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R51 backlight

R30/R40, A30/A31, G40/G50 and Z60/Z61 Series. NOT for AMD-Ryzen.
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at both ends
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Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2010 12:40 am
Location: Lake Cowichan, Canada

R51 backlight

#1 Post by at both ends » Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:46 pm

I picked up a clean R51 (1829-W1E) for $50 from a local who was having trouble unloading it without Windows. He'd installed the newest Ubuntu but the Unity desktop makes the poor old Pentium M crawl so I installed a lighter distro and it seems pretty happy.

Intended destination is 83 year old father-in-law, who needs a machine for nothing more complex than keeping up with his great grandkids on Facebook and the occasional skype with relatives in the old country. This should be plenty good enough for that and the price is right.

Unfortunately it's got that telltale sign of trouble to come: the pink screen at boot or when waking up from a sleep. Do I cross my fingers and hope it outlasts him (healthy as a horse so not a good bet) or drive up my cost and aggravation by buying and installing a new CCFL (about $20 shipped to me in the great white north)?

Thanks in advance for all good advice.
[ex] R51 1836-QNU W700 2752-RZ2 T60 2007-4BU T60 2007-5TU · [now] T420i 4177-CTO T60 2007-73U

RealBlackStuff
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Re: R51 backlight

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:13 pm

The fink/red is from a dying CCFL.
It may last, days, weeks, months or even years. Russian roulette anyone?
Unless you are an expert, you will ruin that LCD by trying to replace the CCFL yourself.
14.1" Hitachi and Samsung LCDs are by far the worst for a DIY job.
LG-Philips are not much better.
I now refuse to do any of those.
IDTech and TMD (made by Toshiba) screens give you a fair chance.
Buy a replacement LCD. The XGA are not that expensive.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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