StarmanCD

More information When the LCD is on the left side of the screen looks dimmer, about a third of the screen, than the rest of it, which gets slightly brighter to the right edge, if that's an indicator of anything. The lower edge of the screen is also showing a slight shadowiness. Also when the screen darkens it can happen without the laptop being moved or touched in any way, and moving it about or tapping the screen or lower case doesn't reactivate the screen, only closing the lid, waiting for the account to 'lockout' and then reopening the lid. How can I test to see if it's the Converter, according to Dell in this laptop (does the same thing), or the backlight lamp unit. Should I change both if it comes to taking it apart? or is it looking like a failing LCD as well due to the shadows and dim lighting, is it worth trying one thing at a time than changing the whole LCD kit as Dell suggest, but that's nearly £290 cost!!

Thanks, Monkeyboy, but when I spoke to Dell their guy said "it doesn't have an 'inverter'.." but he could be talking ****. Any idea if the spec of the laptop is available anywhere. I'd be great to check that, then I can throw it in their face. I gotta go out, but I'll brb in an hour. Thanks. Starman

Another possibility Thanks Jelly & Dalo, I'll try those suggestions & let you know what the outcome was, but it's also been suggested to me that the 'invertor' could be gone, but I don't know what that is, I thought it was something in the PSU, but the PSU's working fine as the external monitor & CPU are still functional & the screen comes back with the right coaxing.

The laptop screen randomly goes black without warning but the processor is still working and the windows process as normal. I can see a darkened image running when the screen blacks out. I can connect the laptop to an external monitor and the image displays on the external screen, when returning to the laptop screen the screen returns to normal. Alternatively, I can close the lid and allow the laptop to go to 'lock' mode and open again after a couple of minutes & the sign-on screen appears. There doesn't seem to be any pattern and occurs randomly, sometimes staying on for hours, but mostly blacking out after several minutes. It seems to be the backlight, but I'm not certain & Dell haven't been much help as to if I can get a replacement backlight component, or even if that is the problem. On another investigation someone claimed it was a problem with the registry being corrupted by malicious software from facebook, but wanted me to take out a years maintenance at $240 to repair this. Could this be a plausible explanation? The laptop is running Vista Home Premium. Any clues anyone?? Any help would be appreciated on this.

Hi, everyone, am a regular PC user & experienced in some areas so will be able to help where I can & hping for some guidance on those I can't. So please let me know about those things I'm uncertain about.:)