So one of my buddies did a dumb thing. A friend was holding his laptop (a Lenovo y40-80) and he tried to grab it back quickly, and in doing so smacked the lower edge bezel. The screen backlight immediately went totally off. Shining a flashlight on the screen at the right angle reveals that the screen image is changing, but there’s no backlight.
Now all this being said, the kid ordered a new screen entirely. This did not fix the issue though. New screen exhibited the exact same behavior.
So now I’m just after troubleshooting steps. We did the battery/system discharge thing where you disconnect the battery and hold the power button for a minute. I didn’t think that would do anything, and it didn’t.
So what could it be? I don’t want to have to tell my buddy to send his laptop in to Lenovo so he can get it back in 6-12 years, but there are so few available replacement parts online as far as I can tell even if we can figure out what it is.
Ehh, these newer laptops it usually is just best to replace the screen panel. May want to make sure the cable to the laptop motherboard is fully seated properly. Although on a side note, if someone did the screen replacement themselves it may also void the warranty.
We did order a new screen panel, but that didn't fix the issue. That's where we're at right now. Just trying to figure out what on earth it would be if a new panel didn't fix it.
What about the cable, any damage seen to it? did the replacement panel come with the ribbon cable or just the port? Some are soldered on and some are not.
Around page 70, looks like it depends on whether its the touch version or not. You will want to make sure the connectors are firmly seated on the panel if needed and to the motherboard.
Cable seems to be sound. It's a simple ribbon cable with a nice metal connector on the end, so connecting and swapping the panels was easy. The new monitor did not come with a cable. I believe the other end of the cable is seated such that we need to disassemble like half the laptop to get at it, but I guess it's worth checking out.
Also, this is not the touch version. I found that same manual. On page 73 is shows the connector. To get at it and replace the display panel you just have to unclip the front bezel, remove 4 screws, and then unclip the ribbon cable. So the swap was easy.
I'd just have us order another ribbon cable, but I can't find a part number anywhere or a listing of Lenovo parts.
I know issues like this from Asus laptops caused by driver updates. Never heard of a backlight physically breaking tho. Might be the mainboard or a component on it. You could try to hook it up to a monitor and see if you can "clone" the display to the monitor. Then you can save the data more easylie to an external drive and reinstall the os for example.
Should have mentioned that. External display works absolutely fine. It's just odd because it seems as though this is a hardware issue, seeing as the light in the screen cut out as he made impact with his bezel. I can't understand why replacing the main component in the screen assembly (the effing screen) didn't solve this though.
Do you happen to have any idea where one can buy such a cable? I figured it would be worth ordering one for $5 or $10 even, but I can't find a parts list for this laptop or a database of Lenovo parts. I certainly don't want to make him ship it back to them for a month to fix a $5 part that I can do in 15 minutes.