Backlight problem a software issue?

I've posted about my backlight not working a long while back with no luck, but I've got some new info and curious if this is even a possible reason. The short question would be, can a corrupted driver or other software issue cause my backlight to not turn on? Laptop specs in my signature, and the rest of the details of my issue below:

My backlight started to flicker randomly but not often, then eventually got to the point of going off for long periods of time and then not wanting to come on at all (initially this sounds like a failing hardware issue). I tried replacing the backlight inverter with no luck, took it to a local shop to no avail, no apparent loose connections, and can't force the light to come on or off. It would go out while the laptop was sitting perfectly still and not being used, but shaking it around and working the lid wouldn't cause it to go out if it's on. The local shop was thinking it was something like a bad connection on the main board not sending the right signal to the inverter and frying it. Since they weren't a factory authorized repair company, they couldn't dig more in to it and was pretty much left to send it in to Pro-Star for service.

Fast forward to recently... The laptop otherwised functions fine and the secondary monitor outs still worked and I had used it a few times like that with a VGA connection. After reading a thread on another forum about a similar issue, I came to realize something on mine. It seems that if the laptop is connected to a secondary monitor, the backlight on the laptop itself will eventually turn itself on. Looking back on my usage, I remember it doing this just about any time I had the VGA out connected. Amount of time it took to kick the light on would vary though. I hadn't touched it in about a year, but got a new program I'd been anxious to use and plugged it in using the secondary monitor as my main display. I had thought that the inverter was completely dead but I had left the room at one point and came back to find the light was on. I know it did install all the security updates for XP and rebooted, but even after that, the light was out a long while, so I'm sure that didn't fix the problem.

What got me to leaning towards a driver issue was because of that thread I read around the time I last used the laptop. This guy's issue was his secondary monitor would go black. The backlight on the monitor would stay on, just no image unless he did something within that viewing area like open a new Fire Fox tab. This started happening to him after an OS re-install and using video drivers for that specific monitor. Turns out that was his problem and using factory original drivers fixed the issue. Now in my case, I hadn't made any changes like that, but it got me wondering if mine got corrupted or something. My job keeps me away from home a lot and I haven't been able to test the theory about the VGA connection to see if there is any common amout of time it takes to kick the light on, or if it really does eventually turn on 100% of the time with the VGA. I will be home again in a couple of days to hopefully look more in to this.

 

I've never heard of a driver incompatibility affecting the backlight, but have you tried a fresh OS install yet? It sounds like you've been hunting around, but haven't done a fresh install. You could even try a linux liveCD to see if you can rule out a driver issue. Short of that working, you may have a fault on the motherboard itself (since the backlight and external output seem to be working/have been replaced already).

 

I don't have access to anything Linux to try that suggestion, but I did update the video drivers since they were pretty old anyway and didn't have anything to loose. With the exception of one instance where the backlight went out for about a minute and popped back on, things seem to be working ok again. I guess for right now, the verdict isn't completely in on it being a corrupted driver but the system is back up and running fine regardless. I've been using it for a while now for several hours at a time sometimes and the light hasn't gone out other than that once. I wouldn't mind more feedback, but for now I'm just happy this beast is working again.

And yes, I nicknamed it The Beast. I'm proud of the fact I could cook a small steak on my heat sinks.

 

You can boot up a "Live" Linux distribution from a CD without much effort at all. Just burn the image to disc and boot from it normally and you'll be in Linux. I've enjoyed using Ubuntu enough that I've partitioned my drive and installed it as a second OS. You can get more info here.