[Michael Wagner]

Hello,

I am new to the board, but have a desparate issue for my daughter's Acer Aspire 5532. The machine boots fine and the screen comes up and windows loads with no problem. After a a short period of time, the screen goes out and you can only see the icons if you shine a flashlight on the screen. I swapped out the inverter ($18) and it worked for about 10 minutes and then the issue happened again. My question is this, I can buy a new screen for the machine for about $80. Is this the problem? All the other troubleshooting sites I went to (including a local repair shop) thought it was the inverter. I also heards that these machines have bios issues. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

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Welcome to GeekstoGo


Have you tried connecting an external monitor.

It will not prove if it is the inverter or the screen, but at least it will prove if it is the motherboard, the graphics chip, a power issue.

[Macboatmaster]

Welcome to GeekstoGo


Have you tried connecting an external monitor.

It will not prove if it is the inverter or the screen, but at least it will prove if it is the motherboard, the graphics chip, a power issue.

[Michael Wagner]

I have done that and identified that it is not the graphics card or motherboard.

[Digerati]

Many shops automatically replace the CCFL (the backlight fluorescent tube) whenever they replace the inverter. All electronics get weak over time and installing a new inverter may have been too much for the aging backlight. So simply replacing the CCFL may fix your problem. However, if the new inverter blew, then that may indicate the CCFL was drawing too much current, or it may indicate other power problems. So it is a gamble and a guess. Do you replace just the CCFL? Do your replace the CCFL and the inverter again? I don't know. If me, since your inverter only cost $18 (some are $100 or more) and if you are 100% certain that inverter is the correct part, and because an external monitor works fine, I would probably spring for a new inverter and a new CCFL and, with fingers crossed, hope that works.

[Macboatmaster]

My colleague Digerati is something of an expert on hardware issues.
There is perhaps just one other thing to try.
I have known the issue occur, where the connection cable has a break, for want of a better word, in one of the wires, although that usually I think is immediately apparent rather than after 10 minutes.
Some people have found that partially closing the screen lid has restored the connection, but as I said my colleague is the expert and I feel sure that the clue is the 10 minutes, as the cable connection defect is as I say not time related.