I've got a Dell 17" flat panel that isn't working, and I'd love to bring it back to life. I picked up a "repair kit" from eBay; consisted of a half-dozen replacement transistors and instructions for replacing them. I went through the prescribed process, but it still doesn't work.
When I turn on the monitor, there's a brief faint flash on the screen, but it stays black. When powered on & connected to a computer, the OS X Displays pref's pane recognizes it fine (Dell E172FPb), but the display is dark. If you shine a light on it you can see that there is an image displayed on the screen, but it's very, very faint. I can't say if the image displayed before I replaced the transistors, but it did do the flash thing, so I have a feeling that's something I just didn't notice earlier.
It seems that the backlights aren't working; there appear to be four lamps in the display (four connectors to the inverter board), and it's highly unlikely that all four went out at once, so I'm thinking that something on the inverter board is fried. But it's been a loooonnnnnggg time since I've done any component-level troubleshooting, and don't have a clue where to start. I've found outfits that will sell entire inverter boards for about $50, but I hesitate spending that because 1.) I already spent $20 on the thing, and 2.) I'm cheap.
So, has anyone been down this road before and have any advice for me? Thanks!
is still cheaper than $139+ for a new 17" Flat Panel. I still say it's worth it, but you *might* want to take it to someone that can trouble shoot it (or if you have the time). Shelve it for now, study up on it, then go and fix it. No rush right now, but it would still be worth it to buy the $50 than to buy a new display
Using an inverter from another display. Most bulbs take the same voltage out of the inverter board, so the only reason to keep the stock board is for whatever oem controls there might be. If you don't mind losing that, just find a board with the same number of backlight outputs that you have backlights for. Or if you have multiple backlights you can add multiple boards.
That said, I'd grab a meter and test the voltage going into the bulb, to see if the bulb IS bad.