I guess I’m looking for some advice from anyone more technogically advanced than myself… I’ve had my laptop for over 3 years now (IBM Thinkpad 600 I believe) and the screen slowly starting fading and is now black. I have charged it, re-charged it, and tried to change the brightness to no avail. It works fine but you can’t see anything!
Does anyone know wha the problem might be? The reason I’d like to get some ideas is that if I take it to get repaired, it will cost me about $95.00… and I need to know if I’m looking beyond something simple here.
IANAT* but your best bet about now might be to call IBM tech support. (Or does their website include any handy trouble-shooting tips?) This happened twice with the steaming pile of fetid donkey shit passing itself off as my Gateway notebook. Okay, it was still under warranty but both times it had to be shipped back and the backlit monitor replaced.
Hope it isn’t that serious with yours but a total fade-to-blackout doesn’t sound promising.
IAAT, in fact I was a Dell laptop tech for 2 years. Sounds like you have a backlight issue. It’s possible the cable running from motherboard to LCD is loose, but it’s more likely that the backlight has gone out.
Can you see anything at all on the screen? Like a very faint image of what you should be seeing? If so, it’s definitely backlight, and you’ll need to replace the screen most likely. If you see nothing, then the cable may be the culprit.
If it’s out of warranty, you can probably find repair manuals online (at least we did that at Dell) and it’ll be cheaper to open the case to reconnect the lcd cable or even to replace the lcd screen yourself. If it’s still in warranty, for god’s sake, don’t open it. Call them and have them repair it.
TVeblen and MAX Carnage - thank you SO much for your advice! Yes, the screen was a dark grey and you could barely make it out, and now it simply shuts off and goes completely black in the midst of using it. (wow, now I’ll sound semi-knowledgeable when I call for help - yippee!)
If you can get a new backlight(s) for 95.00 with install included that's a heck of a deal. Most working older T hinkpad 600's are 200- 350 for the entire system on EBay. Usually getting a backlight installed is 150.00 to $ 200.00 in parts and labor.
Actually handy has a good point :eek:, if it’s an older machine and portability is not critical, a 15" or 17" CRT monitor for 50- 100 plugged into the external video out port would give you a good display and be a relatively cheap.
