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Mon May 26, 2008 8:31 am

I wasnt even going to bother with this until it did it to me this morning....but this started happening just about as soon as it went out of warranty. I have no idea what caused it or how I end up magically fixing it. When it did this the first time I plugged in another display and it was all normal. It basically reduces the resolution and the bottom quarter inch or so drags the pixels down and the display is very very dark.

Thanks for any info you can give me on this issue!

Mon May 26, 2008 9:31 am

The connections in the laptop lid probably just need to be reseated. Does changing the angle of the LCD make any difference?

Mon May 26, 2008 9:35 am

creeping death?

Mon May 26, 2008 10:43 am

your computer has cancer and its spreading across your desktop :lol:

Mon May 26, 2008 11:26 am

Did you notice the space ship behind your head when you took that picture? I believe you have aliens highjacking your computer to "phone home". :shock:

Tue May 27, 2008 8:23 am

If its normal on an external display then, my guess is the inverter or the back light is going bad. I may have a spare one. What model Dell?

Tue May 27, 2008 10:22 am

Andromeda Strain?

Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:51 am

Here.

Just buy one of these.

Seriously.

http://www.svc.com/cx-830sgwo-01.html

Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:56 am

Get rid of that cheap ceiling light fixture. I hate those things.

Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:42 am

I think that goes away when you become a premium member. My laptop doesn't do that...

Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:03 pm

The Sage wrote: I think that goes away when you become a premium member.

The ceiling lights go away? :-s

Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:13 pm

Major Woody wrote: Get rid of that cheap ceiling light fixture. I hate those things.

Don't knock the booby lights, man.

Anyhoo. I contacted three computer repair places and they all basically quoted me $300 to fix the inverter. $150 for the part. $150 for the labor. I havent been able to find an inverter for this model (Dell Inspiron 6400)over $80...and the general price range I've been seeing is $40-$50. :roll:

I took apart the display to see if it was something that I could replace...and I may be at a loss. I'm not even sure if I need a new inverter. It might just be a connection problem. Damn technology.

Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:49 pm

I used to recommend anal cleansing. Now I just tell people to download Ad-Aware and a reputable anti-virus application to run a full scan and worry later when they know what they're facing.

Wed Jun 11, 2008 6:27 am

I don't see darkness in either of the photos you posted. I see a lot of reflection which makes it next to impossible to see anything else, but no darkness.

Anyway, what you described has nothing to due with an inverter. Bad inverters will cause the backlight to not light, backlight to flicker, and sometime cause the display to not work at all--but not dark corners.

What you described sounds more like an LCD malfunction than anything or a faulty backlight (which these days is actually pretty well part of the LCD anyway because they are for all intents and purposes, permanently mounted to the back side of the LCD).

If you are getting darkness in a region it can be from the LCD mismanaging the liquid crystal in a region of the screen or a region of the backlight not operating as needed. Either way, this means replacing the LCD unit which could run you anywhere from $50 to $150 if you replace it yourself--which you CAN do. It's not rocket science.

My company does a lot of this kind of thing and a general repair quote for this kind of problem would be about 3 hours labor ($135 here) + the part.

Wed Jun 11, 2008 7:15 am

PicklePickle wrote: I don't see darkness in either of the photos you posted. I see a lot of reflection which makes it next to impossible to see anything else, but no darkness.

Anyway, what you described has nothing to due with an inverter. Bad inverters will cause the backlight to not light, backlight to flicker, and sometime cause the display to not work at all--but not dark corners.

What you described sounds more like an LCD malfunction than anything or a faulty backlight (which these days is actually pretty well part of the LCD anyway because they are for all intents and purposes, permanently mounted to the back side of the LCD).

If you are getting darkness in a region it can be from the LCD mismanaging the liquid crystal in a region of the screen or a region of the backlight not operating as needed. Either way, this means replacing the LCD unit which could run you anywhere from $50 to $150 if you replace it yourself--which you CAN do. It's not rocket science.

My company does a lot of this kind of thing and a general repair quote for this kind of problem would be about 3 hours labor ($135 here) + the part.

Where are you getting new LCDs that cheap? Is that just what it costs your company to get them?

Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:25 am

PicklePickle wrote:

My company does a lot of this kind of thing and a general repair quote for this kind of problem would be about 3 hours labor ($135 here) + the part.

3 hours to replace an LCD? Serious?

piemat wrote:
Where are you getting new LCDs that cheap? Is that just what it costs your company to get them?

You can get displays for pretty cheap now since so many companies make replacments and such, I replaced the screen on my HP 17" zd8000 for $110 2 years ago....

Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:18 pm

I figured I'd use this thread to post my recent computer problem. Maybe someone can help. I installed a new CD player/burner in My Dell with Windows XP. I started getting the error message, "hard disc not found"
Also the new drive wouldn't work. nor would the DVD drive that's been installed for awhile.
When I removed the new drive and reset the boot menu the computer was back to normal.
I researched a bit and learned that the jumper setting in the back of the player had to match the old one, so i switched it and re-installed the new drive. I now have the "hard disc not found" message again, and neither drives work. They do have power and open/close.I have tried the new hardware wizards to no avail. Any ideas?

Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:26 pm

Set one as master, the other as slave, or both to cable select if your cable supports it.

Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:28 pm

sounds like the jumpers and cables are wrong,

Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:37 pm

Damn--I sure am glad I don't have one of them "computer" thingys.