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Right... ive had my laptop for over 3 years now. During that time, on average it has been used 12 hours a day. So we are looking at around 13,000+ hours of usage on the LCD and it is now starting to become just a bit dimmer then id personally like.

I have two options:

1. Effectively retire the laptop and either buy a new one (funds arnt too happy with that idea) or swap it for me mums PC, which used to be my overclocking rig so I know and love it lots lol, which she bought a brand new LCD for last year and she never uses the PC so essentially its still brand new and therefore nice and bright;

2. Somehow make my laptop screen brighter. Ive done as much as I can using the ATI utility to make it look brighter, so now its down to the screen itself. I have been offered a brand new screen panel (including all screen related parts excluding GPU of course) to fit my laptop for a bargain price of £25 (they usually retail at around £100+ a piece), it has only a 30 day warranty, but it should be fine as its brand new, just not direct from Acer or an Acer approved supplier.

My question is, does anyone know if replacing the panel itself and the inverter etc which comes included, will actually lead to an original brightness? Im assuming the bulb will be intergrated into the panel although to be honest I havent yet checked it.

Anyone have any idea's? If ye dont know, please dont post "I think" or "I assume" as that doesnt really help in anyway.

Cheers

If you replace the pannel and inverter/backlight driver the screen should return to normal brightness. The backlight is often a sheet of EL material (electroluminescent) which requires a driver to power it, so replacing both of these parts is an entirely reasonable thing to do, and for £25 i'd just do it anyway!

I didn't know that, but i'm with him

£25 you wasted more on a Saturday night lol

Ill see if I can still get ahold of it then. Its not under insurance anymore (ran out in September), so im not bothered about doing anything to it that might void the insurance.

Cheers for that Custom

If you need someone with access to all the security screwdriver bits imaginable let me know

i might have to take you up on that offer too

the same thing is happening to the screen on my 4 year old Toshiba laptop

what custom ice said

talking about those you got one for DS ?

Cheers fella, much appreciated. I think it may have gone already, but he did say he would be getting more at the same price, so I will see what happens.

I'll have a look to see what bits the DS needs

i assume that this post is useless... i think

Well there davey boy i also think that this post is useless... well i assume anyway.

not useless. leave it up sir pomp

Huh?

The back light in a laptop is a floresent tube usually running along one edge of the screen (usually bottem, check where the pink and white wires are). Replacing the whole screen will make it return to its original brightness, although i wouldn't throw away your screen as if the back light goes on the new one (and they are prone to go), you can replace the back light. The screen unit itself can be taken apart in about 5 min and is easy enough if you look at the clip tabs holding it together.
-Also, the nintendo DS has tri wing screws in it (Smae as the Wii, Game cube and Gameboy) and needs a tri wing screw driver (3 wings instead of the standard philips 4).
They are available on Ebay for around £3