9 Oct
2009
9 Oct
'09
1:04 a.m.
Oh, yes. I should add that this laptop looks identical to mine. The Zenith
Mastersport 386SX:
http://sensei.ad.umuc.edu/dwills/cmis325/mastersport386sx.html
The only picture I could find with Google Image Search that has the machine
turned on. That one is apparently with the default BIOS setting: it is
black-on-white instead of the usually seen white-on-black. You could change
it to white-on-black. It only applied for text-mode though - Win 3.1 looked
the same regardless.
Specs looks identical as well, except the hard drive. Mine has a 40 MB HDD
but any new PATA drive works (you have to install a program in the MBR so
that you can use the entire drive, and you still can't use partitions bigger
than 2 GB - I forgot the name of the program though).
So it's the CCFL. Man, where am I gonna get a replacement for that. I'm
pretty sure it's the fluorescent lamp since that brightness variation did
look like a used neon tube, only less frequent - I guess used neon tubes
vary their luminosity according to the network's frequency, 50 or 60 Hz.
This one looked like it has much less.
I assume I can't cheat and get it replaced with LEDs like today's LCD
screens have ?
Anyway, thanks for identifying the problem. I'm pretty sure this is the
problem.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Alexandru Lovin <thypope at gmail.com> wrote:
Oh yes, you could definitely use it in the dark.
That's what I forgot to
add. It is definitely backlit.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:24 AM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 9 Oct 2009 at 6:53, Alexandru Lovin wrote:
Thanks for answering, but I'm afraid
you're going to do some
explaining. I think backlit screens are the ones who have LEDs or
something else behind, providing light and limiting the visibility
angle, like some of today's LCDs. Non-backlit screens are probably the
kind found on digital clocks and watches. Question is, were
non-backlit LCDs ever used on laptops? And more specifically, on 386
laptops? This one is from 1992 apparently.
Yours is probably backlit. Laptops like the DG/One did not have a
backlight and had to be used in (bright) ambient light.
I'm going to assume that yours has a backlight. These usually take
the form of a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp, or CCFL. These are very
thin, delicate fluorescent lamps and are run from high voltage which
is developed by an inverter module.
To replace a lamp see:
http://www.ccfldirect.com/lcdtutorial.html
Your Goldnote is mentioned as having a CCFL here:
http://www.optoelectronicdoll.de/d%20CFL.htm
Inverters tend to be specific to a given laptop model; finding a
replacement can be challenging.
--Chuck