Backlight for laptop LCD display seems to be failing

My IBM ThinkPad is five years old now, but has lasted fairly well. A few months ago though, the backlight for the LCD screen started blanking out occasionally, so the screen goes black (some colors can be seen faintly through the black).

At first, this happened only when I was using the laptop on battery. Now it happens occasionally even when the laptop is plugged in to power. It seems to be happening more frequently as well.

I can usually get the screen going if I close the lid and then reopen it. Sometimes that makes it go on stand by, sometimes not. In either case, the screen backlight will often come on. Lately, though, I have had to close it more and more times to get the backlight to come on and stay on.

From other threads, I have heard that there are two neon lights behind the screen that do the backlighting. Perhaps they are going bad and need to be replaced. Or maybe there is some problem with the power to the backlight.

This laptop had several problems early on, all of which were repaired by IBM under warranty. But it is no longer under warranty, so I suspect that it will be cheaper to get it repaired by someone other than IBM.

Any thoughts on where I should get this repaired? Or whether, from a cost point of view, I should just get a new laptop?

 

Hi,
Several months ago I worked on a laptop and that too I think was an IBM, and it lost it's backlight. I called where they had their warranty thru and if the problem was covered under warranty the cost was not expensive, however if it was not then the cost was a little over $300...A local person in our area who takes laptops apart fixed it for $90.00...It also was not the backlight itself but another part that is connected to it was the cause (bear with my memory as it was several months ago). To the best of my knowledge there are no work around issues with this particular problem. Check around and see who offers the best price and hope for the best. In the mean time you can go to www.google.com and type in backlight and learn a little about it if you have not done so already...Good luck

 

I agree, normally the backlight is a fluorescent tube. It either works or not in most cases.
The most probable cause of your problem is that the connector from the LCD display to the motherboard is coming loose.
Without looking at a diagram of your laptop, I would say you need to first remove the keyboard(By sliding a pair of locking tabs near it and rotating it towards you) and some screws on the bottom of the case and then the top lifts off to give you access .
You will see the type of cable I am referring to if you rotate up the keyboard. It is connected with the same. It will look like a peice of 35mm film. Normally it slides into a slot and there is a tab to lock it. You lift the locking tab, pull it out, blow out any dust, slide it firmly down and re lock the tab.

 

Having IBM repair it almost certainly would be very expensive. Most of the major manufacturers (not sure about IBM) don't even service LCD's and will only sell you a new one which wouldn't make sense for you as they would charge something like $400 to $800 or even more. You should give them a call though just to see what they say.
If you know a good, local repair shop that services LCD's, take it in and see what they say. Backlight bulbs might be had at http://www.jkllamps.com/ and inverters (regulates power to the bulbs which also could be the problem) might had at a place like http://www.parts-people.com/.
I know IBM has support forums somewhere and you might ask about your problem there.
It's hard for me to tell what the problem is from your symptoms but, as a possible temporary workaround, turn down the display brightness all the way and see if that helps at all.
Five years is a respectable run for a notebook and, yes, you might want to consider getting a new machine. Huge improvements in the last five years.
Good luck,
Erronius

 

Thanks for the suggestions. So far I can get the display to work if I keep the laptop plugged in (so it is not on battery) and keep the brightness dialed down.

My plan is to take the laptop apart and check the connection, as suggested Oshwyn5, when I can find the time. Although since it works unless on battery, it seems unlikely that it is a loose connection.

Otherwise, I will just keep using it until it gives up and dies, and then buy something new. As Erronius says, I can get a much better one now. And at a fraction of the price.

Thanks again for the help.

 

When did you last replace the battery? It could be the battery is going bad and has an internal short or just not enough juice.

 

You know, I think you are right -- it probably is the battery. It's been two or three years since I replaced it, and there have been signs that it is going bad. And when I replaced the original battery, I used the cheapest replacement I could find, which is not always a good idea.

So I guess I need to choose between getting a new battery or retiring this computer and buying a whole new laptop. Tough choice.

Thanks again for the suggestion, Oshwyn.

 

Interesting development with my laptop. The problem with the backlight turning off still happened from time to time. But the problem usually went away after a while, so I was able to use it.

While using it yesterday, the top suddenly seemed to lock up a bit. It became hard to swivel, like something was jammed in the hinges. While moving it back and forth a bit to see what was happening, something seemed to give, and the lid became very easy to swivel.

In fact, too easy. Now the lid flops down if I open it too far beyond 90 degrees.

But the good news is, the backlight seems to stay on now. I have been using the laptop off and on all day, and the backlight has never turned off.

Is there any way to get the lid now to stay in place a little better? As loose as it is, I am afraid it might flop down too hard and break something. But I have never opened up the hinges to see how they work. Does anyone know?

Thanks.

 

The backlight turning off problem returned. Thought I had gotten lucky there, but no.

So I took off the keyboard as Oshwyn suggested and had a look. While I had it off, I was able to tighten down the nuts on the hinges, so maybe they will stay snug and the lid will not flop down.

I found the connector you referred to, Oshwyn, and it is the problem. Trouble is, I still get the problem intermittently even after I pulled the connector off, blew out the dust, and replaced the connector. Maybe the tape connector rolled around the hinge of the lid is going bad or something.

Hard to know what to do. Certainly the whole LCD display does not need to be replaced. But I do not know how to just replace the one connector. Looks like it is held down by a small torque s.c.r.e.w. (would not let me use the word *****!)

Anyway, I am into uncharted territory, so I'll try a few things. If anyone has any road map suggestions, let me know.

Thanks.