Taking apart display panel and replacing inverter on Dell Inspiron 8500 and 8600 series laptops
Do you want to know how to take apart the display panel and replace the inverter board on a Dell Inspiron 8500/8600 series laptops? Check out these instructions created by Krazykwok (1.34MB pdf file).
This is not hard to do at all, $40 and 20 mins of work might save you quite a lot of money. Don’t be afraid to pull the frame, it can’t get worse than not having it fix. Pull out the battery if you want to but I didn’t, so that’s why you see me disconnect the power panel connector below. All you need is a good sets of little screw driver from Walmart. You will need a good and solid quality philips head mini screw driver for the 2 screw on the inverter.
These disassembly instructions should work for many other Dell laptops, because they all engineered similarly.
If you are taking the laptop apart to replace the inverter, you don’t have to remove the keyboard bezel as the author of this guide did. It’s not necessary to disconnect the video cable from the motherboard, simply remove the battery.
For the display panel disassembly, follow these steps:
1. Remove 8 screw seals from the LCD bezel.
2. Remove screws securing the LCD bezel to the LCD cover.
3. Remove the LCD bezel.
4. Remove screws securing the inverter board. Remove and replace inverter.
The author spent about $40 for a new screen inverter. You can find it for about $20-25 here: Dell Inspiron 8500/8600 screen inverters.
You may ask. Why would I want to replace the inverter board? Let me explain it in a few words.
The inverter board works as a power supply for the LCD screen backlight lamp. When inverter dies, the LCD screen becomes very dark. The laptop still works and the image is still on the screen but you barely can see the desktop because the screen is very dark. You’ll experience something like this guy with his IMB laptop:
I could get the screen to come back on momentarily by toggling Fn-F7 a few times, but after about 10 seconds it went blank again. After rebooting, same thing — 10 seconds and blank.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that I could actually see the windows very, very dimly on the screen.
Check out my previous post for more information about troubleshooting LCD screen backlight failure.
Topics: Screen problems, Disassembly help, LCD screen, Backlight, Screen inverter, 4. Dell Laptops |
July 29th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I wanted to give you my sincere thanks for this site and for the information within it. I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and I love it. My son was on it one day when the screen went blank. I panicked because I have never opened a laptop for repair but I am very comfortable with desktops. I took it in to a local PC repair shop and the guy told me the estimate for repair would start at $250 and could go up if they found other problems. Well I came across your site and was able to correctly diagnose the problem. Your instructions to replace an invertor were clear and consise. I was able to not only crack open the laptop I actually did the repair step by step with your instructions. I cannot say thank you enough, I made the same mistake you did with the incorrect invertor size but I followed your instructions and my Dell is now working great. Thank you again for the priceless information and the confidence I now have to fix my own laptop!
July 31st, 2008 at 9:11 am
I agree, this is a GREAT site. My Inspiron 8600 went “black,” just as the site said. $120 purchase of a new screen w/ inverter off of Ebay, I followed the instructions (OK, I had to replace the screen),and now the laptop is running great.
This solution beats spending $1600 for a new laptop (where you’re forced to take Vista & Blu Ray at a high price).
August 24th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Dell support was kind of helpless as they couldn’t diagnose the problem but had me purchase a new video card. I’m glad my second guess was right. It wasn’t easy to take these pictures one-hand with my heavy dSLR while working on it. But it’s well worth it, save me and you lots of money
September 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I am trying to replace mine. My dell inspiron 8600 laptop. I have all the problems described.
I can dimly see the windows logo in the background and one time dell support had me reboot but then it went black again. How would i know the right size of the inverter to buy?? Dell support keeps telling me that i need to buy a new screen and i know thats not the case. ITS too much money!!! Please help me
September 9th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Deegirl,
Could be bad inverter (replace inverter) or bad backlight lamp inside the LCD screen (replace screen).
They tell you to buy a new screen because it comes with the inverter board. I believe they don’t sell these parts separately but you can find them on eBay (I linked to various inverters in the post).
Take a closer look at your original inverter board. Most likely it has the part number stamped somewhere on the inverter. Search for a new inverter by the part number from the original inverter.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Well, I’m off to EBay to get my inverter! Thanks much for this, what a money/frustration saver! Best regards.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:17 am
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