Dell G15 Ryzen Edition - Replacing the screen

[britechguy]

Larry,

Thanks. Given that I still have the machine torn down, and it's a simple matter to disconnect the battery cable, that is what will be done, again.

I just find it shocking (no pun intended) that a video cable on a machine turned off could even possibly fry a screen (and that's not doubt, just surprise).

Brian

 

[Larry Sabo]

Here's a YouTube video where Electronics Repair School channel's Sorin, explains the problem and a fix. This is for a Lenovo T430 but the same basic design can be found on other makes/models.

 

[NJW]

I just find it shocking (no pun intended) that a video cable on a machine turned off could even possibly fry a screen (and that's not doubt, just surprise).

AFAIK, all laptops have the 19 V rail on the display connector all the time. Large parts of the motherboard will have 3.3 V up – essential for power-on, after all – and +5V on at least some of the USB circuits. Many also have power to other easily accessible sensitive components such as DIMMs.

Connecting/disconnecting any laptop component without removing the charger and battery is risky.

 

[NJW]

However, other Dells use just 3.3v instead of 19v.

Are you sure? (Not arguing, just surprised.) There's no way a 3.3 V supply will provide enough power for the display. AFAIK, the display power control is delegated to the panel electronics to shift the heat off the mother board, hence the bulk, uncontrolled 19 V supply. The backlight control is taken care of by the panel, commanded by logic & PWM signals from the motherboard .

 

[Larry Sabo]

Are you sure? (Not arguing, just surprised.) There's no way a 3.3 V supply will provide enough power for the display.

Oops! I misread an Inspiron 15R schematic when I made that assertion. It's actually, 19v as shown on the LVDS connector (below). I was not fully awake as I perused schematics while having my morning coffee. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 

[britechguy]

Connecting/disconnecting any laptop component without removing the charger and battery is risky.

Which makes working on the new "internal battery" models more of a PITA than dealing with laptops already was. At least I used to be able to pop-out the battery module. This also made battery replacement, which always becomes necessary if the machine is consistently used on battery power, a snap.

If you're not going to make the battery module removable, then I would like a battery cut-off switch (covered, of course, to prevent accidental activation) so that I don't have to tear off the bottom cover (at a minimum). That would have made screen replacement on this machine a cinch by comparison.

Of course, as a dear, departed Aunt of mine used to say, "Wish in one hand, s**t in the other, and see which gets full first."

 

[nlinecomputers]

Which makes working on the new "internal battery" models more of a PITA than dealing with laptops already was.

Most such models have a disable battery option in BIOS. it stays off until you plug the power cable back in.

 

[Porthos]

Of course, as a dear, departed Aunt of mine used to say, "Wish in one hand, s**t in the other, and see which gets full first."

Said that myself as I was reading thinking about posting the same as well until I reached the line in your post.

 

[britechguy]

Most such models have a disable battery option in BIOS. it stays off until you plug the power cable back in.

But you have to tear the bottom cover off, at a minimum, to unplug the power cable (presuming you mean the battery power cable, not the power supply power cable).

But in an instance where one has a fully dead screen (which was not true here) it's awfully difficult to do anything with UEFI/BIOS anyway since screen duplication is something Windows handles. I don't even know whether any of the video outputs (HDMI only, in this case) are active until Windows comes on the scene. I certainly don't see anything when using a HDMI cable with this machine prior to the point in the boot process where the Windows login screen appears. POST doesn't come through.

 

[nlinecomputers]

If the screen is totally dead then you are going to be unplugging the cable at the system board as part of your diagnostics. Pinched or cut video cables are common causes of non powering up on laptops.

 

[britechguy]

If the screen is totally dead then you are going to be unplugging the cable at the system board as part of your diagnostics. Pinched or cut video cables are common causes of non powering up on laptops.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but you're going into territory that wasn't a part of what started this topic nor has ever even been intimated. I'm not talking non-powering-up of the system.

You can have a perfectly functional machine (as I now know I do, thank heaven) where, if the screen is completely gone and you know its secondary to something like massive cracking, it would be lovely to not have to tear down the "machine side" in order to replace it because you need to disconnect battery power. Hence my wish, silly and unrealistic though it may be, for a battery cut-off switch on units that have internal batteries rather than the classic battery module.

 

[Porthos]

Hence my wish, silly and unrealistic though it may be, for a battery cut-off switch on units that have internal batteries rather than the classic battery module.

Imagine the service calls when an end-user switches it off like they do with wireless switches.

 

[britechguy]

Imagine the service calls when an end-user switches it off like they do with wireless switches.

Hence I specifically requested "covered." And by that I mean a physical cover you'd have to flip open.

I honestly wish that any switch, regardless of exactly how it's implemented, would either be physically covered or "technologically covered" via warning message, in order to activate.

Most of the wireless switches, whether thy be via actual switch (and it's been a while since I've seen that) or hitting a function key along with FN (or sometimes without) being turned off have been entirely accidental/unintentional and without any warning if one wasn't focused on the screen the moment the change occurred, and sometimes not even then.

For a battery cut-off switch, were such to be present, I'd also like a repeated "nag warning" that your battery switch is turned off at intervals when the machine is being used with the external power supply.

Not that any of this could possibly come to pass, mind you.

 

[Porthos]

whether thy be via actual switch (and it's been a while since I've seen that)

True. I have users using Dell latitude models with one and somehow they get turned off.

 

[NJW]

Which makes working on the new "internal battery" models more of a PITA than dealing with laptops already was. At least I used to be able to pop-out the battery module. This also made battery replacement, which always becomes necessary if the machine is consistently used on battery power, a snap.

I can't think of any consumer product that becomes easier to repair as it matures. External, user-removable batteries are clearly more expensive to produce, so they were designed out. No OEM is going to cost-engineer the battery fitment and then add a switch, so your prediction of its likelihood is probably accurate.

In the early days of internal batteries, there was usually a BIOS reset switch, reached through a tiny hole somewhere on the outside of the case – that's now very unusual, ime. Even a frozen BIOS requires at least one case panel to be removed.

Threads past have already bemoaned the loss of useful HDD activity lights, as another example.

 

[britechguy]

@NJW: The phrase, "We are becoming a throw-away society," is now entirely inaccurate, as we became one long ago.

The idea that anything should be designed with maintenance or repairability in mind (and that extends even to automobiles to a huge extent now) went out the window long ago. It's all about two things: minimizing cost and maximizing production speed.

Even though many treat the very objects we service, computers, as disposible I will never be able to do that, just as I don't treat anything that likely can be repaired (most often by me) as disposable. I grew up with a father who was incredibly skilled at repairing almost anything you can name, and he passed on that particular skill to me. I the list of things I've fixed includes cars (and that includes taking out a dashboard to resolder a cracked PCB component so as not to have to get a whole new one), computers, appliances, etc.

There is just too much waste and, even worse, unnecessary waste. And given what we know about what impact that has, something's eventually gotta give. It is my sincerest wish, though I will not live to see it, that a trend back toward repairability eventually occurs.

 

[britechguy]

I couldn't decide whether to start a separate topic, but decided against since what I'm about to ask about is still tied directly to this machine and replacing the screen.

If you refer back to the initial post in this topic, you will see that the original screen break caused a black band, vertically, on the right hand side of the screen.

I received my replacement of the defective replacement screen two days ago, and decided to put it in today. The install itself has gone smoothly and the screen seems to be functioning correctly, but I'm seeing something I have never, ever seen before and it so happens to be situated on the screen where that black band was when it was originally brought to me.

Note in these two photos that there is what looks like a B7 or 87, in tiny orange dots, showing on the screen. It is there constantly, and the one screen shot shows it floating over top of the desktop wallpaper, and the second over part of a Windows Settings dialog when it's moved to the position on the screen where this thing lives:





Before I contact either the folks at laptopscreen.com or the client, I wanted to check to see if this "looks familiar" to anyone else. I've touched absolutely nothing related to screen settings, programs, etc., other than uninstalling a just-expired trial of McAfee and letting Windows Security take over.

And on restarting, it is definitely showing on the Windows lock screen, so I'm at a real loss here.

This is an "entirely new one" for me, and I have absolutely no idea of what may be causing it or what to do next.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Are you certain that this isn’t something taped on the screen glass?

 

[britechguy]

Actually, I guess it could be the protective film, but I've never had a sheet of protective film with something printed on it and generally don't remove them until I feel certain that all warrants it.

But thank you, very much for that suggestion! In looking at the protective film from the first screen, which I had intended to put back on before shipping it back, sure enough, it's got precisely the same thing printed on it!!

This makes my New Years Day a lot happier!