[Litmatch21]

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T61P. Last night I was watching a movie and the screen seemed to burn out like a light bulb. I initially thought the screen was completely black but I notice now that I can just BARELY make out my wallpaper and desktop icons. In no way can I try to navigate this way. I've restarted my laptop a couple of times and there has been no signs of live at all. I currently have my laptop hooked up to an external monitor and it works perfectly so I'm positive the issue is my laptop's display. Can someone please try to help me identify the reason for the failure. Thank you.

Display: 15.4 in 1680x1050 (WSXGA+) TFT active matrix
Video Card: nVidia Quadro FX 570M

Edited by Litmatch21, 10 July 2011 - 12:23 PM.

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Hi Litmatch21
Sounds like either the back-lighy or inverter has failed, some links attached to assist you;
http://www.batteryce...r-p-186682.html + http://www-307.ibm.c...migr-67980.html and http://forums.lenovo...blem/td-p/65679
Good luck and let us know how it goes or if we can assist in any way.

[phillpower2]

Hi Litmatch21
Sounds like either the back-lighy or inverter has failed, some links attached to assist you;
http://www.batteryce...r-p-186682.html + http://www-307.ibm.c...migr-67980.html and http://forums.lenovo...blem/td-p/65679
Good luck and let us know how it goes or if we can assist in any way.

[Litmatch21]

Hi Litmatch21
Sounds like either the back-lighy or inverter has failed, some links attached to assist you;
http://www.batteryce...r-p-186682.html + http://www-307.ibm.c...migr-67980.html and http://forums.lenovo...blem/td-p/65679
Good luck and let us know how it goes or if we can assist in any way.

Thank you very much. I now also think the culprit is the inverter card. I will give it a go and report back with results. Thank you very much.

[phillpower2]

You are welcome

[Litmatch21]

Update:

I replaced my inverter card but my screen remains the same (very dark and very dim). I'm going to assume now that the problem is the backlight. I'll see if I can find a replacement but I found it hard to do when I initially thought the problem was the backlight. I'll report back.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the update, I am sorry to hear it was not better news.
Chances are that if you had replaced the backlight first it may have turned out to be the inverter, that is the hardest thing with this issue you can`t tell if it is the backlight or the inverter until one is replaced.
I will add an edit if I can find a good value backlight for you.

[Litmatch21]

Thanks for the update, I am sorry to hear it was not better news.
Chances are that if you had replaced the backlight first it may have turned out to be the inverter, that is the hardest thing with this issue you can`t tell if it is the backlight or the inverter until one is replaced.
I will add an edit if I can find a good value backlight for you.

I purchased this Backlight. The condition is listed as "New other (see details): A new, unused item with absolutely no signs of wear. The item may be missing the original packaging, or in the original packaging but not sealed. The item may be a factory second or a new, unused item with defects. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections." It's less than $10 so it's worth a shot. I will at least know if the Backlight is the problem. If nothing changes with this then I may need to shell out for a new screen altogether.

Edited by Litmatch21, 14 July 2011 - 09:58 AM.

[phillpower2]

That looks to be a great deal.

[Litmatch21]

I've fixed my display failure, but it was the most frustrating and long-lasting PC-fixing experience I've gone through. I spent about 7 hours replacing my backlight bulb. If anyone ever has this problem I strongly recommend you don't do this on your own. Buy the backlight(WITH WIRE) and take it to a repair guy. If you're stubborn, I strongly suggest you follow this GUIDE, but you must document everything during your dis assembly because I promise you will miss something (screw, alignment of the multiple layers of the LCD, etc).

My problem could have been the inverter card, but it wasn't. If you have this problem pray it's the inverter card and not the backlight. At least the total cost was less than 30 bucks, but remember I first bought an inverter card so it could have been cheaper. Good luck.

Edited by Litmatch21, 03 August 2011 - 09:06 PM.

[phillpower2]

Congratulations on a successful repair Litmatch21 and thank you for sharing the problems you encountered in doing so.
Laptop repairs are best not undertaken by a novice as the wrong size or type of screw in the wrong place can destroy the laptop altogether, as you pointed out document everything and to add to that keeping the different types of screws in separate labeled containers is another sensible approach as is doing plenty of research beforehand.