global Laptop and motherboard repair tutorial | Page 35

and will be stuck to the screen using sticky double sided tape strips. What I do here is use a pry tool
and gently lift up on the white small tab securing the wires… lift it up to a 90% angle and you will be
able to pull each wire out of the track and away. One wire is short the other long. The long wire will
be stuck to the thin horizontal plastic strip that runs along the top front of the screen, you simply will
pull on the bulb wire to release it from the track along the front; it should peel right off. You should
still have that small white plastic wire tab sticking up in the air (90%), and you will want to use that
as a pull tab to pull the tab itself and the horizontal plastic bar away from the screen panel and metal
bulb tray… The goal it to allow free space to slide the metal bulb guard out and away from the
screen.
You will use a fingernail or a plastic pry tool to push the metal bulb tray upward, start on one
side then slightly slide it a little bit, then go to the opposite side and slightly lift it, alternating until it
is free from the screen. Be very careful when doing this otherwise the bulb will break (though it is
already broke which is why you are changing it). Once you have the metal bulb guard free, set the
screen aside. The bulb guard will have the bulb still inside its tray, there is actually a smaller metal
tray inside the large metal tray, you can go ahead and separate these trays from one another now. Look
at both ends of the LCD bulb… this is typically where a bulb failure will occur (at either end). Either
the wire will overheat and will break, or it will deteriorate the wire to a very fragile state so that if
you were to wiggle it slightly it would snap and break. Look at the very ends of the bulb too, a faulty
bulb usually shows a blackish color at the end or both ends… this is due to internal bulb heat…
which is why laptops can have color wash-outs (pinks, oranges, reds) to where the whole view of the
screen when illuminated has a pastel transparent colored tint to it, the tint can change colors as well,
and you can sometimes hear a faint buzzing noise from the bulb. Flickering of the light on and off is
another signal that the bulb is failing.
Once again, look at the bulb ends (you should have only the smaller metal bulb guard and the bulb
in front of you), there are white rubber caps on each side covering the LCD bulb power posts. These
are there to keep the post and wire grounded so the screen doesn’t short the bulb. You do not want to
lose these caps… they are not glued on, they only slide on, and can easily fall off, so be very
cautious. You will use a plastic pick or pry tool now to push the actual LCD bulb out of the small
metal tray/housing. Notice here the placement of the bulb wires at both ends, notice that they do not
protrude straight out the back end of the bulb? No, they are bent to a right angle (90%) at the end of
the bulb and are capped with the white rubber plug, they also bend towards the front of the metal tray,
not the top, not downward… they do this for a reason… they do this to allow it to properly slide back
into and out of the small metal tray/guard then slide back over the screens glass panel when
reassembling so that the wires are both out of the way and ready to re-stick along the top front plastic
rail.
So, when replacing the bulb, you will make sure the ends are properly recapped with the white
grounding rubber caps and that the wires are placed facing the correct direction for reassembly. If you
need to, take photos while you work to be able to remember assembly and reverse process.