HP dv5000 bad inverter?

[EXCellR8]

I was given a slightly beat HP laptop when one of my customers upgraded. The video chipset still works (i.e. works fine when attaching an external display) but the screen itself is acting up. When the computer is powered up, the backlight turns on but there is just a single vertical line of colored pixels. I know all of the pixels work because if I tap the side of the screen they will display normally at any given time, but then the picture seems to get distorted or slowly burns out. So I'm thinking the inverter is junk, which is an easy enough fix... but I wanted to ask someone who has a bit more experience with this sort of thing. Any ideas?

 

[Tmagic650]

The LCD panel itself might be bad, but you can check all cable connections before you purchase any parts. i really don't think it is the inverter

 

[EXCellR8]

yep, i can confirm it's not the inverter so i'm guessing it's the LCD itself. i bought a new inverter for around $5 so it was worth a shot. the cables are all fine, there's only one main one... i'll just keep an eye out for a replacement LCD. thanks!

 

[Tmagic650]

Check EBay for the LCD panel... The prices and quality are good

 

[EXCellR8]

yea i'm seeing them average for around $70 on ebay, not bad i guess...

it's a shame that the LCD i have is bad, because physically it's in excellent shape. oh well

 

[Rick]

The inverter only lights the screen up. If the inverter is bad, then it will be a pink hue, dark or completely black. It will have no effect on the quality of the image itself (lines, pixels, distortions)

 

[EXCellR8]

alright well then my already shoddy knowledge of laptop screens was completely backwards lol. glad i didn't shell out a lot of money for a replacement. i guess the problem is picture distortion then so i will try to find a new screen. that bezel is a pain in the neck to get on and off but replacing the actual LCD is easier than i thought so i will give it a shot. the original owner said it just started doing it one day buy i'm willing to bet she dropped it or something.

 

[Tmagic650]

I have changed a lot of LCD panels and only 2 or 3 inverters in the last few years... Yes, the panels average $70 to $175

 

[EXCellR8]

i could get a brand new one for around $120 (glossy)... considering the computer was given to me that might not be a bad option but it's really not a great system. the screen was actually working fine a few moments ago with just a slight flicker, but now it has crapped out again since i closed it to reattach a few things. i don't really need it at the moment so i think i will just wait to find a good used screen.

 

[Tmagic650]

It could just be a flakey backlight... but those are a bit of a ***** to change. If you max out the memory and increase the size of the hard drive, even a mediocre laptop can be useful

 

[Rick]

Check EBay for the LCD panel... The prices and quality are good

I forgot to comment on this.

I've probably ordered around 50 LCD panels from vendors on eBay. I have found that overall, eBay has been an acceptable source. Out of those, I've had 4-5 (new ones) with an issue. At least 2 of those had bad pixels and the others were for compatibility reasons (xyz screen wasn't compatible with abc screen as advertised). Anecdotal, but I believe "good quality" across the board could be a bit of a stretch. Make sure you check feedback and find a seller who offers a generous return policy.

You'll see a lot of "guaranteed to meet ISO 13406-2 norms" junk on eBay. That is basically the seller telling you that they allow 2-5 pixels, so if you get a screen with a few dead pixels on it, you can't return it.

In short, make sure you find a seller who explicitly offers zero dead pixels. The panels are usually $10-20 more, but it is so worth the peace of mind (in my opinion). And always check feedback! Find someone who sells lots of screens and choose the one that has 99.6% feedback vs 98.2%.

 

[Tmagic650]

Rick,
I always check for high percentage buyers, and I keep a list of the good buyers I use. Laptop motherboards, a few desktop motherboards, hard drives and various other laptop case parts is what I mostly buy on EBay. As far as LCD panels, I have never had a bad pixel problem, one had a scrambled image, and one was dead. These were returned for replacement. I was only out one-way shipping... and a little time

 

[EXCellR8]

It could just be a flakey backlight... but those are a bit of a ***** to change. If you max out the memory and increase the size of the hard drive, even a mediocre laptop can be useful

yea i'm not too interested in replacing just the backlight. the computer is a 1.73ghz dual core celeron with 2GB RAM. the processor is not x64 compatible but its decent for 32-bit Win7. i could use a spare laptop to take with me to job sites, but the battery integrity remains unknown at the moment. i don't know how good it holds a charge so i'm guessing, like with most laptops, the battery is probably junk. it's a 2005 model i believe so that's very likely. i will deal with that later though.

 

[Tmagic650]

New laptop batteries are cheap on EBay too. I recently bought an HP battery for $25 with a 3-year warranty

 

[EXCellR8]

okay so i (finally) have an update on this, albeit not a very good one...

i ended up buying a replacement screen for $60 on ebay and after two weeks it finally arrived and i was able to swap it. the problem now is that i get nothing at all on the screen; it doesn't appear that the new inverter is even working. i made sure to connect the WXGA harness carefully and took all of the necessary steps in putting the screen back together. the brackets that mount the screen were kind of messed up but i just used the ones from the original. everything fit back together nicely and i didn't run into any problems, so i'm not sure why it's not doing anything. is there something i am missing here, or something that needs to be reset in order to use a replaced screen?

i've wasted too much time on this damn thing at this point so if i can't get it working i'm just going to return the screen and toss the computer. the inverter is brand-new and the seller told me that the LCD had been tested so i'm not sure what's wrong.

 

[Tmagic650]

Sorry to hear this... Maybe a bad motherboard now

 

[EXCellR8]

yea it's sucky... oh well. just for kicks i swapped in the old inverter and now i get lines across the screen but nothing else. only thing i can think of is the WXGA harness but there isn't really any circuitry with that. external displays work fine with no anomalies so if it is the motherboard it's likely to be a connector and not the board itself, but there is no way for me to know for sure. so, the computer is going out with the recycling... now to see if i can get my money back for this screen. i hate laptops...

 

[Tmagic650]

Yeah I was going to ask if the external video works, so it is most likely a bad LCD panel or the connector from the panel to the motherboard is also damaged. I have about 6 old laptops that I have cannibalized for used parts, stacked up on a shelf. Most of my computer repair involves laptops these days