Notebook display problem: Inverter or LCD Panel?

This is an "educated guess" question for those with notebook PC repair experience.

A friend brought me a six year old Gateway notebook with a display problem. During boot and the Windows (XP) start up screen, the built-in display is very dim and the colors are way off. As soon as the Windows desktop loads, the screen goes blank.

If I hook up an external monitor, no issues - the video quality is perfect on the external display and all other things (keyboard, DVD-RW, etc.) work perfectly.

• The internal fans work (not overheating).
• Intel video drivers are up-to-date.
• No virus/malware issues.
• No external damage (dropping, crushing, etc.).

The issue appears to be either the video inverter and/or the LCD display itself. An inverter is about $15 on eBay; a new screen plus inverter will run about $120.

Based on experience, what are the odds that replacing only the inverter will solve the problem? At a cost of $15 in parts it's worth fixing - at $120, it's not cost effective given the PC's age and specs. If the odds of a cheap (inverter only) repair are in my favor, I'll invest the time and gamble on the results.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Hello gman,
I had a very similar issue with the machine I am using now , and learnt a very valuable lesson whilst fixing it, I went through all the obvious things of screen and inverterboard replacement that cost a small fortune, only for the problem to persist :cry, but I solved it , it turned out that the inverter power cable had been getting caught in the hinge and this had broken one of the leads inside the housing, new replacement power cable £3.99(about $5), so now I look for the least obvious things now, check all of the cables first as it is a lot cheaper, plus it could be that one of the cables have just worked loose, as you say the laptop is fairly aged and presuming the lid has been cocked more times than davey crockets rifle :-D:-D, they have probably pulled and stressed resulting in the issue you are having now. One other thing i should mention also is that Gateway laptops are prone to having GPU chip issues, they get very hot and the solder fails on the card, there is a fix for this but it is very fiddly to do, it involves soldering a copper plate over the chip.

iain.t :major

 

Thanks for the tips. Based on the fact the video is fine on an external monitor, I doubt the GPU chip is the issue. I'll gamble the $5 on the cable and see if it solves the problem.