I got this "dead" LCD from my friend (a 15" Dell without a model it seems), his mom opened the window of their house and rain came in, and the magic smoke escaped. Turns out only the backlight inverter is dead, and the LCD still works, however I opened it up and lifted the LCD off the backlight and diffuser, plugged it in and held a flashlight behind the LCD and I can clearly see the monitor POST screen as it moves around the screen in some arbitrary pattern. However, the bottom 1/3 of the screen doesn't work. It seems odd to me because the dead portion is 7.5cm, and the screen height is 23cm, almost exactly 1/3. I looked around the edge to check the horizontal connections but they all look fine, and after searching both the power/inverter board and the LCD controller board I can't find any source of damage, and no odours are emitted when the monitor is on so nothing appears to be still shorting or burning. Anyone have any idea whats causing the bottom portion to not be generated and just stay solid black? I would like to build a DIY home projector out of this panel.
