In this post I explain how I test the LCD screen inverter board in a laptop computer.
The screen inverter failure is very similar to the backlight lamp failure. In both cases the screen gets very dark and the image on the screen becomes very faint, barely visible under a bright light.
If you suspect the inverter board failure, I know only one reliable way to test that. It’s either replacing the inverter board with a known good one and see if it works, or connecting a known good backlight lamp and see if your presumably bad inverter lights it up.
In most cases I go with the second method – testing the laptop with a known good backlight lamp. Why? Because backlight lamps are pretty much universal. The same backlight lamp will work with many different inverters as long as they have matching connectors. I’ll talk about these connectors later.
The inverter board is located inside the display panel under the LCD screen. In most laptops you can access the inverter board if you remove the LCD screen bezel. The inverter board has connectors on both ends. Read the rest of this entry »
In order to replace the power jack in your laptop you’ll have to remove the jack from the motherboard as I explained in the previous post: Replacing DC power jack.
While removing the jack you can accidentally pull out the internal copper coating (I’ll call it a sleeve) from the inside of the “+” terminal as it shown on the picture below.
The internal copper sleeve has been removed and cannot be installed back. If you solder the power jack back on the motherboard without this sleeve it might work but the connection between the “+” lead and motherboard will not be reliable.
In the following guide I explain how to fortify a damaged power jack connection. You can use this repair technique in some laptops with similar power jacks.
Here’s how I installed an external USB Bluetooth adapter INSIDE my laptop and made it internal. My laptop wasn’t Bluetooth ready, it didn’t have internal Bluetooth connector and antenna but I needed it in order to access the cell phone without running a cable.
My first option was using the external USB Bluetooth adapter as is but it wasn’t very convenient. I decided to find a way to install this adapter inside the laptop.
Read the rest of this entry »
You replaced the broken LCD screen in your laptop with a new screen but it’s not working. Does this sound like your problem? Let’s find out what could be wrong and how you can fix it.
First of all, I assume that your new LCD screen is compatible with the old one. Different screens require different video cables. Make sure you new screen is compatible with your laptop.
OK, let’s say you accidentally damaged the LCD screen in your laptop. A part of the screen still works fine but you cannot use it like that so you decided to replace the screen yourself. You can find LCD replacement instructions in service manuals or this DIY site.
You did some research and purchased a compatible screen, installed it into the laptop, turned it on and… The new screen is not working!!! What could be wrong?
Read the rest of this entry »
This laptop has a power problem. The battery stops charging when I move the power cord on the DC adapter. When I start moving the cord left to right, the power LED light on the front goes on and off and the battery charge LED goes on and off too.
I removed the battery and tested the laptop again. The laptop starts fine from the DC adapter when the battery is removed, but as soon as I start moving the power cord the laptop shuts off. It looks like the laptop looses power immediately.
If you have a problem like that, most likely it’s related either to the power adapter or the DC-IN power jack.
In this post I’ll explain how to troubleshoot a dead laptop and find the problem. The following troubleshooting tips are not model and brand specific, they should work for most laptops.
Let’s take a look at two different scenarios.
Example 1. The laptop is absolutely dead.
When you plug in the power adapter and press on the power button, there is no signs of life at all. The laptop will not make usual noises, LEDs will not light up, the fan will not spin, the screen is blank and black, etc… In short, the laptop is dead.
What you can do in this case?
1. Make sure the wall outlet is working and the laptop DC adapter is getting power from the outlet. Try another wall outlet.
2. Test the laptop DC power adapter, make sure the voltage output is correct. You can test the DC power adapter with a voltmeter.
3. Let’s say the DC adapter is fine and the adapter outputs correct voltage. In this case unplug the power adapter from the laptop, remove the battery, wait for 1-2 minutes, plug in the adapter and try turning on the laptop again.
OK, you tested the adapter and it’s bad. If you decide to replace the original DC adapter with a generic one, you’ll have to follow this rule:
The voltage output on your new adapter has to be exactly the same as on the original adapter. The amperage on the new adapter could be the same or higher.
If nothing helps and the laptop is still dead, apparently the motherboard is fried or there is a problem with the DC power jack. It’s possible the DC power jack is broken and the motherboard is not getting any power from the adapter. In this case you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and replace the power jack. Check out this guide for fixing laptop power jack.
Example 2. When you plug the DC power adapter and press on the power button, the laptop starts making normal noises, the LEDs work properly but noting appears on the screen. The laptop will not start.
What can you do if the laptop LCD screen turned completely white? From my experience I can tell that this problem may be related to the following:
1. Loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen.
2. Defective LCD screen.
3. Defective motherboard (I assume the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard).
Here’s an example of a laptop with white screen. When you turn on the laptop, it starts but the image on the screen is completely white right from the beginning. In my case it was a Toshiba Satellite M45 laptop but this problem may occur with any other brand.
This tutorial explains how you can install internal wireless card into an older laptop. I assume that your laptop is “wireless ready” which means it has a slot for the wireless card and equipped with wireless antennas, but missing the wireless card. Why did I make this tutorial for an older laptop? Because all new laptops are sold with the wireless card.
I’ll take as an example my Dell Latitude C840 laptop. As you see on the picture, it has a slot for the wireless card and one antenna cable. That’s strange, most laptops have two antenna cables, white and black. One cable goes to the main connector on the wireless card, another cable goes to the auxiliary connector. Probably you’ll ask me which antenna cable connects to which connector? I think it doesn’t really matter because both antenna cable are identical.
Is it possible to fix laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick? Yes, it is. You will not fix the memory slot itself, but you can work around the problem. 
Today I received a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 laptop with the following complaint:
The laptop starts and works properly, but recognizes only one of the two memory modules installed. The laptop has two 256MB RAM modules installed, but registers only 256MB.
First of all, I removed the memory cover to find out if both memory modules are installed correctly. The laptop had two 256MB Kingston modules installed and they were seated properly.
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Today I found a great source with service manuals for Sony Vaio VGN series laptops and notebooks. Links to the service manuals were posted on one of the Russian forums (comment 13). Not sure for how long these service manuals will be available for downloads but they are the time of wringing this post. Some files are large and it might take some time to download them, so be patient.
Need spare parts for a Sony laptop? Search here.
All service manuals are in PDF format and you can download them using below mentioned links.