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DIY LCD Backlight Repair
Bill Nye (not the science guy) writes to tell us that InventGeek has an interesting article on do it yourself LCD backlight repair. From the overview: "Those of us that have used LCD monitors for a while know that over time the backlight starts to dim and will eventually completely fail. Leaving you with some electronic scrap that you could sell on eBay for 35 bucks or so. Well for less than $20.00 and about a half hour of your time you can replace the backlight and rejuvenate that monitor to as good as new condition."
Forgive me for asking...but would a similar process work on laptop screens? I've got an old laptop whose screen is completely fubar and this may be the problem...
I may be wrong but you're downright ugly!
It'd be a lot cooler if you replaced the bulb with a blacklight instead (press cmd-opt-ctrl-8 on a mac for a simulation)...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
LCD backlights are seldom bright enough when I want to sit outside (I know, I know, outside is sooo unnerdlike but sometimes it's nice to sit outside while working at a coffee-shop). But why try to compete with the ultimate light source? If the back of the laptop lid could swing open or be removed, then the sun could flood in. A diffuser/polarizer on the back of the LCD would let the sun be the perfect outdoor backlight.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Sheesh!
Required disclaimer: When breaking fluorescent tubes, do so in an area with some ventilation. Do not huff the tube. Do not lick the insides of the tube.
"overhead projector" you speak of? I kid, of course, but I believe they don't make laptops like this is because it makes it hard to sell the $3k SVGA projectors. I realize that overhead projectors are comparitively cheap and still useful, but I see that the institutions (businesses, schools, etc.) that need overhead projectors are moving on to digital projectors.
Of course, that doesn't mean that it is a great idea to replace a $300 overhead projector with a $3k digital one, but the digital projector also can replace a slide projector, a film projector, TV, etc.
This is just the march of technological progress I suppose. I expect certain laptops will have built in projectors in the future, if it hasn't been done yet.
If you can do it do it if you can't dont, I've fixed countless things using bits of tape and odd things I've found lying about, :p )
Best was a laptop, one of the first with a plasma screen given to me by my sisters boyfriend who had one on loan from the manufacturer ( begins with tosh.... ). He'd dropped it in the airport, his own stupid fault. he was throwing it out ( or hiding the evidence depending on your point of view
Two hours later and 10 bits of wire and a lot of fiddly soldering, I owned of the first plasma screened laptops in the wild.
Regarding cold cathodes, all the guy is saying is 'be careful' , as in 'don't stick your dog in the microwave'
Mind you I know plenty of people who should be banned from owning any sort of tool
He also neglects to mention that "disposing" of the old tube cannot be done by throwing it in the garbage, as mercury containing lamps are classified as hazardous waste in the US (40 CFR part 273). The mercury in the lamp is the reason why most scanners and LCD monitors contain a "do not dispose" symbol, which is a trash can labelled with Hg, containing an X over it.
Unless you like mercury in your food and drinking water, it's best to dispose of these items properly.
You probably have more mercury in the fillings of your teeth than there is inside that tube
Mercury and Asbestos hysteria is far out of proportion to the risk.
This page on mercury
http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements /080/index.s7.html
(scroll down) shows a guy sitting (floating) in a vat of it. My high school chemistry teacher used to demo mercury by putting a little puddle in each childs hand.
Mercury poisoning was the basis for the phrase "Mad as a hatter", and of course the character at the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. They used to steam top hats with mercury vapour, if I recall correctly, and after years of such work suffered brain damage. Not quite so likely with LCD backlights.
my old 15' lcd went very dark and dimmed more and more until it refused to light up at all. i thougt oh fsck! now i have to use my old crt display again! (it had some 'funny' colour-effects). :-)
but then i discovered something: when i turned up the heating, the lcd started to work again (it stood on a desk right over the radiator).
because i didn't want to make a sauna of my room i used a hair dryer to warm the disply up (that used to take 5-10 minutes). i continued to use that display for over a year
since i didn't sell it on ebay, i'll try to fix it now...