This possible?? Battery related screen problems on my vaiotx-650?

Hi all, this is my first post on the forum and hopefully someone may be able to help me out with my dilemma


It all started when I went out of town for a month and left my tx 650 off, but plugged in. When I came back and tried to start the computer it would ONLY turn on with AC power, not on battery power alone. I figure my battery must have crapped out on me while I was gone (such is my luck) so I bought a new, high capacity battery on ebay from some company in Hong Kong... it is a 7.4v li-ion unit that says replaces
VGP BPS5 and VGP BPL5.

When I installed the battery and started it up on DC power only everything worked except the screen was very dim. Oddly enough, when I plugged in AC power everything immediately got brighter again.... unplug AC and it goes dim. After a few days, plugging into AC power had no effect on the screen brightness.... it was ALWAYS dim as it is to this day.

I have played around with all of the settings and am confident that the screen is set at full resolution and full brightness. If I plug in an external monitor the picture on the monitor is nice and bright --- as expected.


So... what is my problem? I have done some research online and basically narrowed it down to either the backlight or the inverter. I took apart the screen (which was not nearly a hard as everone made it out to be thankfully) and am ready to begin replacing parts except I have absolutely no idea what I am even looking for. Also, I am having trouble sourcing parts for this computer, does anyone know what is wrong with my computer and where I can acquire the parts to fix it?

Thank you all VERY much in advance!!!!!!!

I went into the power control options section after thinking exactly that ----- that the computer was attempting to conserve power.

Even after I set everything to 32 bit and other full power settings, nothing changed.... still it was all dark.

I even called sony customer support and they had me shut down and re start while holding some button.... f3 or something like that I can't quite recall.... whatever it did it started it in some kind of setup mode. The tech lady said since that had no effect, I need to send it in and it will be a $700+ repair.

I have called every single computer repair shop in the area and for some reason not one of them will touch a VAIO. I really want to try and fix it myself.

I searched ebay but cannot find any parts with which to fix the screen.... they do have screens however for about $350.

Even if I bought a new screen I still have the problem of figuring out how to install it. There has to be a good online DIY somewhere right?