Laptop Blindness

I moved to Montana almost two weeks ago and three days after I got here my laptop's LCD screen goes black. At first I thought my computer just went crazy but in hind sight I should have known that it wasn't. Because Itunes was still running and my music hadn't been interupted. As if that weren't enough I started writing this screenplay back in May and hadn't worked on it in weeks then the day I start on it again I get stopped by a technical error.

So anyway, I started panicking because well I love my laptop and being out of work I couldn't afford to have it fixed let alone replaced, at least anytime soon. So I googled the problem and a number solutions were offered and I did try the solutions that didn't involve repairs. I've fixed and modified PC's before but never a laptop and that was something I was a little wary of doing.

When none of the non-technical solutions worked I asked my brother in-law who is a computer guy what he could do. He to was wary of attemping to fix a laptop just because of how they are constructed. I don't blame him, a laptop is a tricky piece of engineering. So that didn't pan out and for the next two days I kept opening and closing the laptop hoping there was just a loose hinge or part somewhere and it would "magically" fix its self.

Finally, I had to come to the realization that it may be sometime before I could fix my laptop. That really stung and to make matters worse my brother in-law had given me an old door stop CRT monitor so that at least I could use my laptop until I could replace it or get it fixed. That would be like chaining my laptop to a boulder which never happend, more on that later.

I should mention that one of my own solutions early on was to remove the black mask around the LCD screen. I also forgot to mention that in all my google searches the solution to the problem that kept coming up was a bad inverter in the monitor. Basically the inverter acts as a fuse and regulates the powerflow to the back light of the LCD. At least thats how I understand it.

So later that night I was once again googling the problem and I came across this website with a picture of the inverter and I got excited. I was excited because as previous mentioned I did open up the monitor and I recognized the inverter. It was in a place that was easy to get to and very easy to replace. I went to Ebay, found the part for $13.00 with no S&H and ordered it.

Three days later the part arrived in the mail and I was quite excited. Mainly because I was certain I could fix my notebook but there was also a little fear that it wouldn't work or I would screw it up. However I still went ahead anyway and went through all the steps and yes, it worked! My laptop has been functioning normally for the past three days. I'm just hoping nothing else goes wrong for a while.

I told my brother about this and he told a friend of his who is a tech. His friend said that I did something he has never done before. That makes me feel kind of proud but in reality it was a very simple problem to fix and if the malfunctioning part had been anywhere else I probably would have been screwed but at least it got fixed.

-Jayson

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