1520 backlight or inverter problem?

Hey guys, my Inspiron 1520 recently crapped out on me. Everytime I use the LCD display the backlight flickers on the dimmest setting. If I ramp up the backlight too high, you can hear a high-pitched electrical sound come from where the power button and the bezel is. If its rampped up too high the backlight completely shuts off and the sound stops, as if something shorted. I've already read that this is probably an inverter problem, so I bought a random inverter off ebay. The problem is I'm not sure if I bought the right one. The numbers do not completely match my old inverter, but they carry the same plugs. I replaced it into my LCD screen and the problem is even worse with this inverter. This one has the high-pitched sound even on the lowest setting.

So I'm wondering if it is something other than the inverter, or could it be I bought the wrong inverter. This is for my Inspiron 1520 with the 1650 x1050 LCD display. Are the inverters LCD screen specific?

 

How "random" is "random"? If it was an inverter from a Dell laptop of approximately the same age, it should work (assuming it was guaranteed to work, and not some "as is" garbage). The fact that it doesn't probably means your backlight is going out instead.

 

I'm starting to think that too. Didn't hurt to try the $5 inverter fix though. There's virtually no way to replace the backlight is there?

 

You can... it's just a pain in the butt. And unless you have your own clean room it's terribly difficult to reassemble the display without getting @#$% dust behind the screen.

I'm sure there's guides on Google, etc.