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Laptop LCD Backlight Replacment

M

mdawg

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 4, 2006
Messages
79
My friend has a HP Laptop, which he just bought a new one to replace it because the backlight on the lcd had gone out. I was wondering if I can fix this, link me to some mods cause I may be able to just get this laptop for free from him if im lucky to try and fix.
 
Yes, you can, in theory at least. LCDs almost always have cold cathode fluorescent bulbs. If the backlight goes out, it's usually the bulbs. Well, those can be purchased separate and you can put them in. Is it easy? No. You need to take apart the display to the point you can get at the bulbs. Once you have found them you need to find out what kind they are and locate replacements. Not the kind of thing you find at Wal Mart. You'd probably have to order from a place like Digikey, if anyone was to have them. Then when you get the new ones you need to put them in, which may require soldering work. Then close it back up. Supposing you didn't break anything in this process and supposing it was the bulbs, then there you go.

As a practical matter if you don't have a lot of electronics experience I don't think I'd try it. I'd either find someone who doe it professionally and pay them, if it is important to you to have as a laptop, or hook it to another display and use it as a serer or something.
 
Yeah, I feel confident to take it apart and do all of that. Its just finding the bulb replacement I mean it is just a small cathode cant be that hard to find. Its his old laptop that he is just going to trash because he went ahead and got a new one. Point me to some places where I can find the bulb replacements. I'll also try hooking it to a different monitor first such a simple way to test it and I never thought of it.
 
hey there,
first of all I am by no means an expert. I recently replaced about 50 backlights on 14 inch lcds for a friend of mine. they were all for laptops. i can honestly say that while it is not a hard thing to do it is very time consuming. you have to be very careful to not break the backlight when you are pulling it out of the space/slot that it's in. laptop makers seem to use different maufacturers for their lcds so it migyht be possible to match another lcd to the machine as long as the connectors line up. what i usually do is take the lcd front bezel off and then remove the lcd carefully. I then very carefully remove all of the connectors ie. the inverter cable, the lcd connector at the back-be super careful with this. if you are lucky it might work but it sounds like a dead backlight in your case. just a question: when you turn the machine on can you see the lcd work in a dark lightless background? OR is it completely dark?
i'm a hurry right now but if you have any other questions ask away and i'll try to answer them for you.
cheers!
 
Sycraft said:
Yes, you can, in theory at least. LCDs almost always have cold cathode fluorescent bulbs. If the backlight goes out, it's usually the bulbs. Well, those can be purchased separate and you can put them in. Is it easy? No. You need to take apart the display to the point you can get at the bulbs. Once you have found them you need to find out what kind they are and locate replacements. Not the kind of thing you find at Wal Mart. You'd probably have to order from a place like Digikey, if anyone was to have them. Then when you get the new ones you need to put them in, which may require soldering work. Then close it back up. Supposing you didn't break anything in this process and supposing it was the bulbs, then there you go.

As a practical matter if you don't have a lot of electronics experience I don't think I'd try it. I'd either find someone who doe it professionally and pay them, if it is important to you to have as a laptop, or hook it to another display and use it as a serer or something.
Click to expand...

It is not but so hard to do but most of the time it is the inverter not the cathode tube. First thing you do is either test the inverter or replace it. If the inverter is bad you then replace the bulb.
 
Yeah, 99% of the time its the inverter which is an easy plug in replacement. Probably $20 on ebay for a new one.

I don't know where the rest of you nooblets are getting your info :D
 
killernoodle said:
Yeah, 99% of the time its the inverter which is an easy plug in replacement. Probably $20 on ebay for a new one.

I don't know where the rest of you nooblets are getting your info :D
Click to expand...


:( i destroyed a perfectly good laptop lcd trying to replace the bulb, only to order a new lcd and have it not work and then replacing the inverter for it to work. that was an expensive mistake. Like that time i spent 5 hours in an stripmall parkinglot trying to replace an alternator by myself, only to find out the only reason my battery was dying was because of a bad fuse...
 
Im pretty sure he said he could faintly see things on the screen. How do I need to go about testing the inverter by chance?
 
mdawg said:
Im pretty sure he said he could faintly see things on the screen. How do I need to go about testing the inverter by chance?
Click to expand...

Test light would do it. The output on an inverter is in the thousands of volts so you don't want to hit it with a dmm.

Best thing to do would prob be just spend the 20 to 40 bucks on one off ebay.
 
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