On 5/28/2010 10:25 AM, John wrote:
The display on my 5630 is dim - not completely dark but probably only about
30 to 40% as bright as it used to be.

Having googled for what causes dim and dark displays in laptop screens
(after making sure it wasn't the lid close switch) I decided to go for the
cheapest things first, so I bought a brand new inverter board. Although it's
definitely the right one, it's actually worse than the existing inverter in
that it strobes a bit. Doesn't do anything for my problem - the screen is
neither brighter nor darker, just a bit stroboscopic. Hmm ...

So, I then buy a secondhand (but guaranteed tested and working) video cable
from Ebay and replace that. Still no change - the screen is still as dim,
whether used with new or old inverter. Hmm again ...

Oh, at this point I should say that I've checked the voltage between pin 1
of the inverter input and ground (which, I believe, should roughly be
between 10 and 20 volts) and got 19.36V - so we know that the inverter is
getting the correct feed from the mobo.

I then look at changing the CCFL backlight tube but (a) can't find one and
(b) even if I could, I've read many horror stories of breaking the LCD panel
whilst trying to change the tube, so I decide to bite the bullet and buy a
whole new LCD panel because they come with a new tube already in them - and
I might as well upgrade from the old matte screen to a new glossy one if I'm
going to do this )

Guess what? Yep, you guessed right - still fekkin' faulty!! Display is still
only at about 30 to 40% brightness - and that's with any combination of
new/old video cable and new/old inverter.

Any other ideas folks?

TIA
John



Some brands of laptops (IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads come to mind) have a pair
of key combinations to brighten or dim the display. With the Thinkpads,
fn-Home brightens the display and fn-End dims it.

Some brands of laptops, e.g. Dell, have LCD brightness controls in the
BIOS, one setting when on battery and another when on wall power.

Not sure what the Acers have built in to control LCD brightness, but
maybe the brightness is on a low setting? ... Ben Myers