Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone,
Can anyone help me with my problem?
My L520 screen is black when I turn it on. Everything powers up, the on/off button is on, I can hear the fan going and the cd Rom tray opens okay.
I've tried the usual stuff like removing the battery and holding the power button for a minute or so, removed and replaced the Ram boards but nothing works.
When I turn my machine on and shine a bright light at the screen I can see the (very faint) ThinkPad logo so I'm sure it's a problem with the screen.
Anyone any suggestions on how to fix this problem?
Thanks in advance.
M

Re-seating the cable doesn't cost anything and wasn't in your list of everything you tried. I would hook it to an external screen to see if that flies before spending money on a new screen.

Thanks for your reply ZaZ.
Sorry for sounding stupid bit could you tell me how to re-seat the cable?
Thanks again.

I don't have the specifics on the L520, but it should be in the Hardware Maintenance Manual.

What ZaZ means is (probably) re-seating the LVDS connector which is on your motherboard. What you do is you take the machine apart - I don't know the specifics of the L520 either, but in X220 the LVDS connector sits under the keyboards, so it pretty much suffices to remove the keyboard to see that connector.

For my money, your problem might be backlight fault in the panel - if you see something faintly visible there. Try shining a light (can be the torchlight from your smartphone) into the screen at varying angles. If that helps you see any letters/graphics (whatever is displayed) then it's backlight for sure. If re-seating and reconnecting cables doesn't help, such symptoms mean you need to replace the panel.

Of course, you should also try with an external display - just connect some monitor you find to the VGA port and start the system like this. This will help you verify the system runs fine (which I guess is the case).
good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I'll try that out.

MAKE SURE your battery and AC adapter are detached and static electricity discharged before doing anything with the LCD cable, or an unblown fuse may blow.