Backlight confirmation

[ritchie888]

Hey guys,

I need some quick advice as I'm a bit against the clock on a problem I'm having.

I have two SL300 (slightly different specs from each other, but mostly the same). I have one normal use one, and one I got off eBay for spares (I busted the palm rest a while back and it was going to be manic expensive to replace, or buy this spare and use that one, which I did and worked great!). The spare one I bought had a busted backlight, as far as I could tell it worked fine when plugged into another monitor. The image is on the screen, just very dim, standard backlight problem.

Anyway, today disaster struck as my normal use SL also now has a backlight problem. The battery was about to die, I plugged in the mains power supply, and the image dropped immediately. Same standard problem as my spare SL, the image is there but very dim, I have it connected to my TV at the moment through HDMI to write this.

I've played around with both of my SL screens, both of which work, but have the backlight problem, I can't get either to work properly again so it looks like I have to get a new inverter, but here's the catch, the SL screen (FRU 42T0506) doesn't have a separate inverter, it's hard wired into the screen so I cannot buy it separately, I have to buy the screen which will come with the inverter.

This wouldn't be a problem, but my concern is that when I got my spare SL I tried plugging in the good screen to see if it was just a backlight problem, but it still wouldn't light up, even with the 'good' screen. This has led me to think that there could be another reason why the backlight is busted, can someone tell me if there is any other hardware problem that could cause this?

To recap:
- Images on the screen but very dim
- everything works fine when plugged into another monitor/TV, I'm sure this isn't software related.

Will buying a new screen that comes with the inverter solve my problem? The way I see it this can either be a screen or inverter problem, by getting both I'm all good, but have a fear that something else could cause this.

I've also noticed that backlight problems are amongst the most common problems with laptops, but I'm worried fitting a new monitor and plugging in the power supply is going to blow it again, is my problem common and should my new screen be fine against plugging the power supply in? I don't want to buy a £60 screen only to immediately blow it again.

Cheers! Appreciate any help!

[ritchie888]

I've just seen this post which speaks of a capacitor/fuse problem that could be what I have:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=85680

I've opened up my SL and identified what I think is the 'P' fuse and it's capacitor (although they're in a different positioning on the SL300 they're in the same basic location). I don't know what to do with them. I have a background in electronics but not to this extent. It's very hard to test with the case all open, is there anyway I can identify whether this is the fuse/capacitor causing my problem, or the much simpler problem of the inverter/monitor.

Cheers.