts above.

PM or post if it works for you.