Laptop screen is black...backlight problem?

juliano521 · 02-24-2009, 07:50 PM

I have a laptop that's 4+ years old (Compaq Presario R3360, Pentium 4, 3.00 GHz, 384 MB RAM). Last week, I turned it on and the screen remained black. Very faintly, I could make out the icons on my desktop. There's a button just above the laptop keyboard that turns off the backlight when it's pressed (so that when the laptop lid is closed the screen turns off). I figured out that by pressing that repeatedly, my screen would eventually turn on. Unfortunately this wasn't a cure all, since the screen would turn off again at some point. Now, the "button pressing trick" won't work anymore and I can't use my laptop at all.

So, does this sounds like a backlight issue to folks? If so, how would I go about fixing it? How much do you think it would cost?

Thanks for your help!

**TriggerFinger** · 02-25-2009, 08:15 AM

Yep sound like backlight or inverter issue.. start with inverter as it is cheap and easy to replace.

rbalaji · 02-25-2009, 01:41 PM

I used a place called www.moniserv.com to replace the inverter in my laptop not long ago. They charge about $120 plus shipping and they will fix the LCD whether the problem is the inverter or the backlight (so, the flat charge is for making the lcd work again). There are other places which will replace the entire LCD for you (they don't replace individual parts of the LCD, only the whole screen) and they are much more expensive (easily $250 to $350 for a 15" LCD).

juliano521 · 03-03-2009, 01:48 PM

Thanks for the advice you guys!

02-24-2009, 07:50 PM	#1 (permalink)
juliano521 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New York Posts: 10 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium	Laptop screen is black...backlight problem? I have a laptop that's 4+ years old (Compaq Presario R3360, Pentium 4, 3.00 GHz, 384 MB RAM). Last week, I turned it on and the screen remained black. Very faintly, I could make out the icons on my desktop. There's a button just above the laptop keyboard that turns off the backlight when it's pressed (so that when the laptop lid is closed the screen turns off). I figured out that by pressing that repeatedly, my screen would eventually turn on. Unfortunately this wasn't a cure all, since the screen would turn off again at some point. Now, the "button pressing trick" won't work anymore and I can't use my laptop at all. So, does this sounds like a backlight issue to folks? If so, how would I go about fixing it? How much do you think it would cost? Thanks for your help!

02-25-2009, 08:15 AM	#2 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,853 OS: Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: Laptop screen is black...backlight problem? Yep sound like backlight or inverter issue.. start with inverter as it is cheap and easy to replace. __________________ DBAN - Memtest86+ - BartPE - Linux LiveCD - ImgBurn - HDD Diags - Disk Copy HOW TO BURN AN ISO FILE

02-25-2009, 01:41 PM	#3 (permalink)
rbalaji Tech, Microsoft Support Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Chicagoland Posts: 1,193 OS: Windows XP SP3	Re: Laptop screen is black...backlight problem? I used a place called www.moniserv.com to replace the inverter in my laptop not long ago. They charge about $120 plus shipping and they will fix the LCD whether the problem is the inverter or the backlight (so, the flat charge is for making the lcd work again). There are other places which will replace the entire LCD for you (they don't replace individual parts of the LCD, only the whole screen) and they are much more expensive (easily $250 to $350 for a 15" LCD). __________________ Balaji Ramanathan Computers - You can't live with them, you can't live without them!

03-03-2009, 01:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
juliano521 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New York Posts: 10 OS: Windows Vista Home Premium	Re: Laptop screen is black...backlight problem? Thanks for the advice you guys!