Screen troubles - any advice?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Is it feasible to try to buy a screen element and stick it into my
aging notebook?

The backlight is dead; the faint image still visible under a strong
lamp.

Who is best to approach for spares? Can I expect to accomplish this
myself; my toolkit is fairly good.

The notebook was bought from ROCK about 4 1/2 years ago: presumably an ACER
under the skin, but there is "MTC Taiwan" on the bottom. It is a
700MHz PIII, on its third HDD. Still does 10 hours a day work every
day.

Or, is it time to call time on this dinosaur?

Thanks
Phil

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Either the lamps or the inverter have failed. In principle it's
possible to replace both of them without replacing the screen. The
problem with replacing the inverter is finding a replacement part. This
is something of an issue with the lamps also, but you can probably find
replacement lamps (I think that Digikey and Newark both carry some
generic lamps in a variety of lengths and diameters, and these will
probably work if you can match the size). However, the ease of changing
the lamps in an LCD panel varies from extremely easy to essentially
impossible in the field.

Other than that, you MAY be able to find a complete replacement panel,
which would include the lamps, but if the problem is the inverter, that
won't fix it.

Be extremely careful working in this area, the output of the inverter is
extremely high voltage (sometimes over 1,000 volts) and can be lethal
(if the inverter is working).

There are some laptop repair sites that can quote the job at a flat
rate. Be certain that they understand that the actual LCD panel is
working, that this problem is limited to the backlight (meaning either
lamps or inverter).


PFO wrote:

> Is it feasible to try to buy a screen element and stick it into my
> aging notebook?
>
> The backlight is dead; the faint image still visible under a strong
> lamp.
>
> Who is best to approach for spares? Can I expect to accomplish this
> myself; my toolkit is fairly good.
>
> The notebook was bought from ROCK about 4 1/2 years ago: presumably an ACER
> under the skin, but there is "MTC Taiwan" on the bottom. It is a
> 700MHz PIII, on its third HDD. Still does 10 hours a day work every
> day.
>
> Or, is it time to call time on this dinosaur?
>
> Thanks
> Phil