My M300 screen is very dim when first powered on, gets a bit brighter
with time, but still dim when compared to other laptops. I wonder if
this is an inverter problem, or a failing backlight (assuming backlight
tubes fail slowly over time). Can anyone shed any light on this? And,
any recommended shops that could replace the failing component?

Another question: in the "Maintenance and Service Guide" p. 1-4 it
states that the machine has 64MB SDRAM "expandable to 512MB". When I put
a 512MB PC100 SDRAM module in the single slot I can find, the memory is
recognised in BIOS, but the machine won't boot. Am I missing something
obvious? Is there a second memory slot hidden somewhere?

TIA for any enlightenment.

Sepp

"Sepp" <tutelo@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Wmwje.5156$uR4.2475@newsread2.news.atl.earthl ink.net...
don't understand it.
-Pete

well i have m700 and its just like this that its darker than other lcds


no idea if you have another slot for memory or not but what i can say to you
is you better be carefull with buying ram upgrades to armada.
In my m700 i have 256mb pc 133 ram by infineon and i tried 3 diffrent 256mb
sticks (both pc100 and pc133) and none of them worked - total amount was
reported correctly but system was throwing error while booting.

It seems that compaqs accept only certain sticks and wont work on any other.
This issue is well explained on compaq support forums where you can find
exactly what ram will run on your machine.

The dim LCD could very well be a dying backlight. If you like to tinker
with your machine's delicate parts, or enjoy the thrill of potentially
breaking the display, you could try replacing the dimmer lamp with a
new one. You can get them in many places, like Digi-Key. The problem is
that you'll probably have to remove the lamp to measure it, so that you
have an idea of what size to get.

I did the same thing in my HP Pavilion's 14.1" Chungwha screen, which
was getting dull and dingy. The lamp from JKL Components was a perfect
fit, but because I am impatient and clumsy I ended up cracking
something in the screen and now there is a white triangle in the lower
right hand corner where the LCD won't display anything. The screen is
real bright, though!

Of course, if Compaq installed an under-powered inverter to begin with,
you may never get it up to a light output that you think is reasonable.
I can't recommend any shops as I've never dealt with one.