sub-acutely dark screen on gateway 4542GP notebook

bunanson · 03-06-2007, 06:41 PM

Hi all,

I have a gateway 4542GP notebook for just over a warranty year whose screen over the past 2 days would flicker and now constantly shows a black screen. After looking closely with a flashlight, it appears the backlight is out. The screen is very dark and even with a flashlight, I can barely make anything out. For the past 2 days pressing the notebook lid detector at the corner of the keyboard would turn the backlight back on but now it rarely turns on despite playing with that switch. I'm not sure what prompted me to play with the lid detector, but evidently by virtue that it fixed the prob for 2 days, I might assume that the notebook thought its lid was shut bc after I let go of the lid detector switch the backlight came back on.

I have regularly been connecting my notebook to a projector via com port and the display continues to works fine on my projector but not on the notebook screen itself. By right clicking on one of the icons at the bottom Right corner of the screen, I have ensured that the com switch is OFF so my video display is ONLY through the notebook. I have NOT changed the resolution of the screen lately.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've never had a backlight go out on me, so hopefully you might have some other diagnostic pointers.

Please cc your response to drzeyas@N O S P A M .hotmail.com with the no spam removed.

thanks in advance
G

Airman · 03-06-2007, 07:07 PM

I seriously doubt that it's your backlight. The problem is either your lid close switch or your LCD backlight inverter

If it's under warranty send it in, otherwise I would suggest you pick up an LCD inverter off eBay.

bunanson · 03-17-2007, 11:13 PM

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, this notebook is just out of its warranty. I'm considering bypassing the lid closure switch, which should possibly leave the backlight constantly on. Does anyone have any advice or pics on dismantling this notebook to get to that lid close switch at the corner of the keyboard? i've taken off all the nearly twenty visible screws, and it seems that the keyboard is still held together at 2 points.

Thanks again,
G