ooolll pcg-tr2a issues...anyone wanna lend a hand?

hey all...

I just pulled my girlfriend's old vaio pcg-tr2a out of the closet and started tinkering...had it a apart a few times before so i kinda know the ins and outs of it for the most part...

my issue with it is, I can SEE the display, but it is not lit...i can tilt it in such a way that I can get around xp, see where my mouse pointer is, etc...but the LCD has no brightness...BUT...i DO get a flash of brightness upon startup, for like half a second, then goes dark...

also, for SOME reason, I have figured out that the keyboard is not working as well, and I am thinking this may be cause of my issue because I have now (that i can remember or think of) to control the features such as brightness, switching from LCD to external display, sleep, etc...

I am using an a USB keyboard that seems to work so so far, but i still have no access to the system shortcuts/OSD options...i should be able to press FUNCTION and then the corresponding key, to adjust brightness. volume, etc...

i figured maybe the drivers were corrupt, and it has been about 3 years since i played with it, so i did a recovery on it as well, thinking it would reinstall the drivers, but no joy...

thoughts? suggestions?

thanks in advance for helping out with a rainy sunday afternoon project!!

 

ok, so after some tinkering and some contact points cleaning, i got the keyboard to work, as well as my OSD display/sound controls...

BUT...i STILL cant get the brightness of the screen to go up...

am i looking at a hardware problem now or another issue?

any ideas?

 

It is possible that your LCD backlights are failing. Try hooking it up to an external monitor and see if you can get a windows screen.

 

yeah it works thru external VGA connection...so is there a way to determine further what my problem is? I have a feeling and am hoping its the CCFL simply because I can still SEE the screen, it just has no light on it...

IF IT IS the CCFL, is this an easy replacement if i am used to tinkering and have had this laptop apart a few times?

i just dont want to send a 5 year old laptop out for repair if its gonna cose me 300 bucks, but if i can do it myself for a new 25-50 dollar bulb then i will do it myself...

anyone have any thoughts??

 

If it is the CCFL, then yes, you can replace it (them). A bit more work than normal inverter replacement, but doable, and some soldering might be involved.

cheers ...