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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > HELP! Powerbook LCD backlight photos, Now what?

HELP! Powerbook LCD backlight photos, Now what?
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sergiozambrano
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Join Date: Apr 2008
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Apr 23, 2008, 05:06 AM
 
I've taken apart my powerbook LCD display, looking for a cheap fix to the dead backlight issue.

I have a good backlight (on one screen), and two hands.

I managed to get this far (see photos) but I can't pull the backlight out safely. It's pretty stuck there.

Now what?

Does anybody know where the backlight is glued/locked to the lcd?

Thanks.
     
naphtali
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Join Date: Mar 2003
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Apr 23, 2008, 11:45 AM
 
Try iFixit: iPod, iBook, & PowerBook Parts and Accessories
They have some disassembly guides there.

And wow you've got balls!

Good luck!
     
sergiozambrano  (op)
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Apr 24, 2008, 02:13 PM
 
I replaced successfully the backlight lamp.
I didn't take photos because I was short of hands. Once in there, I had to call my parents to help me bringing tools and stuff to keep going.

Here's some advice if you are going to do it.
I didn't do it like that, more like working sat on my bed with the screen on my lap, but I can tell it was not clean enough.

Have a plastic bag for some pieces of glass of the lamp that could fall from the lcd. It's said that lamp has mercury, which you'll clean from your organism drinking a lot of water if touched, bur you don't want it being around your room for too long.

Prepare a clean dust safe area, and wear silicone gloves.
Have cotton swabs ready and some of them attached to a longer stick, to clean any dirt between the LCD layers. (keep stick and attachment clean and soft, no sticky sides or corners from tape)

Have a powerful light you can point anywhere.

Cover your work area with wrapping film, like the one for food. Its static charge will catch any dirt and you could land layers of the LCD on it if needed, no risk to scratch or dirt them.

Have a small vacuum handy. The lamp location is where the most dirt got into the screen.
If possible, try NOT to work with the LCD lamp at the top and your face looking down. If you do, any dirt you touch goes INSIDE the LCD, between the layers. Try to keep them as a whole after unlocking the frame from the lamp, and vacuum the dirt all around the lamp (the bottom part of the display) without letting the LCD layers get apart one from each other as pages of a book until it's clean.

Use a knife for spreading butter (dull and soft) to slide it between the aluminum frame and the actual screen. There's glue at the front and bottom of the lcd and it's very strong. You'll think there are screws and doubt it's just glued.

Slide that knife between the lamp (the large metal stick in the photo) and the plastic casing. Slide it slow and firmly, rotating it around and giving some time to the glue to release.

Here I'd say, next time I do it, I'll take a look to that thick clear layer to find where it can be loosen, since I damaged it somewhere because I worked on my lap, with all the layers flying like pages of a book.

Once the lamp is loosen, rotate it to release it from the thicker clear layer of LCD. You can bend the clear thick plastic layer the lamp is mounted on from the middle if you couldn't unmount it from the frame, and thus to reduce its length and make room to lamp to be freed at the corners where the plastic frame holds it stronger (at the middle the frame is flexible and the lamp is easy to remove).

When putting the new lamp back, you'll notice you can mount it at the middle with easy, but it's hard at the corners since the plastic frame is tight.
Try to mount the tip of the lamp casing on the center of the plastic layer and then slide it to the corner to its position. I'm not seeing it right now, but I think it could be possible.
(I have some doubts because the lamp is mounted by the back of lcd and the layer only gets released by the front, so you have a little space to play with where they meet)

Be careful with the multi-layers layer. It has a circuit tape at the top, attached to the green circuit board. You can move the layer like a book page and it's even stronger, but keep in that in mind.

I'll post something else if I remember it later.
     
   
 
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