Dell 1545 - Screen dims after bios

thr33k

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Feb 27, 2011
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18,510
Hi all,

I have a Dell 1545 laptop and when I turn the laptop on I can clearly see the screen but after 5 or 10 seconds the backlight switches off and doesn't come back on again. Sometimes it switches off after a second or two and other times it reaches the desktop before turning off. If I shine a torch at the screen I can see the desktop so the screen seems to be working and when I connect to an external monitor the screen is displayed on the external monitor no problems at all.

So far I have changed the inverter as I heard that could be the problem but it has made no difference, does anybody have an idea what could be wrong?

Thanks!
 

thr33k

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Feb 27, 2011
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18,510
Yes, I double checked just to make sure with the fn brightness key no luck though. I haven't looked at that so do you know where the lid switch is on a 1545 and how I might be able to check it?
 

nukemaster

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I am not sure where that would be, on my old Compaq it is visible(so i would just use my mouse to power off the screen without closing it), but many have it in near the hing it self.

I had an old TV with a light sensor, when the tv started getting dark(it was very old), i just stuck a flashlight over it and boom, bright tv again :)
 

thr33k

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Feb 27, 2011
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18,510
Thanks for the replies, I've just been messing around with it and looking for the sensor you both mentioned but I haven't been able to find it and I don't know how to turn it off manually. Anyway I connected the laptop to my external monitor again and mirrored the display and the backlight on the laptop has stayed on for over half an hour now so it shows that the inverter, backlight and screen are ok at least.

If I disconnect the external monitor the backlight on the laptop stays on for a few seconds then turns off again by the way. Any ideas anyone?
 

thr33k

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Feb 27, 2011
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18,510
Just thought I'd post a solution that worked for me in case anyone else has the same problem in the future. I restored the laptop to factory settings using the dell recovery partition (access it by pressing f8 while it's booting). I also changed all settings in BIOS to their default values and the laptop has been working fine since my last post.
 

nukemaster

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May not be what you want to here.