Toshiba Satellite L305-S5945 black screen, next steps?

KeithAdv

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Mar 6, 2013
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First of all, it's important to note that I'm a dumb guy.

We have a Toshiba Satellite model L305-S5945 laptop. Recently, the screen went black--the kind of black where you can see it's still working if you tilt it just right, but there's no backlight.

Being a dumb guy, I normally wouldn't try to fix something like this and indeed we did buy a new laptop. So, now that I have a little more latitude in what I'm allowed to destroy, I figured I'd give it a shot. I'd rather not throw too much money at this, however, since these projects usually turn out to be complete failures for me.

Based on what I've read on-line, it seems that a likely problem could be the inverter. I bought one from a third party vendor and replaced the one in the Toshiba. The problem remains the same as before.

I'm not sure what my next steps should be. I remember reading that if the CCFL is dying, they commonly glow orange or red as they go out. But in this case, the behavior is: I hit the power button, the lamp glows white for one second, and then it shuts off. That behavior is exactly the same every time. It makes me wonder if perhaps the inverter I bought is as bad as the one I'm trying to replace? Or is it truly something else?

What would you do next?
Grateful for all replies!