Dimmed screen -- dead inverter?

[Durftard]

Last year my Aunt gave my little sister her old HP DV1000 Laptop. Yesterday the screen suddenly went extremely dark -- it's now just light enough to make out general shapes on the screen. She doesn't want to put hundreds of dollars into this laptop (it's SLOW) to replace the screen, so she asked if I could find a way to repair it.

I've never owned a laptop... Heck, I've never even used a laptop, let alone try and do screen repairs.

A bit of searching on Google points at the "inverter" as being the culprit... is this a safe assessment? And is this a fairly accurate guide to replacing said "inverter" if it's really the problem? http://members.cox.net/unchecked/HPRepair/default.htm

Where would be a good place to buy an inverter? I'm trying to search through HP's "Parts store" but it's slower than the laptop! blah

 

[peterhuang913]

It's either the inverter or the light itself.

 

[Peter.Cort]

its either the inverter or the screen. and a replacement inverter is usually under 20 bucks shipped, and screens can run anywhere from 60-100+ bucks. so if its the inverter great, if the inverter doesn't work, oh well you wasted 20 bucks, but thats not a lot of money. So try and go with an inverter, its pretty straight forward, just like make sure you can keep all the screws in order and remember where they go in the chassis.

 

[Durftard]

is there any way to test if the inverter is the dead piece? aside from replacing it and seeing if it works again, lol

 

[Peter.Cort]

not that i know of, google it.

 

[jakebrick]

It is the inverter. If you are getting a picture at all (just darker) then it's the inverter. The way laptop screens work (all lcd's I guess) is that there is just some screens (like lenses) that distribute the light coming from the bottom of the LCD through the front of the LCD. LCD panels, block a lot of light, so the light needs to be somewhat bright, that's why there's a special inverter and stuff. If you shine a flashlight onto it, and still see your desktop or whatever, then you're in business, it's the inverter. Sometimes, if the LCD is dead, the light will still work, so that's another sign that it's just the inverter.

I'm in the process of turning an old laptop LCD into a projector (by using special lenses and shining a very very bright light through to get the image to the wall) right now. And to test if my LCD worked after I ditched the inverter was just to shine a light on it. Good luck to you, it's not really that bad to replace either, it's just taking the laptop apart that sucks.