Acer Aspire 3680-2022 ; Intermittent / No backlight - Replaced inverter no change

[loustvchris]

I was given this laptop by someone that said it was destroyed by lightning. I just got the laptop - no AC adapter - so I found a compatible AC adapter from another Acer that I have. Same voltages and everything. Plugged it in and it worked - but the backlight would flicker and turn off. No big deal - figured a $15-$30 inverter and a new AC adapter would be all it would need. Got the inverter in, installed it and no change - the unit will sometimes come on with backlight for a couple minutes, then off. Other times it will not show backlight at all.

I didn't notice before, but it will also shutdown after the backlight goes off - after the backlight cuts off I can see a non-illuminated background for maybe a 2-10 minutes, then nothing, then 30-60 seconds the unit powers off.

I'm thinking that since this new inverter does nothing and the unit shuts off that maybe my problem is in my LCD panel? If I had another bad inverter I would think that the unit would stay on with no backlight and not shutdown like that. Anyone know a sure fire way to determine if the LCD panel is good?

[Heracles]

Re: Acer Aspire 3680-2022 ; Intermittent / No backlight - Replaced inverter no change

Hello!
I had a similar fault with my fathers Acer 1522, the backlight would stay on for few seconds after starting the laptop then die. On an external screen all was displayed ok. I first changed the inverter but it did not help. I then took the LCD apart, and believe it or not, there was a cold solder in one end of the CCF lamp. After resoldering the lamp it all worked fine.

Have you tried with an external screen? That will be a good start to rule out any other faults.

Good luck!
Eric

[loustvchris]

Re: Acer Aspire 3680-2022 ; Intermittent / No backlight - Replaced inverter no change

I then took the LCD apart, and believe it or not, there was a cold solder in one end of the CCF lamp. After resoldering the lamp it all worked fine.

Really? You took the lcd panel apart? I had thought that they were non-serviceable. You could solder the actual backlight lamps?

Have you tried with an external screen? That will be a good start to rule out any other faults.

Great idea! I didn't think I could get it to display as some of the older laptops require you to change display settings, but it changed to the external display as soon as I plugged in the VGA cable. It would still shutdown and I noticed it would do it shortly after loading windows. I re-formatted and it stopped shutting down. I found that the new inverter was working - I was confusing the shutdown with the backlight cutting out. Has been working all day since I finished reformatting so I think that did it! THanks for the info - I don't think that would have come to me naturally.