Monday, November 17, 2008

Backlight inverter was the culprit

My BenQ Joybook 5000 notebook have been acting out for about year now. In a few irregular occasion, the lcd screen just dimmed out (or off). You can somehow still make the image displayed but it was so dimmed like putting the brightness to the lowest level. And I was like, "Dammit, first the cooling fan gave up and now the screen!"

Fortunately, after educating myself (through Googling :p) of what causing it, I was bit relief. Apparently the backlight inverter (the thing that tell the lcd backlight to turn on or off) was feeling the heat from MAXed out brightness. Intermittently, it will shut down when it got too hot.

But the fortunate aren't so as it cost me RM280 for the repair! So last Monday (i.e. 10Nov) I dragged my 2.8kg notebook to Lowyat (to be more specific, Vital Computers on Level 2) and have my screen fixed instantly. Good that everything Lowyat's is prompt.

That reminded me of my sister's more unfortunate Compaq 1000 notebook disaster when the motherboard died (but of course due to spillage by her 2-year-old daughter). It cost her exactly RM850 to replace the entire motherboard but as Lowyat is, I walk away with the newly 'refurbished' Compaq in just an hour :)

Lesson Learnt:
1) Don't max out the brightness of your LCD
2) Don't let your children play with the notebook with drinks somewhere near!