Inspiron 6400/E1505 So this notebook is giving me hell. On boot up, it'll start fine, we get to Windows and the screen will go completely dark. You can shine a flashlight to it and you can still seen the screen. At first I thought it was within the Windows start up somewhere, but restarted, and it booted up fine, then went dark within the BIOS. So it's beyond software. Purely hardware. Now, if I move the lid about half way, it will turn, the screen will come back, and then flicker, then go dark again. If the backlight were out, would it come back on again at the half way point? I didn't think so, but am not sure. Inverter maybe? Or possibly whatever controls the switch for the light. So I'm wondering, is the backlight still an open possibility, if I can get it to flicker on? Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks guys!
It sounds like the backlight is your problem, either its connexion is not good or it needs replacing completely.
The E1505/1501/6400/6000 Series of Dell Laptops have excessive screen flex, which can cause the backlight bulb to have intermittant connection to the Backlight Inverter Board. These wires (Usually Pink/White or Blue/Black) are located on the right side of the LCD and feed into the LCD Display itself. It sounds like the LCD Bulb is failing and will either need to be replaced, or you'll need to replace the entire LCD. LCD Bulb replacement is doable, but generally requires a cleanroom to disassemble the LCD in, in order to prevent dust from entering the polarization/diffusion layers, etc.