Inverters are only available together with the LCD panel and cannot be obtained separately, at least from what I know.

Dell's Inspiron series' LCD Panel's inverter seems to be having some quality issues. It will fail prematurely and so far, I have encountered several of such failure.

Thanks. I guess, I'll just use an external monitor, since the entire LCD package would cost more than that notebook is worth.

__________________________________________

- i8100 / PIII-1.OGHz / 512MB RAM / 20GB HD /
GeForce 32MB / DVD-CDRW / 15"UXGA /
WinXP Pro

- i4000 / PIII-600MHz / 512MB RAM / 10GB HD /
ATI 8MB / CDRW / 14.1" TFT / WinXP Pro

Refurbished Samsung LCD 14.1" /w inverter
$289.00 Dell parts online
John.

Inspiron 4000
Celeron 600
320MB Ram
Windows ME
Bios A18
ATI 128 Mobility Video 8MB
20G IBM Travelstar 30GN model.
3com Modem/Nic combo
Logitech Optical mouse
Play in Lid latch problem
Fan Gui installed

Fan gui web site
http://www.diefer.de/micha_henze/i8kfangui.html

Thanks. That may be actually affordable. I need to check if the LCD frame would support a slightly smaller LCD (original is 14.2" - a bit unusual size, since mostly they are 14.1").

__________________________________________

- i8100 / PIII-1.OGHz / 512MB RAM / 20GB HD /
GeForce 32MB / DVD-CDRW / 15"UXGA /
WinXP Pro

- i4000 / PIII-600MHz / 512MB RAM / 10GB HD /
ATI 8MB / CDRW / 14.1" TFT / WinXP Pro

Affordable? You could get another laptop for that price!

You could always look for a faulty capacitor on the inverter board. It is a switching power supply that takes the battery voltage and takes it higher in voltage to power the backlight. If you can't, but know someone with electronics skill, it could be a simple fix. Replace the cap with an equal value capacitance and voltage value. You might just gunshot all electrolytic caps. It would be cheap. Get 105*C rated capacitors. www.digikey.com carries Panasonic caps that would fit the bill. Make sure to not get physically larger caps.

John
_________________________________________________________________
I4000 700Mhz Intel® Mobile Pentium® III, 100 MHz bus
3Com mini-PCI combo 10-100 NIC/56k Modem (part #313-7776)
GeForce2 Go video board part number - 4D597
I8K, I4K, I3.8K Media Bay parts: 4169D = carrier; 4 x 53965 = screws | $25.00
I7.5 Media Bay parts: 4124T = carrier, 11 x 3771U = screws | $25.00
This Media Bay carrier holds 9.5 and 12mm 2.5" drives but not 19mm.
Actiontec (Lucent 6.00) Driver link
Dell IBM Noise
IBM Travelstar Noise
8000 Updates for W2K and WinME (OSUPA00.EXE)
8100 Updates for W2K and WinME (OSUPA00.EXE)
256MB SoDIMMs And The GeForce2 Go
I8kfangui
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US Mobile Computing Hotlines
Corporate/Government Accounts - 800-822-8965
Direct Accounts - 800-247-9252
Outside of the United States - Contact Dell in your global area.

Thanks, John. Will definitively try this, before anything else.

__________________________________________

- i8100 / PIII-1.OGHz / 512MB RAM / 20GB HD /
GeForce 32MB / DVD-CDRW / 15"UXGA /
WinXP Pro

- i4000 / PIII-600MHz / 512MB RAM / 10GB HD /
ATI 8MB / CDRW / 14.1" TFT / WinXP Pro

www.clonesuk.com sell inverters and all kinds of stuff. Ordered my new lcd inverter for my faulty Inspiron 8000 lcd panel for about 60 bucks.
/Harold

I guess soldering by hands mm-size capacitors on the inverter board is not such good an idea. I am really curious if anyone actually tried to do that and came out a winner?

gagara