A friend's laptop screen conked out on him. At first it went kind of a pink hue, then dark. He asked if I could help. At first we searched for a compatible used LCD screen that we could buy and swap out. I've replaced a few of those before, but there wasn't any available at a good price. Then I found that the backlight is actually quite inexpensive to buy so we went that route. I had never attempted to replace the light before but I was willing to try. Besides, I couldn't make it worse. The backlight is actually a Cold Cathode Fluorescent light (CCFL).
The internet is a wonderful thing. I bought the CCFL on eBay. I actually bought three because they were so cheap and I know they are delicate. I found the specific instructions for taking apart this particular model laptop. I also found general instructions on replacing the CCFL. The hardest part was the final step in removing the old light and the first step in putting in the new one. Otherwise it was pretty easy.
A couple of notes if you ever decide to tackle this yourself. The light needs to be soldered to the power wires and there is an electrical positive and negative so polarity matters. Solder the wires and connect to the power source to make sure it lights up before reassembling everything. It would really suck to put it mostly together to find you put the light in backwards and it doesn't light up. Also, the LCD screen consists of several layers. Try to keep the layers together, don't bend them, and keep out the dirt and dust.
I got everything reassembled and it works great! There are some imperfections most likely due to my work, but nothing really bad. Besides it works now, whereas it didn't when I started. I would have to estimate that I could do this again in about two hours or less, if I had to. Your mileage may vary.
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