My 6-year old Macbook's backlight was only working at certain angles for close to a year. It was getting worse and worse, to the point that sometimes I couldn't get the screen to work at all.
I did some investigating online and figured out it that the inverter cable was likely shorting out. I don't live near an Apple store, but I took my laptop with me on a work trip and made an appointment. The guy there agreed with me, but said they couldn't fix it because it was too old! They can't order parts for computers over 5 years old. Right.
I considered taking it to a local repair shop, but decided to see if I could DIY it. Found an awesome set of instructions online, ordered the part and screwdrivers off amazon. When the pieces finally came in it took me awhile to get up the nerve to try it.
Yesterday I spent about 3 hours going through the 94 steps to replace the inverter cable. I am not very mechanically minded, but it was SO cool! I learned so much about how a computer works and how it gets put together. Got to the end, put it all together and... it works like a charm (even if I still have one part left over that I forgot to put in...)!
I am STOKED. I feel like I have a brand new computer, everything is working perfectly, I learned a ton and it only cost me $50 (which was actually more than it should have because I didn't read the shipping charges carefully enough), as well as the cost to replace it. My husband does almost everything DIY, but said he wouldn't have attempted it- but he's convinced he would try it now! Way too proud of myself :)
