Screen broken on laptop, blacking out

Hey guys,

I bought a dell inspiron 8200 laptop in may this year, and it has been working fine until recently, when the screen sort of "blacks out" about 30 secs after turning on the laptop.
When i say blacking out, the screen goes extremely dim, but still shows everything on screen. It sort of looks like the backlight is not working.

1) The screen will suddenly go brighter for a couple of seconds, and then will suddenly go very dark.

2) This always happens about 20-40secs after turning on the laptop.

3) The screen seems to stay on for longer, if the laptop has been switched off for a long time, but usually no longer than a minute.

4) If the laptop is shut, ands then opened again, the screen will once again be fine for about 30 secs then go dark again. (when i shut, i just mean the screen closed, so it turns off)

5) Occasionally a buzzing noise can be heard from the screen. Its intensity varies with the position of the screen. This has only happened a couple of times, and lasted for about a minute, and stopped when the laptop was plugged into the mains. (The prob acuurs whether on battery or mains)


Can anyone help? Is it possible for me to fix it myself, im quite comfortable around hardware, and regularly build pc's. If not, can anyone recomend the cheapest way to fix it? ( im a poor student!)

Is it possible to open up the screen on this model.

I would greatly appreciate any help on this topic.

Thanks guys.

Regards,
Bob.

one of two problems. LCD Backlight, or LCD backlight power inverter. Its kinda hard to say which one. But if the screen goes black, but you can see faint images, its the light. Usually the lights and inverters are all in one units. You can get them from dell spare parts or sometimes ebay.

Why worry about it? It should be under warranty.

mine did that exact thing, it was the inverter. got it repaired for free under the three year warantee.

thanx for the replies guys. The thing is that the laptop was bought in the us (dell.com), but i live in the UK. Will Dell UK repair, as i need the laptop for work, and cant afford to send it to the US.

Also, could i just buy the spare parts and repair it my self?

How much would Dell charge to do it, if i payed?

Thanx.

umm... well, the best buy guy said that if it hadnt been under warantee, it wouldve been $700. so i dought it.

RuffRyder88 said:

I bought a dell inspiron 8200 laptop in may this year

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Wow I must have fell asleep for a few months

dubbin, ha ha good call

sorry folks, LAST year. Damn, is it almost March already???

Hey guys, i just found something which may help.

The screen will NOT black out when i use the battery ie. unplug it from the mains! Could this suggest a problem with the plug instead of the screen???

i'd contact dell support... try the dell support forums too, moderators often check the forums so you may get better luck there since its one of their products.

The screen will NOT black out when i use the battery ie. unplug it from the mains! Could this suggest a problem with the plug instead of the screen???

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It's something to do with your power profile, either what Windows is doing or what the laptop's BIOS is set to do.