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    LED Backlight works intermittently on SR-390

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by kayakergod, Feb 5, 2012.

  1. kayakergod

    kayakergod Newbie

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    I have this weird problem with the backlight on my Vaio Sr-390, that I haven't seen anywhere else.

    I was watching a movie on it, and all of a sudden the screen went black (movie still playing though). I can see a very faint image underneath if I shine a flashlight at it. It was like this for a couple of days, and today the backlight came back on, flickering on/off for a few seconds, and showing a stable image at full brightness for maybe 10 minutes before going out again. During this time (when it was on), brightness controls did not work. Here is what I have determined so far:

    • It's not the inverter, because this is an LED backlit screen.
    • It's not the monitor itself, since it shows capacity for working normally.
    • It's not the graphics card on the motherboard since it works fine with an external monitor/still shows image if I check the screen with a flashlight.
    • It's not the connections because it turned on today while the computer was sitting perfectly still, and no amount of shaking/lid movement changed anything.
    • I thought it might be a fuse on the motherboard at first, but I could not locate any fuse that was blown with a multimeter (all the fuses had resistance of about 0.5 ohm). Also, since it turned on for a while today, it can't be a fuse (then it would be out for good).
    • It's not a software issue. I tried rolling back and/or updating drivers with absolutely no results. Changing power settings, etc does nothing either. Also updated BIOS with no result.

    I am really at a loss as to what this could be. I'm fairly certain that it's a motherboard issue, but that would be a $250 part assuming I can even find a correct replacement. Maybe a lid-closed detector (though would not that cause the computer to sleep)? Maybe some motherboard component that interprets brightness setting to adjust it?

    Any ideas?
     
    kayakergod, Feb 5, 2012
    #1