Laptop screen gone very dark

BaileyB

Hi everyone.

Just came home from work and turned my laptop on and could see it come on and then goes black. If you look very closely you can still see the images and icons, but very faint.

I have plugged the laptop into the TV (via Hdmi) and works fine (typing via this now)

Any ideas what the issue here is? Looking on google it could be

Screen
Backlight
Invertor

It's an Acer 5738G

Any help would be great

thanks

WhiteChristmas

Most likely the inverter.

If it was the lamp, you'd normally see some flickering, colours going out of sync and the like for a short while before it finally gave up.

Inverter is a reasonably straight forward DIY job - get it from eBay and you'll probably find a step-by-step on YouTube.

Changing the lamp is a much bigger job; not really for the inexperienced.

JABWootton

Could also be the motherboard but more likely the inverter or lamp

angelavdavis

It might not be as techie as that. My netbook has a function setting that can be activated by pressing Fn+F5. Fn+F6 brightens the screen again. It is similar to a Word shortcut I use a lot so I mistakenly do this a lot.

Having said that, I would assume this should apply to the machine even if using the external TV screen but it might be worth a try.

robmar0se

If I was a betting man I would also uggest that the inverter was faulty - quite common

Not only is inverter failure more common than backlight (CCFL lamp) failure, but inverters are easier to replace. And now that it's winter, keep in mind that temperature has an affect on the voltage required to get the backlight to strike, so if the laptop has been sitting in a freezing car for a while and the screen doesn't light up, don't rush to take it apart. Give it a couple hours to warm up, but don't do anything whacky like sticking it in an oven or on a radiator!

BaileyB

Thanks everyone, bought a replacement inverter but still doing the same thing.

Screen goes normal around 4 seconds goes off. Press Fn and F6 and comes back on for 4 seconds and then back off.

So backlight?

Myser

Most probably the backlight then. You may be able to pick one up cheap on an auction site if someone is selling a broken LCD panel.

BaileyB

Will any 15.6" one work, or does it need to be an Acer one

robmar0se

The next most common cause is the ribbon cable between the mainboard and the screen - had a similar problem to you, changed the inverter first, no change, so changed the cable and problem solved. - alternative solutions then become expensive - to change the "bulb" requires a new screen (from £40), or a new mainboard (£arghhhh!).

Cable might cost you £15 on ebay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-5536G-5542-5542G-5738-5738G-Z-ZG-LCD-SCREEN-CABLE-50-4CG14-032-/260938596127?pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccess_RL&hash=item3cc126ff1f

Mr_Toad

BaileyB wrote: »

Thanks everyone, bought a replacement inverter but still doing the same thing.

Screen goes normal around 4 seconds goes off. Press Fn and F6 and comes back on for 4 seconds and then back off.

So backlight?

Surely if, as you say above, the screen goes normal then back off this would suggest that the backlight is working. If it stayed dark all the time then I'd suspect the backlight.

What you're saying indicates to me that the the screen comes on as normal but something is causing the brightness to turn right down.

Perhaps there is something triggering Power saving mode.

BaileyB

Ah, did'nt think that.

The screen pops up with the welcome Acer screen then goes 'dark' when i hit Fn and F6 it comes back for a few seconds then back off.

Going to check all the cables again and go from there