Display problem Acer Aspire 5630

[John]

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 :o)

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

[Ben Myers]

Post by John
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 :o)
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

[BillW50]

Post by Ben Myers

Post by John
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 :o)
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

Hello John! While I was reading I kept saying no it is the lamp, the
lamp (well most low brightness is mostly because of the lamp)! Then you
got to the lamp and I thought oh no! Ben is right of course, I would
have checked that first before doing anything else though.

Gee John! The only thing left if everything else was okay is the
motherboard. The motherboard causing this problem is really rare.

Are you sure that was a new LCD panel? Or was it used? As the lamps gets
dimmer and dimmer overtime. Many will run for about 18 months if you run
them 24/7. Use them less and you can push them 5 years and more. They
are florescent tubes after all and if you use them 50/50 and get 5 years
out of them that is pretty good.

[John]

Post by BillW50

Post by Ben Myers

Post by John
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 :o)
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

Hello John! While I was reading I kept saying no it is the lamp, the
lamp (well most low brightness is mostly because of the lamp)! Then
you got to the lamp and I thought oh no! Ben is right of course, I
would have checked that first before doing anything else though.
Gee John! The only thing left if everything else was okay is the
motherboard. The motherboard causing this problem is really rare.
Are you sure that was a new LCD panel? Or was it used? As the lamps
gets dimmer and dimmer overtime. Many will run for about 18 months if
you run them 24/7. Use them less and you can push them 5 years and
more. They are florescent tubes after all and if you use them 50/50
and get 5 years out of them that is pretty good.

Hi guys,

I'm tagging this reply on to Bill's because his is the last in the thread at
the moment. First of all, let me say AARRGGHH!!! - because Ben was right! It
was just a matter of altering the brightness by the key combination of Fn
and right arrow key to increase it (left arrow to decrease). All that time,
money and effort spent and I needn't have done any of it.

Ah well, such is life. I've learned a good lesson today :o)

Now, to try and justify my position and recover a bit of self-esteem, I can
say in my defence, your honour, that (a) I had no idea about that key
combination (b) there's an Intel graphics utility installed and within that
there are sliders for brightness, contrast, colour and gamma - but altering
the brightness slider there does _not_ have the same effect at all as the
key combination, which is why I continued thinking something was faulty and
(c) I've never knowingly altered the brightness at all anyway. It's always
been perfect at the default setting and I've had it about 3 years.

It's a complete mystery as to how the brightness was turned down in the
first place and, like I said, I didn't know about the key combinations, but
it's all sorted now so a big 'thank you' to all you guys, especially Ben.

Cheers
John

[Han]

Post by John

Post by BillW50

Post by Ben Myers

Post by John
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 :o)
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

Hello John! While I was reading I kept saying no it is the lamp, the
lamp (well most low brightness is mostly because of the lamp)! Then
you got to the lamp and I thought oh no! Ben is right of course, I
would have checked that first before doing anything else though.
Gee John! The only thing left if everything else was okay is the
motherboard. The motherboard causing this problem is really rare.
Are you sure that was a new LCD panel? Or was it used? As the lamps
gets dimmer and dimmer overtime. Many will run for about 18 months if
you run them 24/7. Use them less and you can push them 5 years and
more. They are florescent tubes after all and if you use them 50/50
and get 5 years out of them that is pretty good.

Hi guys,
I'm tagging this reply on to Bill's because his is the last in the
thread at the moment. First of all, let me say AARRGGHH!!! - because
Ben was right! It was just a matter of altering the brightness by the
key combination of Fn and right arrow key to increase it (left arrow
to decrease). All that time, money and effort spent and I needn't have
done any of it.
Ah well, such is life. I've learned a good lesson today :o)
Now, to try and justify my position and recover a bit of self-esteem,
I can say in my defence, your honour, that (a) I had no idea about
that key combination (b) there's an Intel graphics utility installed
and within that there are sliders for brightness, contrast, colour and
gamma - but altering the brightness slider there does _not_ have the
same effect at all as the key combination, which is why I continued
thinking something was faulty and (c) I've never knowingly altered the
brightness at all anyway. It's always been perfect at the default
setting and I've had it about 3 years.
It's a complete mystery as to how the brightness was turned down in
the first place and, like I said, I didn't know about the key
combinations, but it's all sorted now so a big 'thank you' to all you
guys, especially Ben.
Cheers
John

Thanks for the thread, John, Ben & Bill. My Aspire 3680 uses the control
right/left arrow combo too. So much easier than going through the <expl>
utility.

[Han]

Post by Han

Post by John

Post by BillW50

Post by Ben Myers

Post by John
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 :o)
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

Hello John! While I was reading I kept saying no it is the lamp, the
lamp (well most low brightness is mostly because of the lamp)! Then
you got to the lamp and I thought oh no! Ben is right of course, I
would have checked that first before doing anything else though.
Gee John! The only thing left if everything else was okay is the
motherboard. The motherboard causing this problem is really rare.
Are you sure that was a new LCD panel? Or was it used? As the lamps
gets dimmer and dimmer overtime. Many will run for about 18 months
if you run them 24/7. Use them less and you can push them 5 years
and more. They are florescent tubes after all and if you use them
50/50 and get 5 years out of them that is pretty good.

Hi guys,
I'm tagging this reply on to Bill's because his is the last in the
thread at the moment. First of all, let me say AARRGGHH!!! - because
Ben was right! It was just a matter of altering the brightness by the
key combination of Fn and right arrow key to increase it (left arrow
to decrease). All that time, money and effort spent and I needn't
have done any of it.
Ah well, such is life. I've learned a good lesson today :o)
Now, to try and justify my position and recover a bit of self-esteem,
I can say in my defence, your honour, that (a) I had no idea about
that key combination (b) there's an Intel graphics utility installed
and within that there are sliders for brightness, contrast, colour
and gamma - but altering the brightness slider there does _not_ have
the same effect at all as the key combination, which is why I
continued thinking something was faulty and (c) I've never knowingly
altered the brightness at all anyway. It's always been perfect at the
default setting and I've had it about 3 years.
It's a complete mystery as to how the brightness was turned down in
the first place and, like I said, I didn't know about the key
combinations, but it's all sorted now so a big 'thank you' to all you
guys, especially Ben.
Cheers
John

Thanks for the thread, John, Ben & Bill. My Aspire 3680 uses the
control right/left arrow combo too. So much easier than going through
the <expl> utility.

I meant the FUNCTION right/left arrow combo.

[BillW50]

Post by Han

Post by John
Hi guys,
I'm tagging this reply on to Bill's because his is the last in the
thread at the moment. First of all, let me say AARRGGHH!!! - because
Ben was right! It was just a matter of altering the brightness by the
key combination of Fn and right arrow key to increase it (left arrow
to decrease). All that time, money and effort spent and I needn't
have done any of it.
Ah well, such is life. I've learned a good lesson today :o)
Now, to try and justify my position and recover a bit of self-esteem,
I can say in my defence, your honour, that (a) I had no idea about
that key combination (b) there's an Intel graphics utility installed
and within that there are sliders for brightness, contrast, colour
and gamma - but altering the brightness slider there does _not_ have
the same effect at all as the key combination, which is why I
continued thinking something was faulty and (c) I've never knowingly
altered the brightness at all anyway. It's always been perfect at the
default setting and I've had it about 3 years.
It's a complete mystery as to how the brightness was turned down in
the first place and, like I said, I didn't know about the key
combinations, but it's all sorted now so a big 'thank you' to all you
guys, especially Ben.
Cheers
John

Thanks for the thread, John, Ben& Bill. My Aspire 3680 uses the
control right/left arrow combo too. So much easier than going through
the<expl> utility.

I meant the FUNCTION right/left arrow combo.

Well the bright side is you have spare parts now. I personally love
having spare parts myself. ;-)

[John]

Post by BillW50

Post by Han

Post by John
Hi guys,
I'm tagging this reply on to Bill's because his is the last in the
thread at the moment. First of all, let me say AARRGGHH!!! -
because Ben was right! It was just a matter of altering the
brightness by the key combination of Fn and right arrow key to
increase it (left arrow to decrease). All that time, money and
effort spent and I needn't have done any of it.
Ah well, such is life. I've learned a good lesson today :o)
Now, to try and justify my position and recover a bit of
self-esteem, I can say in my defence, your honour, that (a) I had
no idea about that key combination (b) there's an Intel graphics
utility installed and within that there are sliders for
brightness, contrast, colour and gamma - but altering the
brightness slider there does _not_ have the same effect at all as
the key combination, which is why I continued thinking something
was faulty and (c) I've never knowingly altered the brightness at
all anyway. It's always been perfect at the default setting and
I've had it about 3 years. It's a complete mystery as to how the
brightness was turned down in
the first place and, like I said, I didn't know about the key
combinations, but it's all sorted now so a big 'thank you' to all
you guys, especially Ben.
Cheers
John

Thanks for the thread, John, Ben& Bill. My Aspire 3680 uses the
control right/left arrow combo too. So much easier than going
through the<expl> utility.

I meant the FUNCTION right/left arrow combo.

Well the bright side is you have spare parts now. I personally love
having spare parts myself. ;-)

Love it Bill :o)