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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February 7th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Your instructions were very helpful. They enabled me to replace the the backlight on my son’s Dell laptop. Thanks a lot.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 am
EDIT from post #78 as i cannot edit that post specifically
the dimness has now turned into a red dimness from top to bottom on the left hand side of my laptop, im starting to think its the backlight lamp thats at fault but could someone confirm it (based on information ive given)
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:16 am
I have a dell vostro 1000 and part of my screen has dimmed (bottom left corner, making it very hard to view anything in that area) whereas the rest of my screen is fine and crystal clear. Is this a screen inverter problem or a backlight lamp problem? or something else entirely?
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 pm
eknetizen,
Maybe it’s just a bad inverter board? It looks like you didn’t test the backlight lamp and inverter outside the case for a long time. I think one minute is not enough to jump to a conclusion that it works fine outside the case.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
My laptop display comes on initially but pretty consistantly turns of within a second or two, and I can repeat it with shut&open of the lid. I opened the lcd and pulled out the inverter and the backlight and fixed a wire that seems to have broken (I think it may have been on the verge and while I am trying to open the lcd it may have lost its last leg). So I thought my problem is that loose connection and so fixed the broken wire, and connected the inverter and backlight (just outside – without actually mounting them back in their place within lcd), it didn’t turn on at first, but then I connected the video cable, and sure enough the backlight came on this time, and also stayed on (I waited over a minute to make sure it stays). So, there I was all excited that I fixed the backlight with just a wire patch, but then after I mounted everything in place and tested, I am back to it turning off promptly within couple of seconds.
Anyone can help me figure whats up with this backlight working fine when its outside the mounting, but turning off within a couple of seconds when its in the mounting? I don’t believe its lose connection because of its consistancy, so Is there some safety shutoff or something thats getting triggered only when its fully assembled? thanks in advance for the help.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I have an HP Pavillion zv6000 laptop and my daughter rubbed a magnet on the LCD screen. The screen is now black and you can faintly see the image of what you are working on. I am able to get video when I hook up the laptop to a monitor. Can you tell me what went bad and needs to be replaced, the LCD screen or the inverter board?
January 26th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
jakk,
Could be bad motherboard.
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Please can some hi tech dude help….
I have dark screen on an acer aspire 2920, I have tested back light and inverter and vga cable and cant see any damage to pins on the motherboard, it’s not the switch as it’s magnetic and I tested this, can I solder form the dc socket or motherboard to power the inverter with a new cable ?????
January 15th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
What is the lowest, mid, and highest I could expect to pay someone to replace a backlight for me.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Thanks for such a helpful and amazing site. I’m currently juggling 2 Ibm a31p Thinkpads that are dying a slow and painful (esp. for me!) death and your knowledge has given me a lot of insight of where to go from here.
Happy New Year and keep up the good work!!!
BENJY