Notebooks Calling laptop techies

I have a Dell Inspiron 15R (N5010) with a dead display. It works on an external screen via HDMI so the GPU is OK. I've stripped the laptop down to check the internal display cable is connected at both ends, which it is.

The question is, which is most likely to be the culprit - the internal display cable or the panel itself? And can anyone recommend a reputable place to buy such laptop bits & bobs?

Cheers.

 

It might just be the inverter, look really carefully at the screen in bright light to see if it's actually displaying an unlit picture.

Panels don't usually just die without some kind of physical trauma.

 

Thanks Shirty. Good advice, I'll give that a go.

 

I haven't tried it yet but after a bit of looking around, I'm not sure if this screen has an inverter. It's an "LED backlight" type I believe.

 

Ah, so I assume it uses just a single 40 pin connector. In that case, look at the back of the panel ans ensure any secondary connections are fully inserted. Quite often there will be one or two cables coming from the daughterboard to power smaller components, one of which will be the LED strip.

A replacement panel is around £40-60 so I'd probably take a punt on the display cable first, unless you have access to a specialised multimeter in order to rule it out.

 

AJ Parts in West Drayton are usually reliable suppliers of screens.

 

The prime suspect is always the LVDS cable, as Shirty said, the panels rarely just "let go" without physical trauma. If it is the panel, I buy a lot mine from a seller named "notebookbitz" on eBay. There are a couple of others I use regularly too but that's the main one I that can remember off the top of my head.

 

Thanks for the info and supplier recommendations guys, much appreciated.

I haven't done anything more with this since I last posted, I really should get back on it and sort it out. I couldn't see any sign of activity in the panel even when shining a torch into it so I'm pretty sure it's not a backlight problem. I'll get a cable ordered and see what happens.

 

Do you know anyone else with a 15" laptop that would let you take apart to test the screen?

 

I finally got around to trying a new cable. Unfortunately, there's still nothing showing on the screen.

The next step, I suppose, is to try a new screen, or am I overlooking something else?

Unfortunately I don't.

 

Well, the new screen arrived and I've just finished fitting it. Unfortunately there's still no change.

I'll swap the new cable back to the old one at the weekend (no time now) to rule out the possibility of it being faulty but other than that I'm stumped.

What else could possibly be causing the problem?