700m Display Problem - Backlight?!

My laptop's display goes black after very 1st screen with Dell logo (which I assume is POST screen) - It proceeds to boot as normal into Windows and I have connected to an external display to confirm everything else is fine. (I'm posting this from my laptop using the monitor)


When I switch back and forth from monitor/LCD I can see the laptop screen flickering as it did when it was working normally, and I think I can see the laptop screen very very faintly when I have it on dual display clone, which leads me to think it's a backlight problem...But I just never have encountered this type of issue in 5 years of my usage so I need your input!

Is there any way to confirm this theory?

Thanks in advance!

 

If you can see the image on the display faintly... it's almost certainly a backlight or inverter problem. Generally hard to tell which one; in my experience backlight failures have always been characterized by a reddish tint on the LCD image shortly before death.

Buy a new inverter on eBay (generally really cheap), swap it out, and see if it fixes your problem. If not, it's a backlight problem, and then you can decide whether or not you want to go through the hassle of replacing that...

 

Commander wolf //

Thank you for the response! Do have another information though...when I put the computer on sleep and turn it back on the screen turns on normally for about a full second then turns off (again, not completely off but very dim). Happens every time I do it.

If it's a backlight problem is it able to go back to normal state (albeit for short time)? Would I be correct to assume when the backlight goes bad you won't be able to see the screen properly at all afterwards?


Thanks again!

 

Not necessarily; I've seen some dying backlights flicker on and off or run somewhat fine at super-low brightness, but if your backlight comes on occasionally and the picture's nice and clear and not red-tinted, I think there's a fairly good chance that it's a failing inverter instead.

 

Thanks again! I think I will order an inverter and try it out.