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Someone gave me a 2 year old emachines e525 that has display problems(black screen). Sometimes it works(last night 3 hours and today 5 mins.) It works great on an external monitor left it on all day no problems. I know it's a cheapie Walmart model made in Korea, but it would be good for dragging around if it's an easy fix. Dumb it down for the mentally challenged if you can! 
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To be honest, I stopped reading at eMachine. Throw them in the nearest trash can.
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How much time and money are you willing to invest? Take the money, go to bestbuy.com, and see if you can't beat the deal with one of their clearance items. If you can beat it with a new machine, put the eMachines into desktop use mode and call it a day.
You can get a killer laptop these days for under $500 if you shop around. Just be prepared that it will do laptop-like stuff, like what you have with the emachines. No brands are immune. My 1000$+ ThinkPad did this to me last year.
-Scott
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I agree with Scott's assessment. Micro Center (www.microcenter.com) routinely has new laptops starting in the $260-$280 range. My roommate just bought an Acer with a dual processor and 4 Gb of RAM, expandable to 8 Gb. It's a Celeron, but hey. Spend more and get more.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Remove the battery from the eMachine and take it to a disposal center.
Place eMachine in the nearest trash recepticle.
...... Or just throw the whole thing away.
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Or you could buy a replacement backlight for about $30, scour the net on how to replace it, and spend a rainy afternoon figuring how to put it back together again  Be warned, it's a not a job for weak nerves. I did that with the wife's sony and it works a treat. She didn't like the modern screen format on the new ones. Luckily I could return the one I got her with a full refund. Saved myself $600 on that deal
Chris
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Chris,
There's one BIG difference in the analogy.
Your wife had a Sony. ... Tommy has an eMachine.
Laptops in general are disposable devices, ... much like a cell phone. The farther down the "food chain" you go on laptops, the more disposable they become.
Sony's may be worth the effort.
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BLACK LAPTOP SCREEN -- Can be caused by loss of backlighting, but also can be caused by breakage of the interconnections from the mobo to the screen itself as well.
If you are going to try to fix it yourself, first step is to open 'er up and find out what the problem truly is before ordering any replacement parts.
I've seen (and repaired) just about every laptop screen problem there can be, the "luckiest" of which are caused by one broken connection that gets resoldered, to all out replacement of everything inside the top half of the lappy but the wifi antenna(s)...
--Mac
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Quote:
How much time and money are you willing to invest?
I am on disability and have about $10 or less a day to live on after I pay my bills, so that's why I thought if it was a cheap fix. I'm definitely not a computer guru but ain't scared to try. It is six years newer than my 2004 IBM PC I got for $60.
Thanks Mac, think I may take it apart gots me a soldering gun somewhere. Maybe I'll get lucky!
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Laptop display panels are tricky.
MAKE SURE you do this when you disassemble.
Take a piece of paper and draw a map of the thing and as you remove screws put the screw on the map to show where it goes. The naked eye is not very good at determining the size of those small metric screws and it is easy to interchange them if you don't do a parts map. I have been fixing computers for years and I still do this with laptops, espeically off brands that I don't see that often.
You will need to pull the lid off, then take apart the frame, watching the little ribbon cable that connects the display to the mother board. That can tear VERY easily. I have torn a few myself. The new screen could possibly cost you more than a new (used) laptop, and after all that you get your old eMachine back. Dell will offer a credit line to almost anybody, and you could get a much better laptop with a warranty and make small payments.
Just hate to see you spend a lot of time on something that won't be all that useful in the long haul.
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Thanks for the advice Eddie, when it works the display looks perfect. Don't know if that's a clue to what is wrong or not. Hope I don't mess it up even worse, but if I do at least it was free! 
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It MAY just be that thin membrane that connects the display panel to the mobo. Intermittent problems drive us crazy. All the years at various help desks I always hope something is 100% broken. Much easier to fix "broken" than "iffy".
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Hi Tommy - I have a black screen ACER Aspire. Obviously not portable - I use a desktop monitor plugged at the rear. I access it via F8 - VGA mode - I use it for Skype primarily. Only problem with the desktop monitor is that when you enable VGA you're stuck in 640x480 - the machine won't let you adjust that large resolution - but I still can use Skype. Perhaps that solution might work depending on what you need it for. Apparently on the ACER its the LCD board that's shot - it's an ACER weakness. I'd like a new one but I'm in your situation. What's that country song . . . . "Too much month at the end of the money" Happy hunting.
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Tommyc, I think you were probably kidding, but if you're going to solder computer connections, put the gun away. Use a low-wattage soldering iron.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Thanks Eddie!
Ian that's the best part when you're stuck in 640x480 I can actually see it!
"Too much month at the end of the money" and
"Too much Love and got no Honey" fits me to a T!
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What about the Lenova brand? I see that they bought out IBM's computer line.
Are they quality?
Thanks,
Don S.
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Quote:
What about the Lenova brand? I see that they bought out IBM's computer line.
Are they quality?
Thanks,
Don S.
Don,
They have been workhorses for me for years now without a single glitch. Not speaking for Notes but he also touts this brand, in fact I may have bought one on his reccomendation but it's been so long now I don't remember.
Later,
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Thanks Matt for the advice, I never have tried soldering on anything smaller than a 1/4 inch guitar plug. Maybe I should just pretend it's a desktop and leave it alone before I mess it up!
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Lenovo bought IBM in 2006. We use them where I work now. The T410 is the standard. The T510 is a better grade with more horsepower. They hold up pretty well. I never priced them at retail so I don't know.
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I just read your first post, and if it works sometimes then it looks like either the screen itself, or the backlight inverter. Just to let you know what you are getting into take a look at the links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucaJA324hbghttp://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/09/replace-laptop-backlight-ccfl-lamp/It isn't just the work involved, as it could be at least three different faults, you have to decide which, and then source the replacement parts. This means valuable time on the internet when you could be making music. Even when you think you have the right parts, they are probably for an earlier model and they changed the connectors. I had to solder the old connectors on the new backlight because they changed the angle. But getting everything back together is the real test, and those backlights will snap if you just look at them wrong. Imagine a neon tube 4mm in diameter!! If you have the space, an external monitor is the way to go.
Chris
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