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Failing Backlight on Dell Latitude

66659hi66659hi
edited May 2015 in Hardware
My main laptop is an (almost) 8 year old Dell Latitude D531. Recently when I start it up the screen is tinted red, but it goes away after a bit, but once booted and up for a while the screen dims down and flickers. It does not do this on an external display.

Since this seems to be one of the less popular Dell Latitudes I can't find anything discussing whether I have to replace the entire screen or if I can solder on a new backlight tube. Has anyone on here worked with one of these and do they know whether the backlight is replaceable?

Comments

  • psychobatpsychobat
    Though I never worked on or owned a Latitude D531, doing a quick google search showed that it is possible to replace the CCFL backlight. I found a place selling the CCFL for $12 (plus whatever shipping is), they give complete instructions on how to take it apart and replace it (link below) in the description. Hope it helps!

    http://www.backlightlamp.com/dell-latit ... 22797.html
  • TCPMetaTCPMeta
    If it was me I would convert it to LED.
  • BlueSunBlueSun
    Is it possible? Yes. Is it worth it? That depends.

    Personally, I would probably just replace the entire screen. A quick search on eBay shows they're around the $25-$50 mark which isn't too bad when you also consider the cost of your time and the absolute pain in the ass process that is replacing CCFLs... I've replaced them on desktop monitors before and no matter how careful I was, I still somehow wound up with a hair between the LCD panel and the diffuser.
  • 66659hi66659hi
    BlueSun wrote:
    Is it possible? Yes. Is it worth it? That depends.

    Personally, I would probably just replace the entire screen. A quick search on eBay shows they're around the $25-$50 mark which isn't too bad when you also consider the cost of your time and the absolute pain in the ass process that is replacing CCFLs... I've replaced them on desktop monitors before and no matter how careful I was, I still somehow wound up with a hair between the LCD panel and the diffuser.


    Yeah, I think the extra price is worth more than the time it would take me to replace a backlight.

    The laptop's fairly old and not worth putting in too much time or too much money in, so it looks like I'm just going to replace the entire screen.

    I've worked on a few D600, D610, and D620 machines that needed screens replaced and they were pretty easy to work on.
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