P4 2.4 Packard Bell Laptop (Screen not working/very very faint)

DJMK4 · 23 Feb 2010 at 08:42

Hi,

Iv been given a Packard bell laptop (cant remember the model of the top of my head) which has a faulty screen so it seems, you can hear the screen booting into the OS, but the screen is black, if you angle it to one side you can see whats being displayed but its very very faint and you have to squint in low light.

Im pretty sure iv also tried this with an external monitor aswel but couldnt get it to work.

What do you think it would be? I thought maybe the inverter but then I thought it should work on an external monitor if that were the case?

Any help appriciated.

Thanks

Rroff · 23 Feb 2010 at 13:18

Sounds like the backlight has failed - but an external display should still work fine - usually you do need to use the hotkeys tho to toggle an external display on/off - i.e. it will boot and detect another display but not output anything to it - even when posting unless the function keys have been used to switch between display output modes.

DJMK4 · 23 Feb 2010 at 13:32

Ill try an external monitor again this evening, yeah thats why I found it slightly bizzar

beermonster · 23 Feb 2010 at 17:02

Its usually the inverter, you should be able to get one from ebay. Quite an easy job to replace.

DJMK4 · 23 Feb 2010 at 20:16

beermonster said:
Its usually the inverter, you should be able to get one from ebay. Quite an easy job to replace.

It sounds like an expensive part :S

Edit, ok the inverter doesnt actually look that expensive

DJMK4 · 23 Feb 2010 at 20:22

Also, just to clarify, if I test it on an external monitor later and it doesnt work, would this still suggest the inverter or something else?

DJMK4 · 24 Feb 2010 at 18:29

DJMK4 said:
Also, just to clarify, if I test it on an external monitor later and it doesnt work, would this still suggest the inverter or something else?

Can anybody confirm this? I need to know before I order, unfortunatly I need to buy a new power supply aswel so cant really test on external monitor atm, but im sure when I checked about 3 months ago it didnt work on external, but on the laptop you could see faintly the OS booting up.

beermonster · 24 Feb 2010 at 19:08

If you can see the display then its definately the back light thats gone.

It's more than likely the inverter, but could be the screen itself or the mainboard, or it could be the lid switch thats turns the display off. Somes times these are near the bottom edge of the screen looks like a small peice of plastic sticking up, or on some packard bells it was in the left hand side recess where the lid catch goes.

DJMK4 · 25 Feb 2010 at 12:17

Hmm, so it doesnt really narrow things down

so potentially I would have to buy the power supply (deffo) or either an inverter, backlight or switch.

beermonster · 25 Feb 2010 at 17:09

I would buy an inverter and try that, if it doesn't fix it then I would sell it as spares or repairs, a screen would cost around £70 a mainboard could be £100+.

DJMK4 · 25 Feb 2010 at 17:43

Good idea, will try this

Thanks

Chillimonster · 25 Feb 2010 at 18:17

Some laptops will not automatically output to an ext display and need a function key to be pressed to enable it.

DJMK4 · 25 Feb 2010 at 19:10

I can confirm that it DOES work on an external monitor, does this make the investigation any easier?

inverter or backlight or switch

I found a power supply with a similar rating for one of my other laptops, and although it booked up I could hear a sort of "click....click....click....click" coming from the mainboard, deffo electrical, could this be the power supply not being the correct model?