MT3422 Laptop Display issue - goes on then dims

Hi:

On my MT3422 I started having display issues today. The screen will only come on for a second and then goes really dark or black.

I can get VGA output using Fn-F4 and that works. When I toggle back to the laptop display it comes on for a second and then goes dark/black again every time I toggle back to it.

I've tried:

1) Uninstalling the display driver and reinstalling it

2) A restore.

The problem remains.

I tried Gateway support but it's out of warranty and all they'd recommend is reinstalling Vista. That blows away everything and would take me many days to recover from. No way.

 

I think its an inverter/backlight problem. Do you see the windows desktop (with the help of an external light) ?

 

Yes, I can see the screen contents with a flashlight.

 

Backlight/Inverter have to be checked. I suggest if you are new to this then get somebody trained enough to do it.

 

I've disassembled prior laptops and performed repairs before.

I've found some videos and pages that show how to disassemble a laptop display. I'm confident that I can do it.

Should I just assume that I need a new inverter and order one off of FleaBay?


Thanks much for your help.

 

Seems like an inverter problem to me.

 

Yeah. I did some Googling just to confirm and it looks like that's the culprit.

Found one FleaBay in Hong Kong for $9.

Just glad I have VGA a monitor because that's my main PC.

Thanks again.

 

Still no joy.

I bought one off of eBay from Hong Kong but they sent me the wrong part.

I found a used supposedly good one (the right part MPT N228)from a US seller and installed that. It still does the same thing where the screen lights up for a second and then the backlighting goes dark.

 

Thats bad. Did you try getting to the backlight tube ?

 

It could be that you have a boken display cable, or a faulty screen.
I use to have an MX3103 and an ML3108. And I can tell you that all of them use the same screen assembly. You can add to this list the MT3303, MT3304, MT3305, MT3418, MT3419, MT3421, M3423, MX3311, MX3412, MX3414, MX3416, MX3417, MX3422, MX3102, MX3138, MX3139, MX3140, MX3141, MX3142, MX3143, MX3701, MX3702, MT3104, MT3105, MT3107, MT3110, MT3111, and the eMachine N10, N12, and N14.

Get a faulty one from ebay and swap the assembly with yours.

If you were in the UK I would have told you to buy the ML3108. There is quiet few of them sold with a faulty motherboard for anything from £40 to £60.