T42 LCD goes Dark

[elliotlewis]

Does anyone know an easy way to tell if you have a bad Inverter or a bad LCD Screen? I have read the IBM manual and it tells you to basically take apart the laptop however in some forums I have read that it is just the screen.

Any suggestions?


Elliot

[EOMtp]

Given what you describe -- presumably you can discern very dim items on the LCD if you view it in a relatively dark setting -- one cannot differentiate between dead inverter and/or dead backlight without testing the parts. Negligible probability that both are bad; 95% probability of bad LCD; 5% probability of bad inverter; negligible probability something else is wrong.
Good luck!

[elliotlewis]

Thank you. I will test the Inverter first since it is a lot cheaper.

[GomJabbar]

You can replace the CCFL backlight in the display quite cheaply. IBM/Lenovo does not sell this part separately, but you can buy it from other sources. I personally have not done this yet. There is a Sticky in the 770 600/570 Series and Transnote forum on the procedure for 600 series models. Whether your problem is the inverter or backlight, I cannot say. However, if you have been seeing pink when the display is dimmed, this might indicate the backlight as the culprit.

Here is a site you can order backlights from: http://lcdpart.com/

[elliotlewis]

Thanks, I do see a little pink. I wonder how tough it will be to install.

[Paxonator]

The difficulty seems to differ from lcd to lcd. Some are just snapped together while others are glued. For the most part the toughest seem to be toshiba lcds and thinkpad screens aren't that bad.