old school Inspiron 5100 backlight/inverter repair

I've got a Vostro 1500 on order coming in a week or so, the result of my Inspiron 5100 having it's lcd display go dark on me, and me now thinking, this is a good time to upgrade.

So with my Vostro order, I'm turning my attention back on the 5100 and possibly trying to get the lcd going again. It's the common lcd problem apparently where the screen is black but you can faintly see the actual screen. My understanding in searching here and online in general is that it's either a bad backlight or inverter, the parts for both totalling maybe $50 or so. Just wondering if anyone here has had this experience recently with any insight to share on the difficulty doing the repair? I've found the Display section of the 5100 service manual here, but it doesn't going into detail on where the backlight is and how to replace it (I think): http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins5100/en/sm/display.htm#1105384

Since the 5100 is a heavy overheating machine, I've had a second thought in all this, not bothering to do the repair on replacing the parts. Currently I have the 5100 working hooked up to a 19" external monitor. I could just leave this setup working in the basement. So here's an odd question, if I just went ahead and removed the entire lcd display from the 5100 (in order to have the laptop/keyboard directly in front of the external monitor), would the 5100 still run with Windows XP out to the external monitor? Or would the lack of an attached lcd cause some error, making Windows not run? Thanks for any input.

 

If you have an external display attached, the unit should boot just fine. During the POST, the BIOS should be able to find the external display, and then send the signal that direction.

If this doesn't happen for whatever reason, feel free to let me know, and I'll do what I can to help out.

John
Dell Customer Advocate
[email protected]

 

John, thanks for the input on whether the 5100 will load without an LCD. Did you have any thoughts on the procedure in troubleshooting and repair of the dim screen -- backlight v. inverter, or the complexity involved?

 

Sorry for the late reply.

The easiest way (though not the most economical) is to order a new screen assembly and replace the whole thing. You can opt to order the inverter/backlight from someone else (I don't think we sell those separately), but that compounds the amount of work that must be done ten-fold.

I believe screen assemblies run several hundred dollars. You may be able to get one from a parts reseller for cheaper, but it wouldn't come with Dell's 90-day parts warranty.

 

.... the Dell 'take you to the cleaners' way.

Just fixed this *exact* problem on a year and a half old Dell Inspiron 6000. Dell wanted $400.00 Cdn. to replace the whole assembly. I chose to replace the inverter board. It was very easy, cost ~$75.00 and fixed the problem.

 

While this is true (as I noted, replacing the entire assembly *isn't* the most economical solution), the inverter board is part of the ribbon-cable on most of our LCD assemblies, and is fairly easy to swap. The backlight is far more complicated, and requires disassembly of the entire LCD display. The problem described can be caused by either failure.

If you have a technical background and a lot of patience, replacing the backlight and inverter can save you some money. If you're not, paying a technician to replace those parts will likely cost almost as much as replacing the entire assembly.

John
Dell Customer Advocate

 

Thanks for the responses. I've spent most of my time getting the Vostro 1500 setup to my liking that I haven't had time to look into repairing the 5100. I won't spend several hundred dollars to replace the assembly. It may just be a project I'll do way down the line.