HP Backlight

April 6, 2004 6:50 PM

I recently acquired a laptop, an HP Pavilion n5340, and the backlight doesn't like to come on until after the laptop's been on a few minutes. After that, it stays on. I've checked around, and google tells me that the LCD inverter most likely to blame, but I want to know if anyone has personal experience with this. Has anyone else run into this problem (and fixed it) ?
posted by angry modem to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

IIRC from IRC you're running FreeBSD on that thing, and the thought occurs to me that this might be related to Open Source's sometimes wonky APM (and similar power management) support. That's about the only idea that comes immediately to mind, though.
posted by Ryvar at 6:56 PM on April 6, 2004

Response by poster: It happens from boot on, and it did it with Windows XP, so I'm sure it's not that.
posted by angry modem at 6:58 PM on April 6, 2004

Hey. I have just inherited an old Toshiba laptop with an intermittent LCD backlight. I'd be interesting in any material on this as well.
posted by ODiV at 8:34 PM on April 6, 2004

I had an HP n5350 and the backlight went out, but would not come back on. Luckily, it was under warranty. Sent it out and it turned out to be the backlight switch. Something about how it got jammed, though I still don't know exactly what it is.
Question: If its on and the LCD backlight is working and you reboot (as in don't move the screen at all), does the backlight take a few minutes again to work or does it work right away?
posted by jmd82 at 10:08 PM on April 6, 2004

Response by poster: jmd82, only when I do a cold boot does it take its time to come back on. Closing the laptop (and thus switching off the backlight) will oftentimes cause it to need a few minutes to come back on.
posted by angry modem at 9:44 AM on April 7, 2004

Response by poster: I FIXED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111

The little tiny switch above the 'mail' button on the front towards the screen was gummed up. Playing with it with a pen freed it, and now everything's great in this world again.

Thanks for the help, guys.
posted by angry modem at 8:52 AM on April 9, 2004