Alright I have a difficult issue I'm trying to solve on this laptop:
On occasion the laptop screen dims down completely so you can barely see the image on the screen. The screen brightness function keys do not resolve the situation, neither does any adjustment in the BIOS. If you hit function/f8 it resets the screen to normal. If you restart the computer it is resolved and back to normal. At times it will be fine after that, other times it does it dims down repeatedly. It does it markedly more when plugged into the AC power supply. I have replaced the video card with no avail. Even in the process of thinking it was something in the OS I started an upgrade process from XP to Win7 only to have the screen dim at the beginning with no response to the function/f8 since it wasn't running the operating system. Trying to figure out what exactly is happening and if replacing the motherboard is the solution thinking that potentially there is a short between the VGA monitor port and the AC power port. I have seen posts describing the inverter as the potential cause for this issue as well but not sure what part number to use. Any ideas or similar experiences that would help with a solution are welcome! A complete answer with a fix is even better!
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Thanks,
Kenn