Thinkpads Forum

Hi!
My IBM X60 screen is going black. Can see the background, very dim though. Seem the machine is running. Can somebody solve my problem?

how dim? no backlight at all?

Cheapest thing to try: replace the inverter. But if it's not buzzing (at the bottom of the LCD), it's probably OK.
More likely it's a dying CCFL.
You either need to replace the backlight (CCFL) or replace the whole LCD if you are not handy with fiddly bits.

Coming in a bit after the fact but. . .

You mean the screen went black, you haven't been able to get the screen to come on again ?

Because I have a similar problem - after several hours of use, out of nowhere the screen goes black although the system is still running - similar to what you're experiencing it seems.

So far all I've been able to do to get the screen back again is to use the power button to put the machine to sleep, then wake it back up again.

Did you ever fix your problem ?

kbarb, I know your question is directed at the OP and not me, but I think your problem is the same...that is a dying CCFL (back lamp). I have had them do something similar, and sometimes if I reduced the brightness I could get the lamp to stay lit for a little longer. But, they will eventually go out completely, and won't come back on. What RBS wrote above is the fix for your case too.

Neil, thanks for the comments.

Hmm, strange. It really happens so seldomly, and there really aren't that many hours on this laptop.
You'd think if the CCFL was going out there'd be some signs of degeneration - but this is not a part of hardware I'm particularly familiar with (perhaps I'm going to be ).
Maybe it's in the early stages.

I'll have to watch more closely. As I remember it seems like the lamp is on, like there is light around the edges of something, but the screen is blacked out. It happens so seldomly I usually just do the sleep>>awake thing and get back going pretty fast.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread - just thought it might help the OP figure out his problem.

X60 were built about five years ago. Are you the original owner? If not, it's hard to say what kind of use it's seen over the years. Plus, it's not so much the total hours that wear the lamp as it is the on/off cycles it goes through. And, not just power on and off, but screen blanking from closing the lid to suspend cycles, etc. Anything that shuts the lamp off, and then brings it back on.

Anyway, could it be a screen blanking timer? Or some other software event rather than hardware failure? Have you checked your screen saver and power management settings?

Your symptoms still look like a failing CCFL to me, but it's hard to tell for sure from here.

I an have that when on battery and on tablet mode the screen goes black only want to make it come back is to put it on stand by, is that a driver issue or hardware issue?

Someone called my attention back to my post here so I'm reading it again . . .

I still have the problem actually - and like the poster before me wrote - it seems to only happen when on battery.
It hasn't gotten any worse, but it's still a bother.

@Neil : (8 months later )

Are you the original owner?

Yes I am the original owner, it's my travel laptop - and I have two other computers that get a lot more of my use - this one is sort of third in line.

Have you checked your screen saver and power management settings?

Yes, I checked both of those. In my experience, when those kinds of timers blank the screen, just mouse movement alone will bring back the screen. But not in this case.

It does seem like some kind of timer issue . . . but how to intervene ?
I was thinking to time how long it takes under battery power for the screen to go black - just to see if there's any regularity - but I always forget.
Also I was thinking maybe something under bios control but I doubt it.

If you ever open the laptop to replace the CCFL, you will most likely find that the CCFL is broken on one of the sides, just before where the wire is soldered onto the CCFL.
The tight fit holds it together still, but when it heats up sufficiently, it will conk out.
Powering down and up causes enough of a temperature drop for the CCFL to restart again - until the next time.
It WILL fail after a while.
BTW, the LCD from an X31 seems to be a possible replacement, follow this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=105844

Ah . . . finally a possible smoking gun.

So perhaps the "CCFL is broken on one of the sides" - and not having taken a look at it yet, if that turns out to be the case - I take it it's something I can't fix, as in resoldering, etc..
I'm not precisely sure what's broken there, but from your description it sounds like CCFL replacement.
I'll have to have a look.

How'd you ever figure that out ?

Anyway, thanks ! Finally an idea of what's going wrong.

-Kent

The CCFL is actually a long glass tube with a 2mm diameter, rather fragile.
And the tube is broken near one or both of the end(s), or more precisely: overheated, burnt through, then cracked.
I see quite a few of them, when I replace CCFLs.
And no, don't even bother asking, I will NOT replace a CCFL for anybody!

Thanks a lot for the explanation.

Don't worry, lol, I'm not going to be sending my laptop over for repair.
I'm pretty good with getting my hands dirty and doing my own repairs, and there are usually instructions all over the internet.

Actually I meant . . . since you had the word soldering in there . . . I thought maybe it was something that could be resoldered (not having worked on that particular item yet). I know you were talking about a different area (wire) when you were talking about soldering, just got a little over optimistic. But it doesn't sound like it has anything to do with soldering per se, but a replacement CCFL, if that's my laptop's issue.

But as for repairs in general, I'm pretty comfortable diving in.

Thanks again. Really happy to have an idea where to look now.

I'm going to ride on this thread as well. I have two X61's. All of a sudden, the pen input on one of them went awry, so i decided to open it up and investigage. I wondered if the lcd cable might be the culprit so i switched it with that of the other one and found that the LCD cable works just fine on the other laptop. I couldn't figure out what could be responsible for the sudden demise of the pen input so i decided it would take it to a technician. So while putting everything back together, all of a sudden, I noticed that both screens were now very dim, almost black but not quite, I could still faintly see the Thinkpad logo at bootime for instance. I am wondering what could be wrong. I have ordered an inverter on ebay which i will test.

I am just totally confused as to the sudden dimness, could it be becaue I was not shutting down the laptops properly when turning them off?

If it turns out that the CCFL's are dead, i'm wondering,how difficult is it to replace those on my own or would it be better to take it to a technician?

Thanks

There are a number of guides for all that stuff, just google away.

For one, if you check Lenovo's Support>>Guides & Manuals and put in your model number, you can find a "Hardware Maintenance Manual" which shows detailed instructions for replacing parts.

Also there are a number of related 3rd party instructions, although I didn't find too many for replacing the CCFL/bulb itself, which is inside the LCD screen at the bottom, afaik.
After removing the LCD screen you'd have to gently pry it apart to reveal the backlight assy.
I have the feeling that a lot of the vendors selling the CCFLs probably include some kind of generic instructions, but I'm not sure about that.

• How to replace an LCD screen backlight or bulb - youtube (kind of bad quality though.)
• How to replace the Lenovo / IBM Thinkpad T41 inverter
• How to replace broken LCD screen in Lenovo X60s laptop Lots of instructions for other laptops there too.

Myself, I guess I'm going to wait until the "screen going black" issue gets annoying enough, then probably look into replacing the CCFL.

RBS,

I have a quick question if you can kindly enlighten me. I purchased a new backlight, inverter, and even the inverter control board on ebay all to no avail. The screen remained dark. So I resorted to buying a new screen. When I inserted it into one of the tablets, it was perfect, the screen worked and I was glad.

I decided to try it with the other tablet and the same exact thing happened. The screen did not light up with the other tablet, but became dark like my former screens. When I returned it to the first one I tried it with, it still didn't light up. This leads me to suspect that one of my tablets is destroying the screens. Is this possible?

Thanks

Hello there!

I have a similar problem. But my screen went black after I'd cleaned fan inside my laptop. I wasn't doing anything with screen. Could I destroyed something (for example tape connecting screen with motherboard) that it isn't in LCD? Something on motherboard?

(I'm sorry for my English, that it isn't so well)
Regards,
cx