I'm suspecting that my backlight for my monitor just took a ****. I have a Compaq Presario V2000 laptop. Last night I started noticing an annoying high pitched kind of electrical buzz/whistle coming from it that would start and stop for no reason. Today, I ran a bunch of tests and scans on it and the entire comp is clean. A few hours later my screen all of a sudden went black, but the comp didn't turn off. The screen keeps flickering on and off (mostly off). None of my programs are acting funny and the comp is running fine otherwise (from what I can tell). Am I right to assume that I burned out some kind of light behind the monitor?
Have you tried putting a flash light or something on the screen when it's out? It could be something with the backlight or inverter and I think that might be one way to find out. I believe fixing an inverter is less expensive than a backlight. Try the flashlight trick though and see if you can see your icons and what not when you have a bright light flashing on them. This should at least tell you if it's a problem with your backlight or inverter.
I don't know if it would be your inverter or backlight. I think taking it in to your local Radioshack or Geek Squad might be in order. You could buy an inverter and "hope" that's the fix I guess. They are only like $10 bucks or so I think... If you don't want to take a chance, I'd take it somewhere and see if they could tell what exactly it is. I'm pretty positive it's one of those two things though.
I would take it there only if you bought it from there and they might replace it. I worked at Radio Shack and there is no one in the stores trained to do this type of repair. The Geek Squad is also an iffy option because finding an actual trained tech in those places is tough. I don't know if they would handle monitor repair always. I would call around to local computer repair shops.
I had this same issue with my Sony Vaio laptop, it was the inverter. If you are planning on taking it to the Geek Squad or any other repair shop, be prepared to spend upwards of $300. Labor on laptops isn't cheap and some places may suggest scraping the monitor for a new one, which is going to cost even more. Depending on your budget, it might make more sense to just buy another laptop, there are always sales out there and you could pick up a decent one for about the same price as fixing the old one. You could check Ebay and online stores for an inverter (or monitor) for your model, that should save a little bit of cash, and then look for the best deal out there for repairs. If you have an idea of what you're doing, there are sites out there that walk you through the repair process, but you could end up doing more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing.
If he can find out which it is, inverter or backlight, he can do it himself likely. Here is a site for each that should probably help you: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/09/replace-laptop-backlight-ccfl-lamp/ http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/01/31/replace-screen-inverter-fix-backlight/ Sounds familiar? I'd probably just buy an inverter being it's rather cheap because the symptoms are identical according to a pretty reliable site. That's just what I'd do though...
Well, you would replace both of them at the same time, both are pretty inexpensive. The labor is what kills you, the Geek Squad wanted $200+ just to look at my computer and then told me that there would be at least an additional $100-150 charge for labor and parts. The kid looked at me, leaned in and said "it might just be cheaper to go buy an HD flat screen monitor", instead I just bought a new laptop.
Sounds like you solved the problem....now just add Duct-Tape, get lots of batteries, and MacGyver that ol' bad boy for the next few years and you are all set!
Ha that sounds like something I would do at work. Usually someone will come in asking me to make a back up of one of their favorite DVDs... none of them have the "rent and copy" mindset but usually I'll tell them we can't make duplications of copyrighted stuff and then proceed to tell them to download DVD Shrink and IMG Burn to "back up" the DVD. Then maybe they gain the "rent and copy" mindset, who knows... Not my problem, I just showed them how to "back up" a DVD....
