In this guide I will disassemble a laptop LCD screen in order to remove and replace the backlight lamp (CCFL).
Replacing the backlight lamp is not an easy task even for experienced technicians. If you do something wrong you will permanently damage the LCD screen and have to buy a new one. Proceed on your own risk and do not blame me. 
Some recommendations before you start:
1. Work in a clean room. You don’t want dust and lint inside your LCD screen.
2. Make notes, so you know how to assemble your screen back.
3. Take pictures.
4. Before you remove something, take a closer look at the part and memorize how it is assembled.
5. When you are assembling the screen, remove dust and lint with compressed air. Do not use cloth.
The backlight lamp (CCFL) is located inside the LCD screen, so we are going to take it apart. In this article I’m not going to explain how to remove LCD from a laptop, it’s been covered before.
Here some examples:
Removing LCD screen from a Dell laptop.
Taking apart IBM ThinkPad display panel.
Removing screen from Toshiba laptops.
Remove sticky tape and foil from the back of the screen and glue it somewhere so you can reuse it later, when you assemble the screen.
Removing tape from the backlight cables.
On my screen the green circuit board was glued to the plastic frame with a double sided tape. Carefully unglue the circuit board. Be very careful, do not flex or bend the circuit board.
The circuit board has been unglued.
Place the LCD screen on the side and start removing the metal frame witch secures the LCD to the plastic frame. There will be many latches on all sides of the frame, you can unlock them with a small screwdriver.
Continue separating the metal frame from the plastic base.
On the following picture you can see that frame, LCD with the circuit board and screen base have been separated. Be careful, do not touch internal components with your fingers. Handle all internal components by the sides.
Place the metal frame and LCD with the circuit board aside. You’ll need them only when you assemble everything back together.
There will be a few transparent layers inside. Carefully remove them from the screen base. Do not separate the layers, just put them aside together.
Keep everything organized, so you have no trouble assembling the screen.
Start removing the metal cover from the backlight lamp (CCFL).
The backlight cover has been removed.
The backlight lamp (CCFL) cables are routed through small plastic hooks.
Unroute the backlight lamp cables.
Now probably the hardest part in this disassembly process – removing the backlight lamp and reflector. The backlight lamp is secured inside the reflector so you have to remove both and then separate them.
Before you remove the backlight lamp and reflector take a closer look how it’s assembled and mounted to the screen base. Fitting the backlight and reflector back in place could be a very challenging task.
The reflector is glued to the screen base with a double sided tape.
After the reflector has been unattached from the screen base, you can start removing the backlight lamp. As you see on the picture, I marked the left side of the reflector with a red dot so I know where the red cable goes when I assemble everything back together.
The backlight lamp (CCFL) has been removed from the reflector.
In order to access the backlight lamp leads you’ll have to remove the rubber caps from both side of the lamp. I’m not sure if you can touch the backlight lamp with your fingers, so I would use rubber gloves.
Cabled on both sides of the backlight lamp are soldered to the backlight leads. In order to access the leads you’ll have to remove the black insulator on both side of the lamp.
Unsolder both cables from the old backlight lamp and solder them to a new one.
You can test the new backlight lamp (CCFL) before you install it back into the screen. Connect the backlight lamp into the inverter board and turn on the laptop. The backlight lamp should light up.
From my experience, on some laptops the backlight lamp will not light up until the video cable is connected to the LCD screen. In this case you’ll have to assemble the LCD screen and then test it.
You can search for a new CCFL backlight lamp here.
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July 16th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Hi,
Thanks for posting the tutorial.
I have just changed the CCFL of an IBMThink Pad R50e for a dark screen as outlined in the tutorial. When I re fixed the LCD Display found that only about 2in of the screen at the base is lighted. The upper part of the screen is still dark. I can see the window screen there but unable to use the screen.
What could have gone wrong in my case?
July 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Hey folks,
My e1705 died last Sunday – was happily watching a video, then there was a fizzle, and then a black backlit screen. I took the whole thing apart, messed with it, gave up and put it back together – then it started working, for whatever reason.
Today (1 week later) it did the same thing again – black screen. I took it apart as the first few instructions show to ensure it wasn’t a loose cable causing the problm, and there’s definitely a glow from the backlight when turned on or fn-f8′ed, but no picture again. Hooking it up to an external monitor allows it to work fine, so it’s not the graphics card (although it was throwing me all sorts of errors until I reinstalled my drivers).
Could anybody confirm that this is an inverter problem? If not, I might just ditch this terrible laptop model and go find something new…
July 5th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Hi Larry,
Thanks for posting the procedure.
I did this to a Gateway laptop with a 15.25 Samsung
screen. As you previously stated:”Replacing the backlight lamp is not an easy task even for experienced technicians” is absolutely true.
This is a very sophisticated repair procedure.
Anyway, the Gateway is back up and running like new.
I chickened out and didn’t un-glue the circuit board as you did but then found it to be that much harder to get the lamp reassembled and reseated but I guess luck was with me that day.
It can be done however, patience, patience, patience!.
I would recommend people buy (2) CCFL tubes when ordering, you’ll only have to pay shipping once.
I had to pay for it twice because I clumsily broke one just after I had soldered it (bummed!)
Thank you again!
Fred
June 9th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Hi thanks for ll the great help. I have a packard easy note laptop and screen has gone dark but it still can be seen to be working in correct light. Im going to go about replacing the backlight now. I just want to know if i can use any correct size backlight or are they specific to each model of laptop. In short will any backlight work in any laptop
June 9th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Just tested the magnetic switch with a magnet – it goes into hibernation fine but still restarts with dark screen, so if its not the switch, inverter or backlight is my board screwed?
June 8th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
This procedure requires extra care. The backlight lamp of most LCD’s (I think) contain mercury, which is toxic.
June 7th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Hi I have tried setting power to never turn off etc… but cannot seem to find anything that will allow me to disable the lid close switch…. could you advise…thanks
June 7th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Thanks.. I have replaced the inverter in the screen. i know it works as it has been tested, the same with the backlight…i have two sp10-304 laptops with exactly the same problem… inverters work as do backlights… image is getting onto screen but really dark… its doing my head in….
June 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Sam,
First of all, you have to test your laptop with an external monitor. Do you have picture on the external monitor?
June 6th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Hello,
Can someone tell me whats wrong with my computer. My processor works but there is no picture on the lcd.