Macbook 13' backlight/inverter issues

[kittymonster]

I'm having an issue with my macbook that I need help figuring out what the issue is. There is issues with the backlight of the screen. It "goes black" and will stay black, but I can see that the computer is still on if I flash a bright light to it. I keep pressing the brightness down/up button, and it will flicker on and then go back off... and continue doing so until it "warms up" then it ends up staying on for a while until it decides to "go black" again. This usually happens after I wake it up from sleep or when I turn it on.

I brought it to the Apple Store and a tech said it was the inverter board. I bought a replacement inverter board on eBay, but the tech at the Apple Store told me to be wary of inverter boards on eBay because some sellers sell inverter boards that work only at first/part of the time. I installed the inverter board and it actually made the screen worse (it wouldn't even get to the point where it "warmed up," it just stayed black). Thinking the seller sent me a faulty inverter board, I had the seller send me another one. I installed it and.. success! it worked fine.. UNTIL the next morning. My macbook is now back to the point where it "goes black" and then I mess around with the brightness down/up until it "warms up." By no means has it been fixed... and now I am asking for help since I'm not really sure what the issue is.

Is the issue caused by the inverter board -- is the seller just sending me faulty inverter boards? The first inverter that I was sent seemed to make the issue worse, which makes me think that the issue really is the inverter board, and that I am being sent faulty ones.

Or can it be the inverter board cable?

Or can it be something else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated... my macbook works great other than this issue, and I'm thinking it shouldn't be too hard/expensive to fix!

Thank you for your help!!

 

[yadmonkey]

It certainly sounds like a typical inverter board problem, but it's going to be impossible to get a real answer from a forum. I agree about not getting inverters from ebay... you're much more likely to get a good working tested inverter from a source like iFixit. More expensive, but what's your time worth messing with questionable parts?

It could be the inverter board and you got three lousy ones. It could be the inverter cable or it could be the connector on the logic board that is having the issue. The point is that nobody can tell you who hasn't had their hands in it. It will take more experimentation by you or a technician with deeper resources.

If it were my computer, I'd probably cut my losses with eBay, get one from iFixit, and try again. Good luck!

 

[michi0]

?

Did you ever figure out what was the problem?
I'm having the same issue. I just replaced the inverter, and didn't solve the problem. I ordered the cable and will try to replace that now.