Phildw Posted October 1, 2012 Posted October 1, 2012 Hi all. I am having issues with the screen on one of our school laptops (Acer Extensa 5620G) having a very dim display. Have done some research on the internet and come accross a couple possible solutions (Bios update, replace inverter), none of which have worked. I have taken the lid apart and swapped both the screen and the inverter with spares that I know work, to no avail. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I have heard re the inverter that it is a power issue? Could there be a probelm with the motherboard connection or something similar? Cheers
kmount Posted October 1, 2012 Posted October 1, 2012 At the risk of asking a silly question have you checked the user hasn't dimmed it with the hotkeys?
Phildw Posted October 1, 2012 Author Posted October 1, 2012 At the risk of asking a silly question have you checked the user hasn't dimmed it with the hotkeys? Haha Have tried the keyboard hotkeys, they seem to have no effect
hardtailstar Posted October 1, 2012 Posted October 1, 2012 Is their a driver/software for them? I had a similiar issue with a samsung laptop after putting a custom image on the laptop i realised id forgot the software for these functions to work as Sumsung had put thier own software on it so that they would work.
Phildw Posted October 2, 2012 Author Posted October 2, 2012 Is their a driver/software for them? I had a similiar issue with a samsung laptop after putting a custom image on the laptop i realised id forgot the software for these functions to work as Sumsung had put thier own software on it so that they would work. Not that I can find. Have got all the extra Acer progs and nothing seems to help.
Dom_ Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 Did you just switch the screen and inverter - could also be the screen cable, try one from a known working one and see if that makes any difference
Phildw Posted October 2, 2012 Author Posted October 2, 2012 Did you just switch the screen and inverter - could also be the screen cable, try one from a known working one and see if that makes any difference When I swapped the inverters i swapped the cable aswell. Have also now tested both cables with both inverters with no success. I first took the screen apart in July, and haven't looked at it again until now (we don't work in the holidays here), but I'm sure it was fine originally, and the problem only occurred after that. But I'm confised as to what could have happened to cause this issue simply by doing that?? Out of interest what are the two cables which run along the side of the panel and stick to the lid in the top corners?
crc-ict Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 Out of interest what are the two cables which run along the side of the panel and stick to the lid in the top corners? Probably WiFI antennae I would guess
Dom_ Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 Out of interest what are the two cables which run along the side of the panel and stick to the lid in the top corners? They're generally wifi cables
Dom_ Posted October 2, 2012 Posted October 2, 2012 How dim is the display? Can you post a pic? Is it just a shadow on the screen or a lot brighter than that?
Phildw Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 How dim is the display? Can you post a pic? Is it just a shadow on the screen or a lot brighter than that? Hey Dom, here's a pic of the screen with my monitor hooked up to show what it should be showing . Sorry about the reflections...
round2it Posted October 3, 2012 Posted October 3, 2012 try the screen on a working laptop to see if it is a faulty motherboard
Phildw Posted October 3, 2012 Author Posted October 3, 2012 Hi all. I am having issues with the screen on one of our school laptops (Acer Extensa 5620G) having a very dim display. Have done some research on the internet and come accross a couple possible solutions (Bios update, replace inverter), none of which have worked. I have taken the lid apart and swapped both the screen and the inverter with spares that I know work, to no avail. Anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I have heard re the inverter that it is a power issue? Could there be a probelm with the motherboard connection or something similar? Cheers From the OP
mac_shinobi Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) If you go into the bios on the faulty motherboard / laptop is there any options with regards to the screen or screen brightness in the bios itself. I know no the Dells you can adjust and set the screen brightness depending whether it is on mains or only battery and I normally tend to set both to the max setting, save, restart and check again ? Also reset bios to factory defaults or optimal settings ( whatever the option is called ) and save and restart to see if that helps at all. Also the mains cable you are using , if you try a different one to see if that makes any difference ? Just wondering if you shutdown the laptop, remove the battery and power it only via mains or visa versa only via battery and not mains does that make any difference ? Also thinking if you power the laptop completely off and swap the ram from a working laptop to the faulty laptop, if it is still the same then I am guessing motherboard issue or power issue as mentioned above. Edited October 4, 2012 by mac_shinobi
mac_shinobi Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) If you go into the bios on the faulty motherboard / laptop is there any options with regards to the screen or screen brightness in the bios itself. I know no the Dells you can adjust and set the screen brightness depending whether it is on mains or only battery and I normally tend to set both to the max setting, save, restart and check again ? Also reset bios to factory defaults or optimal settings ( whatever the option is called ) and save and restart to see if that helps at all. Also the mains cable you are using , if you try a different one to see if that makes any difference ? I've seen it in the past where we had a few models of Lenovos and picked the wrong power supply and the watt rating of said power supply wasn't enough for the laptop we connected it to, when it was connected the screen would go very dim like that and when we disconnected it ie running on the battery the screen would go back to normal. Then swapped the power supply to the correct one and it worked fine and the screen didn't go dim Not sure if it will apply to your make / model of laptop but sometimes on the Lenovos if there is no power in the battery and it has not been charged or connected to mains for a day or more then you can't power the laptop on correctly ie you see the LED's for num lock, caps lock, accessing the hard drive but there is no display. Probably won't help but Just curious If you disconnect all power sources ie battery and mains lead and then if the laptop is easy enough to get apart and put back together ( assuming it does not invalidate your warranty ) you could disconnect the cmos battery for 30 seconds or so, reconnect the cmos battery, put it back together and re connect battery and mains lead and power back on ?? Long shot Edited October 4, 2012 by mac_shinobi
Dom_ Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 Hey Dom, here's a pic of the screen with my monitor hooked up to show what it should be showing . Sorry about the reflections... [ATTACH=CONFIG]15402[/ATTACH] Strange - that definitely looks like a dodgy inverter... not sure what else could cause it! Sorry... 1
Phildw Posted October 4, 2012 Author Posted October 4, 2012 If you go into the bios on the faulty motherboard / laptop is there any options with regards to the screen or screen brightness in the bios itself. I know no the Dells you can adjust and set the screen brightness depending whether it is on mains or only battery and I normally tend to set both to the max setting, save, restart and check again ? Also reset bios to factory defaults or optimal settings ( whatever the option is called ) and save and restart to see if that helps at all. Also the mains cable you are using , if you try a different one to see if that makes any difference ? Just wondering if you shutdown the laptop, remove the battery and power it only via mains or visa versa only via battery and not mains does that make any difference ? Also thinking if you power the laptop completely off and swap the ram from a working laptop to the faulty laptop, if it is still the same then I am guessing motherboard issue or power issue as mentioned above. There are no available settings in the bios. Have tried default settings. The mains cable works fine on the other identical laptop I have, and have tried with/without battery/power cable. Will try the RAM swap at some point today if I have time or tomorrow.
difinity Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 Have you tried the screen ? If it's not the inverter or cable is it possible the CCFL has been broken in the screen.
twin--turbo Posted October 4, 2012 Posted October 4, 2012 Have you tried the screen ? If it's not the inverter or cable is it possible the CCFL has been broken in the screen. The OP States he tried another screen in the opening post. Rob
mac_shinobi Posted October 5, 2012 Posted October 5, 2012 I would say motherboard fault then - the ram was only for patchy colours or issues with it not displaying correctly, not with regards to the brightness. If there is not enough power provided before it gets to the inverter or the inverter is not stepping the power up enough or not working correctly then you get brightness issues, but you have already tried swapping that, the screen etc etc and it is still the same so presume it is a fault on the motherboard with ref to power or something to that effect 1
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