back light issue toshiba tecra?

[Manster]

appears my ebay-bought toshiba tecra 8100 has arrived with backlight off. (Dark shadow appears, and connected to external monitor works fine.) FN-F5 does cycle the LCD thru it's paces but does not help. The teensy pin also does nothing. i am not going to pull this apart in any way, nor spend lots of time tinkering with software. (it will simply return to sender, with some scathing feedback posted.) any thoughts? the toshiba users manual also gives no clues.

my thanks . . .

[PrntRhd]

Easiest to hardest:
Switch to turn off display backlight is stuck.
Ribbon cable/display cable at hinge is cracked and needs replaced.
LCD display is bad itself.

[Manster]

Many thanks for your intelligent, precise answer. It is so rare to get a question answered thus in forums other than here.

my best,

RJ

[ikenfixit.com]

If the lid switch is not stuck I'd look at the inverter first and then backlight. These are nothing more than a smaller version of a Flourescent lamp and ballast or amplification transformer and circuit. Both are repairable and cheaper than a screen replacement.. We do these types of repairs daily as well as component level repairs on all brands of laptops. If you need help or more info just yell.. Ken

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I recently purchased a Tecra 8200 750mhz from geeks.com and I'm quite happy with it. I needed to buy a new battery (eBay) as the old one would only last 1/2 hour playing Freecell! The new battery runs much longer but I haven't timed it yet. Something along 3 to 4 times as long playing mp3's.

Good luck with yours, I'll be listening in on this thread, that is, if you don't mind.. ;)