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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December 28th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I replaced the back light and inverter in my T40. Not for the faint of heart. Turns out I didn’t need to replace the bulb–just a bad (broken) connection. I broke the cable to the little light on the top of the panel—never use it. I hope to get a few more hours out of the old T40–everyone tells me I should get an Apple. Thanks.
December 27th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Oh one other thing. On the t43 you can leave the screen lid attached to the keyboard base. You just remove the screws holding down the bezel and then pry the bezel off. Then you can remove the lcd assembly and start disecting it till you get to the bulb.
December 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks for helpfull tips. My son’s t43 had the black (very dim) screen. I diagnosed (guessed) it was the back light. I ordered one from lcdparts.com and when I went to checkout I found I had a free $20 credit from Paypal for some promotion or something. With S&H the parts cost was $19.97. Got the parts for FREE! + 3 cents profit. Thank you Paypal.
Seriously, this was a pretty complicated hardware job. The hardest part was getting all the tape off. Also 30 or 40 very tiny screws and a very confusing mess of arranging all the various layers, brackets and plugs in there. And of course the extremely fragile looking bulb about the size (and strength) of stick of dry spahgetti. Plus I am not very good at soldering.
Anyway I got it done. And it actually worked. Hey your screen is useless as it is so what do you have to lose? $20?
Tool notes; In addition to a soldering iron usefull tools are a jewelers screwdriver set, tweezers, guitar pick (for prying without marking) and a magnifying glass.
Job note; I didn’t worry about fingerprints or dust or touching stuff. On the reassembly I left off all of the tape and several of the screws. Just because they are ‘engineers’ does not mean they know what they are doing. After all, that soldered in (not pluged in) bulb is not considered a FRU (field replaceable unit) by the geniuses who designed it.
I guess we know better!
Good luck!
December 27th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Just wanted to say that this website is awesome. wish i found it years (and several laptops) ago.
December 26th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Thanks for all of the tips.
I managed to replace the tube in my 12 LCD TV which failed.
I scrounged a tube from a ten year old laptop which has seen its day. Tube was about a cm too long but works well enough with the end poking out from the wire slots.
I managed the job without the screen separations. Just removed the narrow metal shield behind the tube and got the replacement in with a little effort.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Hello, I was wondering if you could help me with information on where to buy a backlight for a Toshiba Portege M200.
Site or store will help greatly!
please email me back.
-backpacks.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
This is a very detailed SWI on screen repair. I really appreciate you taking the time to document this….Many thanks.
December 7th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Waleed,
Do you have to move or adjust the power adapter inside the power connector in order to make it work? I’m thinking maybe you have a problem with the power jack and it has to be resoldered?
December 5th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I really enjoyed your repair tips on laptop and I have a question for you. I have this lab top, kind of old one but very good one. it is dell insipiron. it takes a long time to work when I hock it to the power adaptor. it is not the adaptor, it is the main power board inside. I pust the power button and it starts then seconds later, it shouts down again. some time it works after a number of shutting down but very often that it does not work. any ideas. thanks
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
i wondered if the ONLY way to take the wires out of the old backlight, and put it in the new backlight, is to solder the black insulator? Thanks for the help.