# Solved: Flickering Laptop Monitor



## Ashy 91 (Jun 9, 2009)

Hi guys, hope I've got this in the right part of the forum.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 which the monitor for has recently started flickering, theres and area on bottom of the lid say a few inches from the left that if you tap it will make it flicker a bit more.

I'm assuming this is some sort of loose connection or am I completely wide of the mark?

Cheers in advance for any replies.


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## Gr3iz (Mar 9, 2009)

That may be the area around the backlight inverter. Does it feel hot around that area? I wonder if the inverter is arcing.


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## Ashy 91 (Jun 9, 2009)

It does a little yes, it also made a noise when I touched it just then.


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## Gr3iz (Mar 9, 2009)

A staticy, crackling noise, probably fairly faint? There's usually a shield of some sort around the high voltage end. It may have slipped, or the connector may have come loose. 

If you want to try to look inside, be forewarned. You will probably not do any irreparable damage, but there is a chance you will. Power off first and remove the battery and power supply.

Every laptop is different, but there may be a couple of screws, usually under rubber bumpers or sticky pads. Then, the two pieces (outside top and inside LCD bezel) are held together with plastic interlocks. Usually you can pry the bezel from the LCD side (stick your fingers inside the plastic and pull gently). You'll hear some snaps as it comes apart. Sometimes that noise means those little interlocking pieces are breaking off, but most of the time its OK. You may not have to remove the bezel completely. You may see enough by prying the bottom out.

The backlight inverter will have a pair of wires plugged into one end (the high-voltage side). I've seen these wires be a light pastel blue or pink, or white. They usually terminate in a small molex-type connector that plugs into the inverter.

I wouldn't suggest powering up and poking around with fingers. If you use a small stick, or other non-conducting probe, you may try to see if you can determine what's going on. If it was arcing to the inside of the bezel, you won't see that if the bezel is pulled away, or removed.


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## Ashy 91 (Jun 9, 2009)

That describes the sound quite well I think, I'd rather not have a look myself though as while I understand the majority of what you just explained I don't really trust myself to have a look properly and as the screen also still works right now so I don't really want to cause any further damage.

Is it likely that the backlight inverter will need to be replaced? Would Dell do this for me and do you know whether they are difficult to deal with?


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## Gr3iz (Mar 9, 2009)

Is the unit still under warranty? 

I've had mixed results with Dell. They have some really good support techs, but they seem to be few and far between. I also have trouble understanding many of them.

I'm not sure it needs to be replaced. It may be a loose connection or missing/out of place shield. Or a bad inverter.


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## Ashy 91 (Jun 9, 2009)

Yes it is still under warranty I believe. I will phone them tomorrow to see if I can get the problem fixed.

Thank you for your help, the information you have given has given me a better understanding of the problem so it should be easier to explain to one of their techs.


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## Gr3iz (Mar 9, 2009)

Cool! Let us know how things turn out.


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## Ashy 91 (Jun 9, 2009)

Sent away last Thursday, back today all fixed.


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## Gr3iz (Mar 9, 2009)

Cool! I love it when support works like it's supposed to!

You can mark this thread "Solved".


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