Inspiron 5100 dim LCD problem

[alvin85]

I'm having a problem with my Dell Inspiron 5100 LCD screen. While using it, the screen suddenly went extremely dim. It still works perfectly with an external monitor, and if I look closely I can see that the display on the LCD looks fine. It's just very very dim. Oh, also my warranty just expired, so Dell won't really help me out.

I tried reading and looking around online, and I'm still a little confused. Do I have an inverter problem, or is it a bulb/CCFL problem? I found a decent inverter deal on eBay but am wondering whether I should buy it and try to change it myself.

Any recommendations? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[fuxxociety]

I hate to say this, but you may have a slight problem on your hands. My Latitude C610 did that right after a "Dell-authorized technician" replaced my LCD.

In my case, it was acting as if it was going into powersave mode WAY too early. It would boot up normally, and then after it had been on 10 secs. or so, it would go dim. you could still see the screen functioning if you reflected it off of something.

all that was happening in my case was the backlight turning off, but I'm honesly unsure if there was a fault in the backlight inverter, or if the system was shutting it off prematurely.

By the way, I told the "technician" to go kick himself, and shipped my lappy to Dell. Got it back in pristine condition, and haven't had a problem out of it since.