Dell Inspiron 6000, inverter or backlight issue?

The screen abruptly went black for my 5 year old Inspiron 6000 a few days ago. I am trying to figure out if I need to replace the inverter or the backlight.

If I close the lid of the laptop and open it up again, the screen will display for 1 second before going black again. Same thing when I boot up. The screen will display for 1 second, then go black. I can get the screen to display for one second if I close then open the lid. I have plugged the laptop to an external LCD monitor and the screen will display just fine on the external, so it's not a graphic chip problem or OS settings. When the screen is black, I can't see anything even when I look really close after turning off the lights in the room.

Below is a video I found on YouTube which pretty much illustrates my problem, except in my case, the screen never stays on for longer than a second, if even.

YouTube - What is wrong Backlight or Inverter?

Any idea on whether it's the inverter or the backlight? Thanks.

 

I happen to have that exact computer sitting in a computer bag with no display bezel. If you're familiar with taking apart the computer, just reseat the display and inverter cable or just insure both are not loose. If you want to see what you're working with, I can post pictures of the inverter cable and display connector when I get home. If you just want a test converter, I could send you mine to see if that's the problem.

 

Usually a bad backlight should have a red tint, but if the screen doesn't stay lit for more than a second, it can be hard to tell. I'd say if you've already tried re-seating your cables, etc, try buying an inverter (they're cheap and easy to replace) and seeing if it fixes the problem. If not, it's a bad backlight.

 

As stated above, the only way to rule out parts is to replace with known good parts. An inverter shouldn't be more than 50-60 dollars.

Unfortunately if you have a bad backlight, I would suggest buying a whole new panel. Backlight can be replaced but it is a pain.

 

Thanks for all the quick responses. I should probably try to re-seat the inverter first and see if it is loose. I've seen Dell Inspiron 6000 inverters on EBay going for less than $10, and it looks like it's not too hard to replace (at least based on the videos I've seen--I've never done it before ). But backlight...based on what I've read, that's a more involved operations requiring soldering and more expensive than replacing the inverter? Given that this laptop is 5 years old and way past warranty (I've already had to replace the DVD, when I still had warranty, and the HD, when I didn't), I'd happily replace the inverter and try to stretch this laptop's lifespan for another year or so. If it's the backlight, I think I will just spent $400 or so for a cheap new laptop, which at any rate would probably be more powerful than this 5 year old. So right now I am just trying to figure out which it is so I can decide what I want to do.

 

The inverter isn't a pain but you will need a tiny Phillips I believe to remove the screws.

DELL INSPIRON E1505 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 15.4" WSXGA+ MATTE CCFL $90

A new 1680x1050 panel is like 105 shipped. I'd rather have that older Dell than any new cheapo laptop. Pentium M beats out Atom, and IMO isn't that much weaker than laptops with single cores (Sempron/Celeron)