Laptop Backlight Problem

Tag

Hey all,

So my old Dell Latitude D600 has been giving me a lot of trouble lately, but the most frustrating thing is a new occurrence where the screen goes black. It doesn't totally go off -- if there was something on the screen you can *just* make it out if theres enough light in the room, but for all intents and purposes it might as well be totally off. Nothing else seems to be effected by this -- you can type, move the mouse, save, etc. It is just impossible to see what you're doing.

I have no idea what is causing this, and the only way I've gotten around it is to close the laptop lid and reopen it (or press the button the lid hits) which causes the backlight to go back on. The screen could act fine for hours or turn off in seconds, and there doesn't seem to be any consistent trigger. I've wiped the hard drive and reverted to its original BIOS without any change, so I'm pretty certain some element of the backlight hardware is failing, but there is no color distortion which most sites list as a common problem with a dying backlight, so maybe I'm wrong.

Any ideas as to the exact problem or any solutions? I'm in the process of buying a new computer and whether or not this laptop is salvageable will make a big impact on what kind of machine I get, so any ideas would be very appreciated.

--TAG

romanqwerty

I have the exact same problem. I believe it is the backlight of the LCD. Right now i have it plugged into a external monitor and am using it as normal. I was told to take it back to where i bought it from and they'd repair it but that is a decent way a way so i havnt got there yet.

Recoil42

My ex is also having a similar problem with her laptop (a Compaq), she actually just dropped it off to me yesterday, I intend to take a look at it tommorow, but my first intuition is that there's something off either a frayed wire, or disconnection with the wiring that goes from the motherboard to the monitor, and feeds it power.

Don't forget, it IS a joint, and that wiring is packed in there pretty tight, so if it's not perfectly, it's a totally reasonable assumption that the plastic shell could cut, split, or just otherwise screw up the insulation around the wire, and then eventually into the wire itself.

So I'd suggest that -- crack it open with a screwdriver (it's not that hard, they're built fairly simple inside -- all the major parts are integrated into the motherboard to save space, remember), get into the joint, and make sure the wiring there is all ok.

Otherwise, my other idea is that it could be the switch/sensor itself that detects whether the lid is closed, but that's less likely, because AFAIK most modern laptops don't have two sensors like older ones do, (ie, one for the screen and one to actually decide when to go into hibernate/standby) only one that decides both. (ie, the one sensor tells that laptop to do whatever it deems the correct action when the lid is closed)