More laptop help and woes

[Captain Sisko]

Good Evening guys
It's been a whilst since I ventured into the tech bits.

But my laptop has been playing up - Its a 6 year old Acer 7520 and still runs windows 7 pretty well.
Recently the screen started flicking off and on when in use. Just today the screen flicked off for quite a long time and didn't come back on.
If I plug a monitor in and leave the lid down, the laptop boots and displays fine but with the lid open its pot luck if you get a display or not the screen may display white or grey.

I'm guessing the laptops screen or quite possibly the display ribbon might be failing or failed?
How easy are these to service?
Or would it be better to just leave a screen, kb + mouse plugged in and just use as PC?

[RB]

Depends on the design. If it's a ribbon then those are usually modular and simple to replace. Sometimes though they use a propitiatory linkage that's a bugger to even get a replacement for let alone fit.

[Captain Sisko]

Been checking Ebay and a new ribbon is about £12

*edit* I wasnt sure if it was the backlight.
Did a test with the laptop on and shined a light on the screen. couldn't see an image. So I'm guessing the backlight should be ok?
The screen looked grey/white with the laptop switched on
If this was a desktop I could test the screen with another PC
Most of these models have had mainboard or heating issues after 2/3 years.

I think this is going to be retasked as a very slim PC in my sisters room.
I have 2 options
1 - Wallmount a spare LCD monitor, buy/obtain a spare USB keyboard and have this as an additional "slimline"/portable PC
2- Buy the £12 bit and try and fix it in

[RB]

Take it apart and test the ribbon with a multimeter to see if it's the culprit.

[Captain Sisko]

A multi-meter?

[siteguru]

[Jezreel]

Leelou Dallas Multipass

[siteguru]

I watched that last weekend too.

[RB]

Every man should own a multimeter.

[Sam]

I think theres a problem with that multimeter - its not touching anything yet its got a reading...

[RB]

It's set to temperature.

[kingweed]

It's set to temperature.

LOL Sam, I noticed that as well

[Captain Sisko]

My brother uninstalled Nitro PDF and the laptop was fine after.
No screen flicker. It's running perfectly again now

[siteguru]

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