T4x backlights die at 48 months?

[sktn77a]

After 4 years of use, my daughter's 4 year old 14" T40 screen started booting up with the pink/red LCD display - LCD backlight going out. Rather than paying to have is fixed out of warranty, I sold it as a parts/repair computer. Now my son's 4 year old 15" T42 is having the same issue. That's 2 out of 3 (I also have a T41/reballed GPU) at 48 months! Is the backlight failure really 70% at 4 years or have I just been unlucky?

Fortunately, the T42 is still under a 5 year IBM depot warranty but I wonder if the will fix it with just a reddish hue at boot-up or will they say "it's not failed yet - tough!" Anybody had this repaired under warranty at this stage?

[ajkula66]

They WILL fix it for a reddish hue. I've had it done more than once.

When you call them, make the issue of brightness the main one, and mention the redness as well, but INSIST on the brightness part of the story.

Good luck.

[bill bolton]

Is the backlight failure really 70% at 4 years or have I just been unlucky?

You've just been unlucky.

I'm currently working on a site with a fair number of older T4x models still in service in hand-me down roles. The modest number of T4x retirements have all been for freeze (assumed GPU) failures and there have been no backlight failures

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Hangfire]

Yeah, my back light has just gone out, it too is at the 4 or 5 yr. mark...

Everything else works fine, I'll get it repaired and use it for another 4 or 5!!!

[FTC]

Hi, well, out of the T4s I've had, one had the LCD failing at the 3yr mark (after a daily use higher than 10 hours), and the other, which gets a much lower daily use is still fine after 5 years, so I'd assume the life of an LCD/Backlight is probably more fixed in terms of use hours (probably around 10-15K hours or so).. than in elapsed time.

[Harryc]

... the life of an LCD/Backlight is probably more fixed in terms of use hours (probably around 10-15K hours or so).. than in elapsed time.

I agree. The age of the machine is meaningless with regard to backlight longevity. It's the # of total hours used. What I'm interested in is seeing specs on how long the new LED backlit LCD's last before getting dim . Yes, LEDs do get dim over time ...

But at this point, LEDs and CCFLs overall appear to be at near parity for all relevant parameters, such as luminous efficiency (in the range of 50 to 100 lumens/watt) and lifetime (25,000 to 75,000 hours).

The newer CCFL technology claims 50,000 hours run time. That is 5.7 years of 24x7.

So, if you replace your old CCFL with one of these 50,000 hour ones, and lets say you run it 12 hours a day, that is 10 years of service. Someone try this and post back in 10 years

[sktn77a]

Thanks all. Let's hope they can replace the existing screen with the same flexview model.....................