Inspiron 8600 screen goes blank, or too dark that i cannot read

Question

Please help, My Inspiron 8600 laptop display keeps going blank or at least so dark I can't see anything!  Only way I can recover is pressing 'Fn' + 'F8, CRT/LCD' keys and this only fixes the problem for a matter of seconds.  I look over all the power management schemes to make sure that wasn't the problem.  At first, for some reason the display looked fine as long as you ran off battery power.  It did not work when you ran from AC.  This made me think my AC power adaptor may be faulty but I tried a friends adaptor with the same result.  Now is doesn't work on AC power or battery power.  Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!  Thank you for your time!   -Andy   PS - I noticed an other post that suggested backlight replacement for a similar issue but in my case when I hit 'Fn'+ 'F8 toggle' it lights up temporarily so it seems like the lamp would be ok.  It almost seems like a power issue to me but any suggestions would be much appreciated.  I don't want to put a whole lot of money into this since the laptop is 4 years old.

SMichelsen · Answer

Believe it or not, my trusty 8600 developed the same problem today as well!  The screen looks fine for a minute after booting, then goes 'dark' - you can see the desktop but there is no backlight.  It looks OK on an external monitor.  Toggling fn/F8 brings the screen back for another minute but that's it.

Brooklyn8 · Answer

Your backlight bulbs are out. You might be able to get the computer to light up longer by minimizing the brightness in the bios setup. You can have the screen repaired or buy a new screen on ebay. This seems to be a fairly common problem with these laptops once they are about 4 years old or so.

Message Edited by Brooklyn8 on 04-05-2007 12:36 AM

SMichelsen · Answer

How many bulbs does the 8600 use?  I see they are on ebay for about $20 each incl. shipping.  Also, do they need soldering or are they a snap-in item?  I looked on the online 8600 service manual and could not find them pictured on the display page http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins8500/en/8600cr/sm/display.htm#1001090   Any thoughts on this are a help.   Thanks, Steve

ejn63 · Answer

One, and yes, they require soldering. Generic bulb replacement instructions: http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_6.htm

SMichelsen · Answer

Well then I suppose I can take a $20 gamble.  If I completely botch it up I can always spend the $150 on a new screen (and try not to botch THAT up!).

ejn63 · Answer

You won't get a new screen for $150 - maybe for 3 times that. You can get a used panel for that, perhaps - but it'll be with an unknown number of hours on the backlight.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Was this post helpful?