Comments on: Another wounded soldier

By: The mysteries of life « Motho ke motho ka botho

The mysteries of life « Motho ke motho ka botho — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:54:18 +0000

[...] this machine? The otherwise functional VAIO machine, that only needed a small, US$40 part to become a productive [...]

By: Begone, foul dwimmerlaik! … Leave the dead in peace « Motho ke motho ka botho

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:28:20 +0000

[...] clear that there was little or no intention on the part of the owner of the previously mentioned wounded Pentium 4 machine, to acquire the parts necessary for the successful rehabilitation of said [...]

By: Life at 2.6Ghz « Motho ke motho ka botho

Life at 2.6Ghz « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:30:20 +0000

[...] Like I mentioned elsewhere, it’s a nice machine, quite fast but with an underpowered graphics card. The network connection gave me a little turn yesterday; I’d never worked with an SIS900-chipset connection, and ended up relying on Ubuntu to track down the module that was in use for it. The wireless card, oddly enough, appears to be Prism-based, so both connections are easily configured and set up from the command line. [...]

By: Ubuntu 8.04 on VAIO PCG-GRT100 « Motho ke motho ka botho

Ubuntu 8.04 on VAIO PCG-GRT100 « Motho ke motho ka botho — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:51:14 +0000

[...] Published May 16, 2008 Hardware , Ubuntu Just a short note: I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on the guest VAIO I’m “repairing” — the one with the working but invisible screen. I have enough of an image to read faint [...]

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:53:44 +0000

I’m going to look into parts and replacements. The sad fact is, with shipping and so forth, it might be cheaper just to run it off an external monitor. Even the local computer shops with high-end prices are offering decent 1024×768 monitors for under $200. Sad, but true.

By: leorockway

leorockway — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:23:28 +0000

The backlight on my (old) HP Pavillion died once and I got it repaired for 300 USD. I wouldn’t have got it repaired if my roommates (who were also using my laptop) haven’t chipped in.

5 months later the backlight died again. I took off the screen and use the laptop with a monitor now…

By: TL

TL — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:05:30 +0000

The switch would (relatively) easy to check, there would be two contacts. When the laptop is closed, the switch opens, and when it’s open the contacts are closed, so the backlight can be powered. Short out the contacts (maybe an alligator clip wire temporarily clipped to one terminal, and then touch the other?)
The inverter you would have to check with a multimeter; there would be two wires going to either side of the light, measure across that.
The lights I would guess could be visually inspected …
Be safe!

By: K.Mandla

K.Mandla — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:43:09 +0000

That would just be wacky!

Is there an easy way to tell which of those three components is at fault? I want to triage this for my friend, but I don’t want to suggest parts that aren’t going to fix the problem. And if it’s a question of repairing successive components until it starts working, the entire laptop might just be sold off. I doubt the owner would have the patience for that.

By: TL

TL — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:31:24 +0000

Some thoughts:
It could be the inverter that powers the backlight, the backlight itself, or maybe the switch that turns the backlight on/off when you close the lid.
If it’s the backlight and you’re handy with a soldering iron, you could replace the backlight with white LEDs – CCFL-> LED backlight replacement:
http://spritesmods.com/?art=ledbl
http://www.keithwakeham.com/lcd.htm

By: Stalwart

Stalwart — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:42:39 +0000

Sony is notorious ACPI breaker