A quick little backstory:
Last year, while on a trip it was knocked to the ground and banged up a bit. The 5660 continued to work fine, but there was some minor damage to the lower left of the LCD casing, around the outside screw, but everything else seemed to come out unscathed. Recently, the crack around that particular latch has grown considerably (to the point where a small chunk of the plastic case has come off the back), and this morning when I booted it up, the LCD wasn't working. It booted into windows, and squinting at the screen I can tell there is actually display there (I could see the white of a background, and just barely make out the task bar), but it is unusably dark (as if the contrast or gamma is simply all the way down).
From what I have been able to gather, it sounds like I've finally worn down either the inverter or the backlight, and what I was wondering if there is a good way to check. I took apart the LCD, and didn't notice anything obviously busted about the inverter, and all of the cables "seem" intact. One thing I did notice is, that on the that left side, the spacers (or whatever they are called, the small threaded cyclinderical metal peice that the screw actually screws into) no longer seem to be attached to anything, so as I attempt to screw and unscrew, they just spin in place (making getting the screws out a pain). On the outside left most screw, the plastic washer has actually busted, so the screw itself has suck beyond the threshold of the outside lid, and doesn't actually keep the lip screwed down anymore. The result of this seems to be that the hinge inside doesn't turn at the same rate as the lid itself, and starts to pop the display apart if I adjust the lid too much (laptop is mostly a desktop replacement, and simply stays open 99% of the time).
The LCD display issue occured after I closed the lid to move it, after I reopened it, no display.
Any ideas or opinions on what needs to be done? I'm decently savvy with desktops and the innards of the computer, but haven't worked with LCDs at all.
Last year, while on a trip it was knocked to the ground and banged up a bit. The 5660 continued to work fine, but there was some minor damage to the lower left of the LCD casing, around the outside screw, but everything else seemed to come out unscathed. Recently, the crack around that particular latch has grown considerably (to the point where a small chunk of the plastic case has come off the back), and this morning when I booted it up, the LCD wasn't working. It booted into windows, and squinting at the screen I can tell there is actually display there (I could see the white of a background, and just barely make out the task bar), but it is unusably dark (as if the contrast or gamma is simply all the way down).
From what I have been able to gather, it sounds like I've finally worn down either the inverter or the backlight, and what I was wondering if there is a good way to check. I took apart the LCD, and didn't notice anything obviously busted about the inverter, and all of the cables "seem" intact. One thing I did notice is, that on the that left side, the spacers (or whatever they are called, the small threaded cyclinderical metal peice that the screw actually screws into) no longer seem to be attached to anything, so as I attempt to screw and unscrew, they just spin in place (making getting the screws out a pain). On the outside left most screw, the plastic washer has actually busted, so the screw itself has suck beyond the threshold of the outside lid, and doesn't actually keep the lip screwed down anymore. The result of this seems to be that the hinge inside doesn't turn at the same rate as the lid itself, and starts to pop the display apart if I adjust the lid too much (laptop is mostly a desktop replacement, and simply stays open 99% of the time).
The LCD display issue occured after I closed the lid to move it, after I reopened it, no display.
Any ideas or opinions on what needs to be done? I'm decently savvy with desktops and the innards of the computer, but haven't worked with LCDs at all.
