E6410 Owner's Thread

Check my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVJ6eDSjBg
I had a flickering problem at my previous laptop (Toshiba Satellite 5200-902) and after a lot of searching there were 3 options to solve the problem:

1) Changing the LCD. This was also the recommendation from Toshiba but of course it was expensive and I would not spend 200-300euros to buy an original LCD from Toshiba. I would rather prefer to buy LCD from ebay or use my laptop with an external monitor since it was working fine with an RGB cable. Did you try connecting your laptop to an external monitor? If you still have the problem then it is most probably a graphic card or motherboard failure.

If with an external monitor you do not see any problem then most probably it is a problem of the inverter or the fluorescence tube (backlight bulb) of the LCD.

2) Changing the inverter. This is the easiest and relatively cheap solution. In my case this was working fine. In order to test it I found from a friend a multimeter to measure the outcome voltage from the inverter when laptop is powered on. Be careful to use an appropriate multimeter that can measure at least around 1000V AC. If you get indications near or more than 1000V AC then your inverter probably works fine.

3) Changing the backlight bulb of the LCD. In case the inverter is not the problem then you have to change the backlight bulb of the LCD. The backlight bulb is also very cheap but disassembling the LCD is rather tricky and you may do unrepairable damage to the LCD.

Since my inverter was working and I was not going to spend money for a new LCD I followed the 3rd solution. I found old LCDs from notebooks that were supposed to be recycled and I disassembled them to see what could go wrong and of course to remove their backlight bulbs. I tested their backlight bulbs by connecting them at the inverter. All worked fine without flickering! To make this long story short, I disassembled my LCD and replaced the backlight bulb and everything worked fine.
Of course, you have to choose a backlight bulb with the correct length and diameter in case you choose a used one. Alternatively, you can buy a new one which is cheap and proper 100% for your LCD. The only tricky point with a new backlight bulb is that you have to be careful to solder the small cables at the end of the backlight bulb. If you overheat it, you may damage the bulb. On the other had, a used bulb is ready to use and you may only have to cut and rejoin the cables to match your connectors which is much easier than soldering.


Now, in your case, that you changed the LCD and after 6-7 months you have again the same problem I think that the problem may be located to underperformance of the inverter that results to burning the backlight bulb. But this is just my feeling.

I hope I helped you with the above, rather long, description.

 

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here is a vid of what is happening.

It works fine on my external monitor.

andrewstas...i think the e6410 does not use inverter

no warranty Robin24k

 

did you google it?
I did and see some options:
Here is one of the first results:
- inverter repair


but you may be right since I read that inverters are for LCDs and not for LEDs.
So, I am not quite sure for your case.
Did you try to disable the auto-brightness of the screen?
None the less, the fact that with an external monitor everything works ok indicates that the problem is located to the LED and not to the motherboard or the graphics card.

So, check how is the LED powered and also both the cable and the connections from the motherboard to the LED. I think you should focus to these parts.

 

i'm not sure how it's powered. I checked the display cable and have not found anything loose.

 

Did you change the LCD cable when you replaced the LCD the first time? It won't hurt to replace the cable, but I think you will probably end up having to replace the LCD again.

That only applies to CCFL-backlit screens. With LED-backlit screens, there are no inverters because it uses ~3.5V DC, which is easily supplied directly from the motherboard.

 

no i did not replace the cable robin. I was thinking about a theory. Is it possible that a faulty cable could be killing the lcds over time.

Or maybe the board itself. But when on battery i notice no extra discharge that would indicate such.

I think i might get this one as you suggested

Amazon.com: DELL DV5J1 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA+ LED DIODE (SUBSTITUTE REPLACEMENT LCD SCREEN ONLY. NOT A LAPTOP ): Computers & Accessories

 

Here's the link to the cable:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270806149816

 

Thanks robin. I havent seen the cable in any disassemble guides.

looks a bit complicated...

 

It just threads around the hinge and plugs unto the motherboard from the bottom. No big deal, the most difficult part is probably just unplugging the connector from the microphone/webcam board.

 

yepp...i was trying to unplug them earlier and was having a hard time. Almost seemed glued down