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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Dead Notebook Display - Looking for tips on dealing with it.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-13-2009 10:26 PM
When I turned on my 4 year old Dell Inspiron 6000d notebook today, the display just stayed blank. I'm not sure if the cold cathode fluorescent lamp has died or just gone faulty or if it's the invertor.
Anyway, I currently have an external monitor cable feeding a 1280 X 1024 desktop image to my 52" Sony Bravia™ XBR4 TV. Pretty odd since both the TV screen and notebook screen have wide aspect ratios. At least I can still use my notebook computer to some limited degree, such as backing up any important data off the thing and posting little notes here. The image is strangely even more pillar-boxed than the SD video from certain broadcasts from local TV stations.
First of all, is there any trick I can use to trick the notebook into using the HDTV screen as the primary display? Apparently it will support the TV's native 1920 X 1080 resolution as a second monitor -but only if I expand the desktop from the primary monitor (the dead notebook screen) to the HDTV. I'm a bit scared of doing that because I think my icons, task bar, etc. will be stuck on the dead screen (along with any launching applications).
I've looked at various D.I.Y. web pages on replacing notebook monitor CCFL back lights, invertors, etc. I'm pretty freaking busy these days and also don't want to screw up something that seems like a delicate repair process.
Manufacturers like Dell, etc. charge a shitload to repair an issue like this -probably in part to get the user to cave in and buy a completely new notebook computer for even more money. Anyone have experience having local repair shops tackling such work? With as many people migrating from desktops to notebooks it would seem like this kind of repair job would be a fairly common thing that didn't necessarily cost an arm and a leg.
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Julio Roberto
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 938
From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2008
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posted 02-14-2009 10:37 AM
I've repaired a couple dozen's relative, friends and even neighbours laptops over the years. Like most of this stuff, there is nothing to it once you climb the learning curve. It's far easier than repairing most VCR's, i.e. Not nearly as many parts or as hard to get to them.
But once this is said, it's true that with good laptops in the $500 range today, it makes little sense to attempt most repairs, specially if you can't diagnose for sure what could be wrong without expensive tools or parts you don't have.
If you can test and determine it to be the inverter, then I would go for it, as it's usually a $50 replacement part. If you think it's a ribbon cable or some electronics for which you don't have the part and it's too hard to test, or you are unsure what may be wrong, then it may just not be worth it, as a whole screen replacement kit could be some $200 form places like http://www.screentekinc.com/ .
So give it a shot. Not much to lose.
About your primary display being external at full res, it should be possible. It's weird your driver seems to be only letting you change the resolution to full 1920x1080 in your secondary display and doesn't let you swap secondary and primary but only extend the desktop. Is this under windows XP? ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
You may try to find and update your video card driver with the generic one from the manufacturer (i.e. ATI, Nvidia or Intel). See if they offer the option on their control panels. Or do the reverse (use the laptop's "official" driver instead of a manufacturer generic). Double check settings in the BIOS configuration to see if your model has any options for external video support that may affect it.
You may want to resort to the help of utilities such as ultramon if you can't get your setup to do what you want http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/overview/
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-14-2009 10:37 AM
quote: Paul Goulet
Even though I didnt have a contract with DELL, I called them and they stayed on the phone with me for 3 hours helping me load everything back onto the computer..and it didn't cost me ANYTHING! Maybe if you called them, they could at least tell you what the problem might be and what the cost to fix it would be.
The problem with calling Dell is they'll go down the costly route Gordon mentioned. They'll just suggest that I send in the notebook. They'll replace the entire display half of the machine and charge me at least several hundred dollars for the job. That's unnecessary.
I backed up any data I had on the notebook's hard disc over to an external hard drive. Basically, it's ready to drop off at a local shop -or if I build up the courage to do the repair job myself I may consider doing it.
This notebook computer will need to be replaced in the not so distant future. I've avoided upgrading to Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium for now because I don't think this notebook has nearly enough performance to run those applications well at all. I have the CS4 Production Studio Premium suite at work. The CS4 version of Photoshop demands quite a bit more horsepower than the CS3 version.
Currently, it's not exactly a great time to buy a new PC. With Dell, you have to pay $100-$150 to "downgrade" to WindowsXP Professional. And Windows 7, which is supposed to be significantly better than Vista, isn't going to be available for a few more months. That's just another reason for seeing about getting the notebook display repaired (not replaced) rather than buying a completely new notebook.
quote: Julio Roberto
About your primary display being external at full res, it should be possible. It's weird your driver seems to be only letting you change the resolution to full 1920x1080 in your secondary display and doesn't let you swap secondary and primary but only extend the desktop. Is this under windows XP?
This notebook is running Windows XP Pro SP3. I have the latest video driver from Dell for the internal 128MB ATI Radeon X300 graphics card.
Basically what I'm doing right now is just doubling the notebook's display image over to the HDTV set by hitting the F8 key at start up. The notebook will let me run the HDTV as a second computer monitor at 1920 X 1080 resolution, but it won't show any of the user interface details stuck on the dead notebook monitor. The display properties dialog box won't let me select the HDTV as the primary display either.
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Julio Roberto
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 938
From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Registered: Oct 2008
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posted 02-14-2009 06:30 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
will choke on the newest Adobe graphics applications.
Anything will choke on the new CS4 stuff ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
At least with Premiere. What a dissapointment. Haven't use photoshop cs4, so you may be lucky there.
Your Inspiron 6000d is (was?) a Pentium-M/2Ghz with the x300 ATI and a 1680x1050 15.4" screen, right? Let's assume you were reasonably happy with it.
For $900 you could get yourself this HP i.e.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147780
That has:
-"Twice" the processing power (more or less): Dual core Turion 64 X2/2Ghz
-Same screen 15.4" 1680x1050
-Much (much, much) faster graphics: ATI HD 3200
It comes with 2GB and crappy 120gb HD, but you can upgrade those if you want for cheap, perhaps using the same parts from your Dell. And Vista, etc.
If you were willing to sacrifice a bit of screen resolution but gain a larger screen size, you could get this toshiba for $800 loaded at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114625
-Dual core turion 64 X2 at 2Ghz
-17.1" 1440x900
-ATI 3100
-4GB RAM
-320GB HD
Again, kind of crappy, but mostly better than what you have now and won't break the bank.
If you are willing to go a bit over $1000, I'm sure there must be some really good deals around.
Let's say they are only 30% faster overall than what you have now (pbbly much more). If the new adobe stuff is 30% slower (worse?) than the OLD stuff, it would still allow you to work at about the rate, right? So it would be a functional substitution for what you have now, but brand new, with vista and stuff, warranty etc, and under $900. You can sell your broken Dell "as-is" w/o the hard drive or some of the RAM and get some of that money back as well.
There may be more stuff around. I only looked into that one store.
Edit: I just bumped by chance into a good deal if you don't mind generic laptops for $850:
-Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2Ghz
-15.4" 1680x1050
-Nvidia 9600 w/512MB fast graphics RAM
-4GB RAM
-320 SATA II 7,200 hard drive
http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=579
[ 02-14-2009, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: Julio Roberto ]
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