The Darkness
I'm having some monitor trouble. I type this post with my desk lamp trained directly at my monitor, because the backlight for my laptop's LCD decided to stop working yesterday. It just up and walked out. No thirty days - no nothing. Anyhow, the desklamp sitting three inches from the computer gives me just enough contrast to read text on about 60% of the screen, so the computer is still functional in the strictest sense. I would, however, like to solve this problem post-haste... Hack-a-Day directed me to this DIY guide, but it has me a little concerned. Much of the procedure involves Dremel-ing into a mercury vapor-filled light bulb... but not too far into it! So I'm wondering, world, have you ever done something like this before? Is it worth my time? Or should I just pony up and buy a new screen from hp? Or should I steal a million-year-old CRT from lab and just plug that sucker in?
It's an HP Omnibook xe3, in case that helps.
Comments
I've never replaced a backlight. It sounds like it's doable. And hey -- it's probably not THAT much mercury vapor.
Personally, I'd go with the steal-a-CRT plan, then the replace-the-backlight-yourself plan. Hopefully that'll work.
I would not hold out much hope for buying a new screen from HP. Laptop screens are almost never cost-effective to replace. You'd be better off buying a new one. You could look for spare parts on ebay, but since the screen is usually the first thing to go, I'm not too optimistic about your odds. Good luck.
Posted by: tom | December 7, 2005 06:37 AM
man, this just happened to me too. the computer gods hate us.
Posted by: catherine | December 7, 2005 06:53 AM
"new one" = "new laptop". Powerbooks can now be had for $800ish -- less if you don't need integrated wifi. That'd do you well.
Posted by: tom | December 7, 2005 06:53 AM
Yet another correction: when I said "powerbook" I actually meant "thinkpad". Whoops.
Posted by: tom | December 7, 2005 06:56 AM
That DIY guide looks totally doable.
it's just occured to me that I never really understood how backlighting works.
Seems like it shouldn't be that hard to pull off, as long as you have access to a dremel tool. Though I bet you could cut into the bulb casing with an exacto knife or emory board (and a ton of patience).
Posted by: joe | December 7, 2005 11:37 AM