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A1181 LCD black screen, replaced inverter and cable

I had an A1181 MacBook with a cracked screen that still worked at certain angles of display tilt. The inverter cable was torn in some places, so I ordered a replacement display and a replacement inverter+cable.

However, now neither the original display nor the new display seem to work. The laptop starts with the bong, the screen flashes black indicating the LCD's pixels are turned on, but nothing further happens. No disk activity or anything.

Neither the original inverter nor the new inverter, with either the original cracked screen nor the new screen work proceed any further than the black screen after the bong.

Any thoughts?

Answer this question I have this problem too

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Please give us the last three figures of your serial number located in the battery compartment. Thanks

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Sandro, did you manage to make it work?

How?

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Hi Sandro,

There are a good number of things that can be going wrong here so i have a few questions.

Is the sleep LED pulsing, flashing, or solid?

Flashing means reseat your ram, pulsing or solid will point to a deeper issue with the MLB.

Hold a flashlight up to the LCD, is there any video at all?

Is there video on an external Monitor?

Check the video connection on the MLB, the [ shaped plug can be brittle. watch for the L corner of the connector breaking off causing a poor connection.

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I do see the Apple logo when I hold up a flashlight (and it boots), so I suppose the backlight signal isn't getting through somehow. Other posts on here suggest this is an inverter problem, but the old inverter was working fine before, and I have a new replacement that doesn't seem to work either. I suppose I'll try swapping them again, but any other suggestions are much appreciated!

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That is a backlight issue. Start with the original inverter cable, inverter and LCD. If you get a backlight with those you can try the new LCD, if that doesn't have a backlight you got a bum part. If the original set up has no backlight start with just the inverter cable, they have a high failure rate. The inverter cables are like $9 and from the sound of it that's your issue. If you got the new inverter and cable used the inverter cable could just be bad.

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The original inverter cable has two of the wires cut. I had to twist them together to even get it work initially. I tested the new inverter cable with my mulimeter, and it seemed to pass the signal through on each contact point. I'm pretty sure I've tested every combination of old and new inverter and screen, just not the old cable because it's busted.

If you're certain there's nothing else if could be, I'll tear it all down again and test the new cable and try to solder the old cable back together and see if it works.

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Sandro will be eternally grateful.
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