Blacklight Problem with z61t - Need help!

[sparta.rising]

I'm at my wit's end with this, so I would appreciate some help.

I cracked the LCD of my z61t a few weeks ago and I've gone through a number of ebay vendors trying to get a good LCD. The first one I'm 90% sure had a bad backlight. I plugged in the panel and the backlight didn't turn on. I plugged the cracked panel back in and its backlight worked. Returned it. The second panel I ordered was some generic panel even though the seller sold it as genuine. Returned it. The third panel just came in and when I plugged in the panel the backlight didn't turn on. I plugged the cracked panel in and its backlight didn't work.

So now I ask, what's the problem? When your backlight doesn't work the causes are (1) bad CCFL tube (2) bad inverter (3) bad display cable (4) bad motherboard. All 4 were working fine a week ago, and the laptop has just been sitting on my desk for the last week, so what happened?

One of the causes of bad motherboard is a fuse pops, which I guess could have happened.

Another idea is that the laptop thinks the screen is closed. Older laptops had a physical switch for open/closed panel, but I haven't seen it on the z61t. Does anyone know what/where the switch is? If you followed another thread of mine, I painted the lid and bezels, so I'm wondering if the switch is covered or stuck.

I'd appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!

[RealBlackStuff]

AFAIK it is a magnetic lid switch, which should not 'suffer' from your painting.
Don't know it's location though.

As to the LCDs, the 'genuine' one may have caused a fuse to blow.
Some hard searching on the mobo will be required to find it, if so.
Does an external monitor work?

Another option: maybe the CCFL in the cracked LCD gave up the ghost...

[sparta.rising]

Its amazing how much more frustrating doing repairs are when its your personal machine.

[richk]

plugging incompatible lcds in can blow a fuse

[sparta.rising]

It was the inverter. Not sure what happened to it, but I cannibalized my girlfriend's z61t for a working one!