gateway C143XL repairs for dimmed screen

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone can give me a little guidance on how to go about solving the issue of a dimming screen on a Gateway C143XL, it's only recently I've realise the that screen is not lighting up properly, tends to be very dark and "yellowed" when first switched on and gradually brightens up but is still difficult to read or see anything on it. I've seen on some sites that this might be fixed with a replacement of the inverter and backlight but that's about as far as my expertise goes (assuming I'm even right there for a start). So if it IS this, is there a specific backlight and inverter I need to purchase and how would I go about replacing these within the laptop?

Greatly appreciating any and all help on this, with thanks in advance,

-Bod

 

the inverter is most likely fine-- it's rare I've seen one fail in a laptop, but Gateway is Gateway, master of a thousand models for any one motherboard.
Best bet, although a bit late in reply, is to take the bezel off the front of the screen, unscrew the screen from the mounts, and see what the LCD model is. you can find new CCFL tubes for this model on ebay and other sites for as little as $12 in most cases and of superb quality.

Be warned, though-- you WILL have to disassemble the LCD panel to remove the backlight. this is a semi-dangerous process if you don't know what you are doing and you can either end up injuring yourself on sharp edges or end up breaking something if you aren't extremely careful! Watch youtube videos of your size screen being taken apart, and study them well.

if the inverter turns out to be bad after this, just look the part number for it up on eBay and you're good to go. shouldn't be more than 5-10 bucks in most cases, especially for an inverter for a Gateway laptop.

 

It sounds like a inverter problem since you can still see the screen. If the backlight was bad your screen would go dark but you will still see images in the screen if you shine a flashlight on it. The inverter would be the less expensive way to try to fix the problem but you need to take apart the bezel and get the inverter off and look at it's part number and use it to reference on eBay to find a matching part to get and don't get a used inverter at least get a new inverter that will do more for you.