Help with flickering screen

Hi All,

Today I noticed that my Toughbook cf-30's screen flickers a bit when at low brightness and also
makes some wheezing sound. What does that mean? Is it easily fixable?

Thanks,

 

I have not had a problem like that, but first thing I think of is an inverter starting to go. Not to hard to change if it is the inverter.

Someone else might have other ideas.

 

You might want to check the cabling under the hinge. If it has been taken apart before someone might have done a number on it. Easy to check... As for the wheezing sound... It might have a cold...

 

Since it's too late for a flu shot, try anti virus....

 

Resoldering transformer terminals on an inverter board sometimes works but better just to replace the board if they're available. The noise you hear is probably from that transformer.

 

Thanks everyone, I'll try to see if I can find the cables. Since It becomes almost silent when at full brightness I suspect the inverter
could be the cause. There are some new inverters on ebay for ~ 60$ but I don't know how easy it is to replace.
I was thinking about maybe reduce the backlight by changing the graphics setting and keeping the screen brightness setting at maximum, in order to
get rid of the noise and have low brightness. I need to check if that works.
My main concern was that this noise and unsteady flickering light (which probably translate into unsteady current) might damage some other
components like the backlight bulb. I was also wondering if other people have had similar experiences, does this mean that something in my screen,
say the inverter, is going to die soon?
My Toughbook has only ~8000 hours on it, about the same as my cheap Dell, it's a bit disappointing to see the Toughbook failing before the Dell.

 

Am I right in assuming that the number of hours and the number of hours that a screen has actually been illuminated are two different things? I hear a lot about people with brightness issues and number of hours in the bios, but with 30k hours on my cf-19, it's the brightest of all of my toughbooks. I believe that's because they were always left on on their docking stations, but the amount of time they were actually open and being used is only a few minutes a day. Easily less than one hour a day.

 

O.K. I have to tell you....I dropped a flickering CF-51 on the floor , cracked the screen and the flickering stopped. Still worked fine for more than a year until I changed it out. (assuredly a bad ...corroded connection)
You need to un-plug and plug in a few cables. It's not the 'puters fault if it is in a moist atmosphere and picks up a little corrosion. Un-plug re-plug rids it of corrosion...and you get to look inside. I used a CF-52 that had taken a dunk...corrosion throughout...maybe mushrooms for two years...the unit is alive and very well in Canada and still working.
Good advise and comedy in above posts...they have all been there. :thumbsup:
8000 is nothing...I have a pristine CF-30 MK1 w/27,000 hours. A little TLC and attention and your unit will outlast you. All else fails drop it on the floor. ...(mutters...pity the floor)

Take care,

Jeff ...all in fun...but true...:hi2:

 

Ironically enough, I'm more gentle with these things than I am with my normal Toshiba. I can see me freaking out if I dropped one on the floor.

 

Thanks guys. I think that'd be OK then. I'll try to open it up and check/clean the connections when I got a chance.
I bought my Toughbook used so I don't really know what the poor thing has gone through, but I'll take good care of it
I also think I'm more gentle with my Toughbook than I'm with my normal Dell and I think it deserves it