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From: bstretch on 3 Apr 2008 15:27
My Dell Inspiron 4150 had what looked like the usual bad inverter
problem so I replaced it. Now the backlight lights up for maybe 1
second, enough to briefly see the BIOS startup screen, then goes
dark. I can see the faint unlit display so the panel works. I'm
stumped. Before I give up and strip it for parts, anyone have any
ideas? External displays work perfectly.
From: BillW50 on 3 Apr 2008 16:54
In
news:74c5eac2-de07-4a3f-a1eb-a84d6ad6503c(a)m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com,
bstretch(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:27:41 -0700 (PDT):
> My Dell Inspiron 4150 had what looked like the usual bad inverter
> problem so I replaced it. Now the backlight lights up for maybe 1
> second, enough to briefly see the BIOS startup screen, then goes
> dark. I can see the faint unlit display so the panel works. I'm
> stumped. Before I give up and strip it for parts, anyone have any
> ideas? External displays work perfectly.

Same thing happened to my second Gateway MX6124. Then I bought a used
inverter from eBay and it worked fine for a few weeks and now it might
lite up or not. Depends on how it feels. I'm just guessing here, but the
lamp might be drawing a bit more than spec. Thus taking the inverter out
in a short time.

I did about 6 months ago find a place on the Internet that rebuilds
inverters better than original they say. Kind of pricy too. Mine for
example they said would cost 80 bucks. But I am seriously thinking of
it. If you can't find it, I'll try to find it again when I have some
free time.

--
Bill

From: bstretch on 3 Apr 2008 19:56
On Apr 3, 4:54 pm, "BillW50" <Bill...(a)aol.kom> wrote:
> Innews:74c5eac2-de07-4a3f-a1eb-a84d6ad6503c(a)m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com,
> bstre...(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:27:41 -0700 (PDT):
>
> > My Dell Inspiron 4150 had what looked like the usual bad inverter
> > problem so I replaced it.  Now the backlight lights up for maybe 1
> > second, enough to briefly see the BIOS startup screen, then goes
> > dark.  I can see the faint unlit display so the panel works.  I'm
> > stumped.  Before I give up and strip it for parts, anyone have any
> > ideas?  External displays work perfectly.
>
> Same thing happened to my second Gateway MX6124. Then I bought a used
> inverter from eBay and it worked fine for a few weeks and now it might
> lite up or not. Depends on how it feels. I'm just guessing here, but the
> lamp might be drawing a bit more than spec. Thus taking the inverter out
> in a short time.
>
> I did about 6 months ago find a place on the Internet that rebuilds
> inverters better than original they say. Kind of pricy too. Mine for
> example they said would cost 80 bucks. But I am seriously thinking of
> it. If you can't find it, I'll try to find it again when I have some
> free time.
>
> --
> Bill

Does that imply that replacing the lamp might fix things? I'm not
sure if I want to try that though.
From: BillW50 on 3 Apr 2008 20:48
In news:e287bc1f-69b0-4cc5-bc2b-cf405c883fa5(a)2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com,
bstretch(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 16:56:32 -0700 (PDT):
> On Apr 3, 4:54 pm, "BillW50" <Bill...(a)aol.kom> wrote:
>> Innews:74c5eac2-de07-4a3f-a1eb-a84d6ad6503c(a)m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com,
>> bstre...(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:27:41 -0700
>> (PDT):
>>
>>> My Dell Inspiron 4150 had what looked like the usual bad inverter
>>> problem so I replaced it. Now the backlight lights up for maybe 1
>>> second, enough to briefly see the BIOS startup screen, then goes
>>> dark. I can see the faint unlit display so the panel works. I'm
>>> stumped. Before I give up and strip it for parts, anyone have any
>>> ideas? External displays work perfectly.
>>
>> Same thing happened to my second Gateway MX6124. Then I bought a used
>> inverter from eBay and it worked fine for a few weeks and now it
>> might lite up or not. Depends on how it feels. I'm just guessing
>> here, but the lamp might be drawing a bit more than spec. Thus
>> taking the inverter out in a short time.
>>
>> I did about 6 months ago find a place on the Internet that rebuilds
>> inverters better than original they say. Kind of pricy too. Mine for
>> example they said would cost 80 bucks. But I am seriously thinking of
>> it. If you can't find it, I'll try to find it again when I have some
>> free time.
>>
>> --
>> Bill
>
> Does that imply that replacing the lamp might fix things? I'm not
> sure if I want to try that though.

I wish I could tell you. As my guess is both of them may need to be
replaced right now. Some day it will bug me enough and I will find out.
Right now I use it with an external monitor.

--
Bill

From: bstretch on 9 Apr 2008 21:27
On Apr 3, 8:48 pm, "BillW50" <Bill...(a)aol.kom> wrote:
> Innews:e287bc1f-69b0-4cc5-bc2b-cf405c883fa5(a)2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com,
> bstre...(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 16:56:32 -0700 (PDT):
>
>
>
> > On Apr 3, 4:54 pm, "BillW50" <Bill...(a)aol.kom> wrote:
> >> Innews:74c5eac2-de07-4a3f-a1eb-a84d6ad6503c(a)m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com,
> >> bstre...(a)mindspring.com typed on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:27:41 -0700
> >> (PDT):
>
> >>> MyDellInspiron4150had what looked like the usual bad inverter
> >>> problem so I replaced it. Now the backlight lights up for maybe 1
> >>> second, enough to briefly see the BIOS startup screen, then goes
> >>> dark. I can see the faint unlit display so the panel works. I'm
> >>> stumped. Before I give up and strip it for parts, anyone have any
> >>> ideas? External displays work perfectly.
>
> >> Same thing happened to my second Gateway MX6124. Then I bought a used
> >> inverter from eBay and it worked fine for a few weeks and now it
> >> might lite up or not. Depends on how it feels. I'm just guessing
> >> here, but the lamp might be drawing a bit more than spec. Thus
> >> taking the inverter out in a short time.
>
> >> I did about 6 months ago find a place on the Internet that rebuilds
> >> inverters better than original they say. Kind of pricy too. Mine for
> >> example they said would cost 80 bucks. But I am seriously thinking of
> >> it. If you can't find it, I'll try to find it again when I have some
> >> free time.
>
> >> --
> >> Bill
>
> > Does that imply that replacing the lamp might fix things?  I'm not
> > sure if I want to try that though.
>
> I wish I could tell you. As my guess is both of them may need to be
> replaced right now. Some day it will bug me enough and I will find out.
> Right now I use it with an external monitor.
>
> --
> Bill

I took apart the screen to swap in a new backlight and it turns out
that one of the wires had broken off the old backlight. Sometimes it
made contact, sometimes it didn't. Must have been a bad soldering job
to begin with. That was probably the only thing wrong but I swapped
in the new backlight anyhow and now everything is working.

Swapping backlights is an absolute PITA. I had help. Swapping
screens would have been a saner approach in retrospect, but having a
brand new bulb in there soldered correctly has its merits.
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