Barely visible screen after hinge tightening

[RedDogRich]

Hi Guys,
My screen developed some 'screen wobble' so I decided to take my machine apart to see if I could tighten the hinges. I only got as far as taking off the screen connector and cable tidy then figured out I didn't have the correct torx bit and put it back together with (I thought) no problems.

When I turned it back on the chime sounded and keyboard lights up as expected but the screen remains black. The machine seems to be fully functional as I can hear the sounds when I adjust the volume etc and when I shine a torch on the screen as suggested elsewhere I can see the desktop and my startup applications all there.

I have tried booting into safe mode and resetting PRAM but there is no difference.

I must have done something inside when I started to take the machine apart but can't for the life of me think what. Any of you guys have any ideas of what I can try? I read another thread from another poster who was told that it could be the logic board but that problem didn't have anything coherent on the screen when the torch was shone on it.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[chscag]

You have most likely either damaged a cable or pinched it off during the disassembly - reassembly process. What's not working is the LED backlighting. You might want to go to www.ifixit.com and see if you can spot which cable or maybe a connector that might be the culprit.

 

[RedDogRich]

You have most likely either damaged a cable or pinched it off during the disassembly - reassembly process. What's not working is the LED backlighting. You might want to go to www.ifixit.com and see if you can spot which cable or maybe a connector that might be the culprit.

Thanks for the reply chscag,

I opened the MacBook again after deciding to follow your advice and noticed that there seems to be a component missing. On further reading it seems it might be where a backlight fuse should be.

The ifixit guide that I followed mentioned nothing about removing the battery and stupidly I followed it word for word without using any common sense so I suppose it's possible that I might have shorted it out.

Do you know if this is indeed a fuse?

 

[chscag]

The ifixit guide that I followed mentioned nothing about removing the battery and stupidly I followed it word for word without using any common sense so I suppose it's possible that I might have shorted it out.

Do you know if this is indeed a fuse?

There is a fuse that protects the backlight circuitry according to other threads that I've read but whether that's it or not, I can't say. Are the breakouts from ifixit detailed enough so that you can make a comparison?

My first suspicion was a cable because of the numerous cables that snake their way through the hinge area. But what you said about not removing the battery makes sense. A schematic diagram would be handy but Apple is so protective of their products that getting hold of a schematic is like trying to get hold of US Atomic Secrets.

There are lots of similar problems as yours so perhaps if you do some searching you may be able to find something that might help to pinpoint where to look.