Laptop screen gone very dark

Run_to_da_hills

Have an Inspiron belonging to brother, screen gone very dark and need to have it pointed towards the light to see the icons. have to use external monitor. Is this seem like a major job to repair?

Overheal

your talking about replacing the fluorescent bulb inside the screen. it can be a chore but its not impossible. youll need an X-acto knife/scalpel to cut away the rubber nubs on the screen lid and under there youll find screws to - well the rest is self explainatory. finding a replacement bulb however... ill leave that up to someone else

AlmightyCushion

It may also be the inverter. Your best bet for the parts would be to check somewhere like ebay.

sham69

the screen was quite dark on my inspiron and i was told if you hold the FN key and press the up key on the curser keys (not on the number keypad) it brightens it. Worked for me, although mine was not that dark.
Worth a try unless it is bulb issue.

AlmightyCushion

There is a big difference between the brightness being turned down and having no backlight. The former there is still quite a bit of light, whereas with the latter there is no light whatsoever.

sham69

he never said "no light at all" and backlight was not mentioned?
It was only a suggestion.
My laptop was very dark in comparison to other laptops I saw thus the suggestion.
I won't bother trying to help in future.
I will leave it to the experts.
Just as a note, did you check the Flux Capacitor?
They are readily available on ebay.
Good Luck.........

AlmightyCushion

Sorry sham, I wasn't giving out to you or dismissing your opinion, if that's the way you seen it (now that I re-read my post it did seem a little abrasive, I didn't mean it to sound like that).

The op said that he could only see what is on the screen when he shone a flashlight on it. This means there is no or very little light coming from the backlight. Generally with the brightness settings (or at least that I've seen), the manufacturers try to keep the minimum brightness setting still usuable. Having a brightness setting that means you need a torch to see the screen isn't much good. That's why I doubt it's the brightness turned down.

Once again apologies if my post sounded abrasive, it wasn't intended that way and it would be a shame if you refrained from helping out in the future because of it.

extra-ordinary_

I guess inverter.

Overheal

Could also be the warp coil.

extra-ordinary_

lol

Vinneyboy

I'm having a similar problem with my sony vaio vgn-417s, when i turn it on from hibernation the screen is dark and i can see the desktop icons, I have to restart the laptop to get the screen to light up, any advice would be great.

Overheal

Vinney have you tried using the Function (Fn) key to adjust the screen brightness? Laptop function keys (eg. F1 -> F12) all have seperate functions when you combine them with the Fn key. Eg. Fn + F9 pauses/plays music on my laptop.

Vinneyboy

Overheal no I haven't tried that but will tonight when I get home, will let you know how I get on.