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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September 7th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I have a Dell 1505 and just changed the bulb. It is a difficult repair, but your video and instruction came in very handy. NOW It lights up but the screen isn’t working properly. It sort of looks like an illuminated picture frame, but you can’t see any icons, etc.. and when you move the mouse, you just see lines across the screen. Any advise? Was working fine until bulb went pink. I’m pretty sure that everything is back together correctly. I have removed, rechecked and reinstalled three times now. Still, I have the same problem. Your help is greatly appreciated!
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:04 am
Thanks, Now I have an idea how to replace it.
August 14th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I did this on an ibm x60. (SAMSUNG LTN121XJ-L03) Luckly I already had the backlight CCFL from a smashed x40 lcd (also a 12.1″ samsung but a different model) Everything went well, The lcd came out nicer then some used lcds I have seen. Thanks for the tutorial it really helped me figure out how the screen came apart with out damaging anything.
July 21st, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Hi there this goes to riche, or anyone I have a dell inspiron 9300 17 inch screen and the bulb burnt out, so I decided to try to replace. well I was somewhat successful, the screen is lit up but the bottom is way brighter then the top of the screen and i can see where the bulb is. is there any suggestions to what has gone wrong I cant find any real good directions about the placement of the reflector. your help would be great.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I have Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and when I turn on, I can see the Windows Logo and than screen goes blank and after researching on google I found that it could be a problem of backlight bulb or inverter. I am not sure what is the defference between inverter and backlight bulb. Can anybody please help me. What should I replace backlight bulb or inverter and from where I can buy it.
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Woo Hoo!
I am proud to say I did it and now have a beautiful bright perfect laptop screen. I have a Dell Latitude D520 with the 15″ screen. And I have to say it was very difficult. But with care and patience, I learned a bit about laptop displays and saved $250.
My bulb had a burned out wire at one end so lucky I had bought a new bulb with the wiring harness attached. That would be my recommendation.
June 8th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I replaced the ccfl successfully. Whole screen lights up but the LCD display lights up only in the upper half. The lower half (closest to the ccfl) shows horizontal lines, or just a blue screen with faint lines going across and no icons etc. What could be the cause? Could the fact that I did not reapply the adhesive strips properly be a cause?
June 6th, 2010 at 2:10 am
aredant Says:
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
Thanks for the info. replacement was successful. A few comments – I have a HP DV5000 which is similar to your pics.
As far as touching components, this is only an issue related to static shock. It is best to use a grounding strap when working with any electronics. Static can damage semiconductors. It may not blow them out, but cause them to fail early so watch out. It is caused by your body friction against rough surfaces but dissipates quickly. If you don’t use a grounding strap, try touching a pipe or a chassis frame or something to discharge first before handling components. Holding things by the edges is a good practice but difficult to rely on when trying not to shock electronics.
A fluorescent bulb is OK to touch. It is Halogens that need to be clean because oils left on the surface of the bub can create thermal stress points and shatter the bulb as they get very hot.
My assembly used quite a lot of industrial adhesive tapes but nothing was glued. These can be carefully peeled back but they are sometimes unusable afterward. You can replace them with metal furnace tape and carton packing tapes if necessary.
It is a good idea to replace the inverter at the same time. Although this should not be necessary, mine failed shortly after I replaced the back light bulb. If it is old, the inverter is already weakened. They are inexpensive and will save trouble in the long run.
I am going to attempt this procedure on my Acer 5684 which is around 3.5 yrs old now. Display still works but is not as bright anymore. And as you say, I should probably replace the Inverter too whilst everything is stripped.
Wish me luck and thank’s for all great info here.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:21 am
Hello, I try to describe my problem in English. I think it is similar to 187. I replace the backlight and it works, but now it only illuminates the bottom portion of the screen closest to the bulb and gets darker towards the top of the screen. what could be causing this?
Thank you for help
Volker
April 24th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Robbie,
Probably this is the backlight lamp failure.
It’s possible to replace the backlight lamp at home but not easy. I would suggest replacing the whole screen. These days new laptop screens are not expensive.