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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 16:52:21

Title: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 16:52:21

My backlighting died on my catleap today. Or something....
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8340059578_a39b8e0fd6_h.jpg)

Is this fixable? Sometimes if i tap on my desk while I'm typing it'll momentarily come on (the left side thats darker) for a fraction of a second.....any ideas?

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Wed, 02 January 2013, 17:00:22

Test with different cable, different gpu? It's totally white or can you see image faintly?

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 17:03:11

No the image is completely fine. It displays everything normally...but the backlighting seems to have died on the left side

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Wed, 02 January 2013, 17:07:29

Oh, different issue then. I saw the white screen... so just probably some led going out. Simple enough repair maybe, depending on how accessible things are inside. But I would replace all the led if you do so it has the same. You don't want to end up with mix of warm and cool 'white' led.

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 17:08:59

I'll try opening it and looking. I didn't know you can replace individual leds in the monitor

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Wed, 02 January 2013, 17:12:27

led backlight, they are usually just a strip of led. Some have the 'x-mas lights' effect where it burn out and the rest don't work. They really shouldn't chain them that way but... they do.

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 20:10:46

Lysol you were right. Took me about 30 minutes to take it apart. There are 2 strips of led lights at the bottom each with a plug for power. One of the plugs is completely deattached from the led PCB. I have no idea how it happened but the pins are extremely thin, like a fraction of a mm. I have no idea how I'm going to solder them back together....my soldering iron is way to big for that. I need to find a super fine one or someone to do it for me

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Wed, 02 January 2013, 20:14:50

Maybe some soldering tweezers? If you don't want to chance it I would look for a tv repair. They should be familiar with it by now.

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Wed, 02 January 2013, 21:43:19

The thought of paying someone close to $100 to fix something I can do my self bothers me. Anyways, I went to radio shack and picked up this little guy:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4314833

It came with a bunch of really small tips, but soldering that connector back on there was a huge pita.
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8498/8339884897_1b3fffcdab_b.jpg)
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8497/8339885381_647afe3ce7_b.jpg)

Thanks for the help lysol!

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: esoomenona on Wed, 02 January 2013, 23:11:02

So it's working fine now?

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: bavman on Thu, 03 January 2013, 00:30:55

Yup :D

It had gotten even worse than that picture in the OP. I'm guessing when I had taken the picture not all power was lost to the left side

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: esoomenona on Thu, 03 January 2013, 00:32:29

Yay! Good work, guys.

Title: Re: My poor catleap :(
Post by: chewyfruitloop on Thu, 03 January 2013, 05:12:02

you sometimes find that heat + vibration over time can work stuff out of the socket, especially if it wasn't in there properly to start with
glad this only cost you time to fix  :D