all-in-one inverter or screen

[compnet]

I have a sony all in one that is dimming anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes after boot. The inverter is a big old board that has 4 backlight cables plugging into it..

Can I plug a regular laptop lcd into one of the ports to see if the inverter is still good??

This is the inverter -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-445-474-1...9868&pid=100033&prg=1011&rk=1&#ht_1056wt_1137

From that picture it looks like I should be able to plug into one of the pink slots and get a light, but I don't want to damage my test screen or the inverter.

On second thought, given that there appears to be 3 backlights, its kind of has to be inverter, no?

 

[NYJimbo]

Does it seem to dim like flipping a switch or gradual and how dim from total bright ?

 

[compnet]

Does it seem to dim like flipping a switch or gradual and how dim from total bright ?

flipping a switch, and 0 backlight when it goes dim(barely visible image)

 

[NYJimbo]

flipping a switch, and 0 backlight when it goes dim(barely visible image)

Tough call without playing with it. When it boots do you see any thermal discoloring on the LCD screen surface, brown or off white that would give you an idea of heating ?

If you can see one of the four ( I am guessing its four individual but they seem to be ganged into pairs ?) CCFL's showing low brightness output before it dies, you might get an idea where to go.

If you can get into the machine you can disconnect each CCFL and see how it reacts after powering up. If one CCFL causes the shutdown of the inverter you have your culprit. But if it takes the whole gang then you are pretty much guessing without higher end tools.

Is this a machine on 24/7 if so then the LCD and inverter might have run its course and you as the tech might be best off repairing them together.

 

[compnet]

Tough call without playing with it. When it boots do you see any thermal discoloring on the LCD screen surface, brown or off white that would give you an idea of heating ?

If you can see one of the four ( I am guessing its four individual but they seem to be ganged into pairs ?) CCFL's showing low brightness output before it dies, you might get an idea where to go.

If you can get into the machine you can disconnect each CCFL and see how it reacts after powering up. If one CCFL causes the shutdown of the inverter you have your culprit. But if it takes the whole gang then you are pretty much guessing without higher end tools.

Is this a machine on 24/7 if so then the LCD and inverter might have run its course and you as the tech might be best off repairing them together.

Hmm, no discoloring or anything, screen looks find until it goes dim.

So hooking up only one or two of the CCFLs won't harm anything?

The cheapest I can find the inverter is the one I linked, I imagine the screen will be pretty pricy too.. So I don't want to replace both unless necessary. I'm still leaning towards the inverter, but I'll try only hooking up the backlights individually and trying.