Re: [tlug] Laptop repair: backlight

[Jean-Christian Imbeault <jc.imbeault@example.com>]

I spent most of today walking around Akihabara looking for a place
that could repair my laptop at a reasonable price and had a really
hard time finding something. Most places wanted to charge me between
20,000 - 30,000 yen. Considering the part that needed to be replaced
only costs about 5,000 and I could buy the same laptop (used of
course) for 25,000 I was, to say the least, disappointed.

I kept looking and my perseverance eventually paid off when I found a
shop that did it for 7,000 (3,000 labour and 4,000 for the part). Best
of all they did it while I waited, taking only about 40 minutes.

For future reference if anyone else needs some repairs on the cheap I
can heartily recommend this place:

Maxus Computer UpGrade Service
マクサスコンピューターアップグレードサービス
〒 101-0021 東京都舌皛逅跂勉闕静\xC43-6-11
tel：03-5296-0486
tech-support@example.com

http://204.3.198.144/
(for some reason they don't seem to have their DNS working quite right)

On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:42 AM, Jean-Christian Imbeault
<jc.imbeault@example.com> wrote:
> I think you're right about the inverter. My laptop has all the
> symptoms you describe.
>
> I actually had another problem with screen, 3 very thin vertical
> lines, so I decided to take it apart yesterday to see if it might be a
> lose contact. After a bit of fiddling I gave up since nothing I did
> fixed the problem. The laptop was working fine the rest of the day and
> only this morning did the screen give out. I'm hoping that means my
> fiddling wasn't the cause :)
>
> I'll head off to Akihabara today and hope I can find a cheap repair
> place. I unfortunately don't feel confident enough to do the repairs
> myself.
>
> Jc
>
> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:27 AM,  <jep200404@example.com> wrote:
>> Jean-Christian Imbeault wrote:
>>
>>> I've 4 year old IBM Thinkpad ... the screen decided to give out;
>>> I get a picture but it is so faint as to be useless.
>>
>> Does your screen emit any light in a dark room?
>> If not, the backlight is likely bad.
>>
>> If you hold a very bright flashlight up to the screen
>> so that you are pushing light _into_ the screen,
>> then it will diffuse through the diffuser and
>> come back out through the rest of the screen, albeit dimly.
>> If you do that and if the content on screen seems to work OK,
>> albeit dimly, then the backlight is likely bad.
>>
>> If the backlight is not working,
>> I would first check the inverter
>> (high voltage power supply) for it first.
>>
>> I would look at capacitors on that inverter board.
>> If the caps are bulged[1] and you know how to solder,
>> the fix is very cheap.
>>
>> If the inverter board is bad, you can buy replacement
>> inverter boards[2].
>>
>> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
>> [2] http://www.google.com/search?q=thinkpad+backlight+inverter
>>
>>
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>