Thinkpads Forum

Was swapping out a dim T61 (7661-Y6U) SXGA LCD with a replacement, something I’ve done many times, and ran across a strange problem.

At the first power up, the boot screen appeared for a few seconds, there was a pffft sound and the screen went black (external still worked).
Upon inspection at least one and probably three components on the inverter were fried.

Assuming I screwed up, put the original LCD back in with a new inverter and it went also went pffft.
Same components were fried.
Picture, top one with gunk removed: http://s12.postimage.org/hpk3ccfsd/Inverter.jpg

I have another LCD cable but need to get a third inverter.
If it fries again with a different LCD cable there’s really nothing left but the MB – which was working fine?

Any thoughts?

Thanks, John

This might be a huge stretch, but...

Do you know for a fact that the replacement screen was fully functional? Here's why I'm asking:

Under certain conditions, a defective CCFL will in fact blow the inverter. Your dying original panel might qualify for producing this scenario. However, if the replacement LCD was a *known tested good* unit...well, then I'm out of ideas for now.

Thanks George, the replacement panel had the ‘serviceable used part’ sticker on it I’m inclined to believe it’s good but can’t swear to it.
I’ll borrow a known to be working panel to use with the second LCD cable when I get the next sacrificial inverter.