Dell Inspiron 1545 dark or dim screen / no backlight - yes that again!

microtest,

as a licensed design professional I am very sensitive to the standard of due diligence that must be met when simply charging a fee for design work. it is much higher when attached to products offered for sale on the open market. if a Dell is designed for a 3-year life span, that information is required to be disclosed. the more I look into this, the more I tend to agree with you that it's not just the 1545, though, or perhaps just Dell. may well be the manufacturer of the display units. but in this case the end-provider who used them faulty product and sold them to the public will be the one holding the bag. after they have a decision against them in the class action they can go after their supplier. the best route here is for Dell to issue a recall and make good with the units. Toyota managed to turn that potential negative into a huge positive when they bought back several generations of trucks and SUVs which had inferior steel used in the frames. owners who sold back their vehicles promptly purchased new Toyotas and bolstered sales in one of the worst car-sales eras in decades and many are now brand-loyal to the company. it could work something like this: Dell offers to buy back the faulty units for some inflated value of their current worth ($400+/-) in cash OR allows credit of $600 towards purchase of  a Dell replacement product.

they then have their techies sort out the cause of the problem - let's say it's a component - and then they go after that company for the costs of the buy-back. Dell looks good across the board and retains loyal customers.

I'm pretty sure a judge would find this a reasonable course of action in this case.

is that location inside the base of the computer or behind/on the screen?

thanks,

bart with a dim laptop and sufficient soldering skills.

Thanks for providing this info.; I have the same quizzical issue.  A 1545 with LED screen/ no inverter.....gray screen.  I would like to hear from you regarding the order of steps to take.  Is the fuse repair the first thing to try?  Is it possible that the screen is okay, and the fuse simply popped?  OR, should I be buying a new LED screen as well??   Others are referring to the ribbon cable as being the culprit?  mine is fully seated. 

 I have an accomplished electronic expert to provide the soldering task.....and I am capable of disassembling these laptops........having built/repaired 4 thus far..........this is the first time I have encounter this gray screen, I found this forum, and am now looking for a little guidance from you personally.   Regards, Capt. B. Bart

The screen should be just fine if the fuse is popped.  Test the fuse before spending any money.  If you have an ohm meter and can disassemble the laptop to the point to where you can find the fuse, then test the fuse by all means.

Thanks for any help provided.  The screen is grayish white.  Connecting a VGA to an external monitor, yields no image at all.  The unit is disassembled, and the fuse tests as good.  Is there a lid closure switch that I have not checked?  Can I assume that the only other possible issue is the LED screen itself??   Thanks, CBB

hi i am Faisal from India , i am local laptop and desktop technician, actually i did't see invert er board with LED, i don't think , this is no major problem ,so i have 3 solution in this problem ,first one change LED,second one is change display strip and last one is check all voltage in display connector on motherboard . here will get six voltage, these are , three pins will get 19v,two pins get 3.3v and one pin will get  3.3v, if its not here dimm display problem will come. solution is here, if 19v not here check fuse near display connector on motherboard and 3.3v is not here check near cir-cute ,if there not problems change super i/o ic (winbond) now you can get your dimm display solution .

i did the same repair and it worked. i tested the fuse f1 as open circuit first. i bought a small 12 watt soldering iron and thin solder specially for the job & it was hard to do even though. but with perseverance and sharp pointy object came success. desolder braid would have been handy. and noncorrosive flux pen.