Screen goes dark when I plug in my Dell

[ash49]

Hi. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 that's about three years old. Starting a few days ago, the monitor pretty much refuses to light up if I have it plugged in. If I start it up with it plugged in, the screen lights up intermittently during the startup, then quits once my desktop appears. If I want it to light up again, I have to shut it so it goes into sleep mode. When I open it again, if I have unplugged it, it will light up in power-save mode just fine.

Any idea what is going on here? I've tried a friend's power cord, and that does not appear to change things. I'm running Windows XP. I'm not sure how that would affect anything, but I really have no idea why this would be occurring.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[xxdanielxx]

check if you see the picture on the screen it will be very dim. Also dose it pick up a external monitor connected to the back of the laptop.

 

[Predict]

I would try pluging it in to a different monitor, if that dosnt work then maybe your psu is dieing, but if it work fine on a different monitor then your monitor is going bad. Is it flat screen? or Tube?

 

[ash49]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, if I look very close it is really, really dim. I haven't tried to hook it up to another monitor yet (this is a flat screen). I'll give that a shot when I get to one. Unfortunately for these purposes, it can't completely be relied on to fail--it's working right now for instance--so I'll have to spend a lot of time on another monitor before I'm sure.

If this helps diagnose it, please let me know. Thanks again.

 

[atwaterkent]

Solution to Dell Monitor Going Dark After Power Up

Cause of power going off: There is a bad 1000uf, 16V cap on the power supply board.

Solution: Replace cap. Radio Shack sells a 1000uF, 35V cap for $2. This will work.

Why did the cap go bad? The cap is too close to a heat sink and over heated.

What does this cap do? This cap sends a signal to an IC which keeps the monitor 'on' after the power switch is pushed. When the cap is weak, AC ripple voltage is applied to the IC and it sends a signal to shut the monitor off.

Opening the Monitor: These monitors are difficult to open.

The two plastic pieces snap together and must be pried apart with a flat screw driver.

After removing the stand, you need to insert a flat screw driver at the bottom of the screen where two slots are located. Then work the screw driver around until the two plastic pieces are separated.

Remove the cover plate and unscrew the push button circuit board.

Unplug the monitor cords from the driver board and remove the screen.

Unscrew the mounting screws from the power supply board and remove.

You will need to pinch the plastic support in the middle of the board to remove.

Cap Replacement:

Cap is located near a copper heat sink and the value will be on the side of the cap. It will be bulged up on the top. You will see burn marks on the board surrounding the cap. Unsolder the cap.

Install the new cap and solder. Make sure you connect + of the cap to + marked on the board.

Be careful not to solder across joints.

Keep leads long so you can bend the cap as far away from the heat sink as possible.

Reassemble monitor and turn on.

This should solve the problem.