Re: [Thinkpad] A31 screen died (after intermittent red): Fixable?

On Mar 23 2006, David Ross wrote:

>
>> Someone I know just had his A31's screen die. He said it was turning
>red intermittently for a few days before the failure. Using an external
>monitor is working for now.
>>
>> Is it fixable? How expensive is the fix? Trying to decide whether
>it's worth the repair or if he should replace the machine.
>
>Someone here recently recommended http://www.screentekinc.com/
>
>DR

The redness strongly suggests that the CCFL (backlight) was failing and has
failed. It is possible to replace those yourself (easier on some LCD panels
than on others). Try this search for more:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ccfl+replacement

JKL Lamps and Digikey are two possible sources for CCFL tubes, which run
about $10-15 each. Many laptops have just 1 tube; others may have 2.

You can confirm it is the backlight by hooking up an external monitor,
loading some large font high-contrast text onto the screen and then
switching the laptop back into LCD-panel display mode. An LCD panel should
still show something, even with the backlight off, although everything will
be dark (this is why I said use high contrast large font text). A bright
light source may or may not help you see the text. If there's nothing on
the screen at all no matter what you try, your problems may be more serious
than just a backlight.

Note that if the backlight alone doesn't fix it (and it probably will), you
may need to replace the inverter board.

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Received on Thu Mar 23 23:57:58 2006