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Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

T60/T61 Series
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fefrie
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Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#1 Post by fefrie » Mon Jun 10, 2019 7:52 pm

I replaced the CCFL a couple of years ago and it brightened up the screen really nice. At the time, the inverter had some buzzing, but the replacement one had some buzzing too, so I returned the new one. Some pressure and some sticky tape kept the buzz away.

Things have been perfectly fine till about a half hour ago. The screen would go completely blank, and the "on" and "Plugged in" light would go orangey/green/pale, which is much different than the actual orange of 'battery charging'.

Restarting would fix the problem, as would putting the T60 into standby.

On further testing, putting the brightness at the lowest setting and the problem would stay away.

And on putting it on max brightness....yup after 2 min, blank screen. No backlight, orangy/green/pale indicator lights. lower brightness to min, standby 10 seconds, bring back from standby, walk down 1 brightness setting, blank screen, repeat, down to one up from min setting at the moment for it to stay on at any length of time.

So that's a faulty inverter right?

I've got a 'server' t60. Also 14" form factor, but just a xga, not sxga screen. Can I use that inverter in this one?
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TinkerMan
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Re: Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#2 Post by TinkerMan » Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:56 pm

I am also interested on this topic
commenting to get notification when someone else finds a solution.
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fefrie
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Re: Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#3 Post by fefrie » Thu Jun 27, 2019 5:45 pm

Tested with a known good inverter and same issues. So the inverter is not the problem. So the problem is either before the inverter or after the inverter.

So onto installing another ccfl. Did it once already, and replacements only last a year or so according to one source. Surprisingly not hard to do, just tedious.

PITA that it only lasted this long, but for a year, the screen was wonderfully bright, so I'll deal with it I guess and be more mindful of standby when not in use.

ATM it sits running, and I just remote in when I need something from it. I'm missing some horsepower and ergonomics and waiting for the ccfl to come in from china.
IBM Thinkpad T23 1.13 2647-9LU 640MB Ram 40GB hard drive SOLD!
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wujstefan
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Re: Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#4 Post by wujstefan » Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:36 am

Weirdo. My first bet would really be the inverter. Fortunately these systems are cheap nowadays, so hopefully there's no issue that would hurt your wallet (much).
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TRS-80
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Re: Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#5 Post by TRS-80 » Fri Jul 05, 2019 6:24 pm

I love my T60s (I am typing this on my daily driver right now, and I still collect them for spares) but they are pretty inefficient (power wise) by today's standards (20-40W running all the time!). Plus that seems like a waste of a good backlight/display and keyboard to me. :)

So why not instead purchase some sort of Single Board Computer to use as a (headless) server? I have a little Cubietruck at home running Debian with 16TB of storage attached. It runs several services including file/contact/calendar sync, an XMPP messaging server, etc... and all for only about $20 per year in electricity!
All good things are Wild and Free.

What is free software and why is it so important for society?

(2022) Actively on the lookout for for 15" T60 FlexView / Hydis LED displays and parts, for my own usage. Kindly PM me your demands if you are willing to part with anything. :D

fefrie
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Re: Signs of a bad inverter of CCFL?

#6 Post by fefrie » Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:45 pm

wujstefan wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:36 am
Weirdo. My first bet would really be the inverter. Fortunately these systems are cheap nowadays, so hopefully there's no issue that would hurt your wallet (much).
Updated issue here:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=129283
IBM Thinkpad T23 1.13 2647-9LU 640MB Ram 40GB hard drive SOLD!
T42 SXGA 1.7 64mb xp

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