These use LED panels, which generally do not suffer from backlight failure as much as the older CCFL displays did. The backlight should be okay.
To determine if it’s the panel or board, hook it up to an external monitor that has HDMI - this is one of those legacy free laptops without VGA. If it works on the external, you have a bad display and if the problem is still present, you probably have a motherboard issue. It can also be the RAM, but it’s usually a bad motherboard.
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If you got it used, I would either return it or repair it based on what kind of warranty you have. If it came from Dell new, return it and get another one. DO NOT attempt to repair it.
These use CCFL panels which are far more prone to backlight failure after as long as many of them have been in use. Knowing how old this is, I have a feeling the backlight in the panel quit working.
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These use LED panels, which generally do not suffer from backlight failure as much as the older CCFL displays did. The backlight should be okay.
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To determine if it’s the panel or just a bad backlight, shine a flashlight at the screen and see if you get an image or not. If you do, the backlight failed. It isn’t cost efficient to repair a commonly available vintage laptop like this, so you are better off getting a whole new unit that has the assembly as a parts unit or finding a complete one that works and using this as a desktop over a VGA monitor.
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To determine if it’s the panel or board, hook it up to an external monitor that has HDMI - this is one of those legacy free laptops without VGA. If it works on the external, you have a bad display and if the problem is still present, you probably have a motherboard issue. It can also be the RAM, but it’s usually a bad motherboard.
These use CCFL panels which are far more prone to backlight failure after as long as many of them have been in use. Knowing how old this is, I have a feeling the backlight in the panel quit working.
To determine if it’s the panel or just a bad backlight, shine a flashlight at the screen and see if you get an image or not. If you do, the backlight failed. It isn’t cost efficient to repair a commonly available vintage laptop like this, so you are better off getting a whole new unit that has the assembly as a parts unit or finding a complete one that works and using this as a desktop over a VGA monitor.