Hi,

The screen on my laptop is extrememly faint. It's so faint that I can hardly can't see anything. Its a sony VAIO laptop. I have tried connecting an external screen but it's not coming on at all. Any idea guys?

Thanks....

It sounds like the laptop's display panel is at fault but you ought to be able to get an external monitor to work if that's the case. Is there a [Alt] + [Function key] sequence to use on your laptop to switch the display output to an external monitor? For example, on most laptops, you would need to press [Fn] + [F8] or [Fn] + [F5] to switch to an external monitor. The particular Function key that applies to your laptop will usually be labelled "CRT/LCD".

If you can get the external monitor to work, then that suggests that the graphics card is fine.

If the laptop starts up with the display panel working but then it goes dim after a few seconds, that's normally the backlight that is at fault. If it is dim from the moment that you turn it on, then this is usually caused by a dodgy inverter. It could potentially also be the inverter cable, which is cheap and easier to replace.

Ok. got the external monitor to work, question now is how do I change the backlight. I'm no expert at fixing laptops but I do have a pretty good idea of how to get and out of most of them. I just need a bit of guidance how to get to the backlight and change it if possible.

thanks

Hi,
Just to let everyone know... The inverter was damaged and the laptop is working fine after replacing it. Thaks all!