This is topic Dead Notebook Display - Looking for tips on dealing with it. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005717

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-13-2009, 10:26 PM:
 
When I turned on my 4 year old Dell Inspiron 6000d notebook today, the display just stayed blank. I'm not sure if the cold cathode fluorescent lamp has died or just gone faulty or if it's the invertor.

Anyway, I currently have an external monitor cable feeding a 1280 X 1024 desktop image to my 52" Sony Bravia™ XBR4 TV. Pretty odd since both the TV screen and notebook screen have wide aspect ratios. At least I can still use my notebook computer to some limited degree, such as backing up any important data off the thing and posting little notes here. The image is strangely even more pillar-boxed than the SD video from certain broadcasts from local TV stations.

First of all, is there any trick I can use to trick the notebook into using the HDTV screen as the primary display? Apparently it will support the TV's native 1920 X 1080 resolution as a second monitor -but only if I expand the desktop from the primary monitor (the dead notebook screen) to the HDTV. I'm a bit scared of doing that because I think my icons, task bar, etc. will be stuck on the dead screen (along with any launching applications).

I've looked at various D.I.Y. web pages on replacing notebook monitor CCFL back lights, invertors, etc. I'm pretty freaking busy these days and also don't want to screw up something that seems like a delicate repair process.

Manufacturers like Dell, etc. charge a shitload to repair an issue like this -probably in part to get the user to cave in and buy a completely new notebook computer for even more money. Anyone have experience having local repair shops tackling such work? With as many people migrating from desktops to notebooks it would seem like this kind of repair job would be a fairly common thing that didn't necessarily cost an arm and a leg.
 

---

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-14-2009, 09:15 AM:
 
Often replacing the display costs more than the laptop
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-14-2009, 10:08 AM:
 
But then that's the trick. I don't want to replace the entire notebook display (which is normally what a manufacturer like Dell would do in knee-jerk fashion). I just want to replace the part(s) inside of the display that are not working properly -likely the fluorescent back light lamp. If quite a few people are doing such work to repair their own laptops it would seem like a lot of computer repair places would do similar work.
 

---

Posted by Paul Goulet (Member # 297) on 02-14-2009, 10:12 AM:
 
I have a 5 year old Dell Laptop (inspiron 1000) that crashed about 3 months ago..Even though I didnt have a contract with
DELL, I called them and they stayed on the phone with me for 3 hours helping me load everything back onto the computer..and it didn't cost me ANYTHING! Maybe if you called them, they could at least tell you what the problem might be and what the cost to fix it would be.
 

---

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-14-2009, 10:37 AM:
 
I've repaired a couple dozen's relative, friends and even neighbours laptops over the years. Like most of this stuff, there is nothing to it once you climb the learning curve. It's far easier than repairing most VCR's, i.e. Not nearly as many parts or as hard to get to them.

But once this is said, it's true that with good laptops in the $500 range today, it makes little sense to attempt most repairs, specially if you can't diagnose for sure what could be wrong without expensive tools or parts you don't have.

If you can test and determine it to be the inverter, then I would go for it, as it's usually a $50 replacement part. If you think it's a ribbon cable or some electronics for which you don't have the part and it's too hard to test, or you are unsure what may be wrong, then it may just not be worth it, as a whole screen replacement kit could be some $200 form places like http://www.screentekinc.com/ .

So give it a shot. Not much to lose.

About your primary display being external at full res, it should be possible. It's weird your driver seems to be only letting you change the resolution to full 1920x1080 in your secondary display and doesn't let you swap secondary and primary but only extend the desktop. Is this under windows XP?

You may try to find and update your video card driver with the generic one from the manufacturer (i.e. ATI, Nvidia or Intel). See if they offer the option on their control panels. Or do the reverse (use the laptop's "official" driver instead of a manufacturer generic). Double check settings in the BIOS configuration to see if your model has any options for external video support that may affect it.

You may want to resort to the help of utilities such as ultramon if you can't get your setup to do what you want http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/overview/
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-14-2009, 10:37 AM:
 

quote: Paul Goulet

---

Even though I didnt have a contract with DELL, I called them and they stayed on the phone with me for 3 hours helping me load everything back onto the computer..and it didn't cost me ANYTHING! Maybe if you called them, they could at least tell you what the problem might be and what the cost to fix it would be.

---

quote: Julio Roberto

---

About your primary display being external at full res, it should be possible. It's weird your driver seems to be only letting you change the resolution to full 1920x1080 in your secondary display and doesn't let you swap secondary and primary but only extend the desktop. Is this under windows XP?

---

This notebook is running Windows XP Pro SP3. I have the latest video driver from Dell for the internal 128MB ATI Radeon X300 graphics card.

Basically what I'm doing right now is just doubling the notebook's display image over to the HDTV set by hitting the F8 key at start up. The notebook will let me run the HDTV as a second computer monitor at 1920 X 1080 resolution, but it won't show any of the user interface details stuck on the dead notebook monitor. The display properties dialog box won't let me select the HDTV as the primary display either.
 

---

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-14-2009, 10:42 AM:
 
You are right about win7/Vista/XP downgrade issue. M$ is working on it and it seems they will announce free win7 upgrades for those buying new Vista machines soon. Unfortunately, might have to wait for a while. A bad time to make the decission in an "emergency" like this case

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=609&pgno=0
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-14-2009, 11:28 AM:
 
There are a bunch of web sites that explain (with pictures) how to replace the backlight and/or inverter on many different types of laptops. I've not done it personally, but it doesn't look very difficult.

Another option is to look on Ebay. Sometimes people "part out" defective laptops for reasonable prices. You might be able to score a complete LCD for $50-100.
 

---

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-14-2009, 11:36 AM:
 
or go on ebay and find the same one buy it cheap and then swap the hard drives
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-14-2009, 12:06 PM:
 
Find some sleazy computer shop that will sell you one that "fell off the back of a truck" somewhere. Take it home, wipe the drive clean and clone your current computer's drive to it.

Mothball the old one. Keep religious backups for the new one. Wait the market out until Microshaft releases Windows7. If ever the "cheapie" gives you trouble you still have the old one to fall back on.

Meanwhile you can see yourself through on a temporary computer. If you scrounge well enough you can probably find one that costs less than repairing the old one.
 

---

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-14-2009, 12:10 PM:
 
Don't know if it may help as you seem to imply the option to make your monitor #2 primary is unavailable (grayed out?) in your control panel, but here is a guide for the ati x300 and for ati multi-monitor hydravision extensions:

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/boards/graphic/ATI/radeonx300/RadeonX300.pdf
http://www.naplestech.com/shopcart/docs/hydraision32_userguide.pdf
 

---

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-14-2009, 01:06 PM:
 
Although I have a desktop Apple iBook computer at home, I very seldom use it. Almost all of my computing is done with my 12 inch Apple Powerbook G4 laptop. The laptop is almost five years old and I will continue to use it until it literally dies. Bobby, The same thing that happened to your screen happened to me once but fortunately it occurred when I still had Apple Care warranty coverage at the time and did not have to pay anything for a new screen and labor costs. Unlike many good PCs that sell for a thousand dollars or less, replacing my mac will set be back at least two thousand dollars and that wilL hurt!

-Claude
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-14-2009, 04:10 PM:
 
That's the thing that kind of kills me with buying a replacement notebook. I have to use one equipped well enough for graphics purposes. I paid a little over $2000 for my current notebook (and then paid another $200 to max out its memory).

For about the same amount of money I can get a new Dell Studio 17 notebook with an impressive array of hardware (1920 X 1200 resolution RGB LED back-lit screen, BD-R/DVD-RW combo drive, 256MB video card, 500GB hard disc, Vista Ultimate, etc.). But the entry level notebooks (ones costing under $1000) will choke on the newest Adobe graphics applications.
 

---

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 02-14-2009, 05:24 PM:
 
If it is the back light (or inverter) that is bad, you should still be able to see a little something on the screen by looking at it at an angle, or shining a light into it. Not enough to use the display, but that would tell you that the screen is still working.
 

---

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 02-14-2009, 06:30 PM:
 

quote: Bobby Henderson

---

will choke on the newest Adobe graphics applications.

---

Anything will choke on the new CS4 stuff

At least with Premiere. What a dissapointment. Haven't use photoshop cs4, so you may be lucky there.

Your Inspiron 6000d is (was?) a Pentium-M/2Ghz with the x300 ATI and a 1680x1050 15.4" screen, right? Let's assume you were reasonably happy with it.

For $900 you could get yourself this HP i.e.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147780

That has:
-"Twice" the processing power (more or less): Dual core Turion 64 X2/2Ghz
-Same screen 15.4" 1680x1050
-Much (much, much) faster graphics: ATI HD 3200

It comes with 2GB and crappy 120gb HD, but you can upgrade those if you want for cheap, perhaps using the same parts from your Dell. And Vista, etc.

If you were willing to sacrifice a bit of screen resolution but gain a larger screen size, you could get this toshiba for $800 loaded at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114625

-Dual core turion 64 X2 at 2Ghz
-17.1" 1440x900
-ATI 3100
-4GB RAM
-320GB HD

Again, kind of crappy, but mostly better than what you have now and won't break the bank.

If you are willing to go a bit over $1000, I'm sure there must be some really good deals around.

Let's say they are only 30% faster overall than what you have now (pbbly much more). If the new adobe stuff is 30% slower (worse?) than the OLD stuff, it would still allow you to work at about the rate, right? So it would be a functional substitution for what you have now, but brand new, with vista and stuff, warranty etc, and under $900. You can sell your broken Dell "as-is" w/o the hard drive or some of the RAM and get some of that money back as well.

There may be more stuff around. I only looked into that one store.

Edit: I just bumped by chance into a good deal if you don't mind generic laptops for $850:

-Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2Ghz
-15.4" 1680x1050
-Nvidia 9600 w/512MB fast graphics RAM
-4GB RAM
-320 SATA II 7,200 hard drive

http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=579

[ 02-14-2009, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: Julio Roberto ]
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-15-2009, 10:52 AM:
 

quote: Bruce Hansen

---

If it is the back light (or inverter) that is bad, you should still be able to see a little something on the screen by looking at it at an angle, or shining a light into it. Not enough to use the display, but that would tell you that the screen is still working.

---

quote: Bobby Henderson

---

Funny thing is if I let the notebook go into screen saver mode, I get a very brief flash of the computer screen when touching the mouse to bring back the desktop.

---