Stylistic ST3400 Refurbishment of screen backlight (Probably 3500 too)

[sid6.8]

I will probably ramble a bit here, but here is the background.

A few years ago, I semi retired my ST3400 and put it for use as a picture frame and MP3 player in the vicinity of the home stereo, using the XP my pictures screensaver… Notice: this 24/7 use of the tablet is not a good idea. After a year or so of this the screen backlight burned out. I then demoted it even further and put it in a discrete location and continued to use it for MP3, controlling it via VNC.

Occasionally, looking to ebay for new/parts one, I was hoping to find one of those missing harddrive and harddrive cable… cheap. Unfortunately, the flow of 3400’s has slowed quite a bit in the 5 years since I picked up mine. Also, the folks on ebay that did have one for sale didn’t really want to part with it/them, as indicated by the starting bid.

So recently, while wasting some time on ebay, I searched for “st3400” again, this time I found a guy in Hong Kong selling the backlight bulb for $8. Here is some of the add description.

Flickering, red or pinkish hue to display and even total darkness. These symptoms are a result of a failed or ageing backlight or a failed, damaged. This is caused by the defective backlight lamp and all you need to do is replace the backlight.

Since this exactly described the problems my 3400 was experiencing,I thought I would give it a try. For a total of $16, item and shipping I got my bulb from Hong Kong in a little under 2 weeks. (quicker than the last item I got from Canada)
If you need one of these, now is the time to get one, he has one of those never ending auctions up this is the number: 350142695042 Or you could search ebay for :
LCD CCFL BACKLIGHT LAMP FUJITSU STYLISTIC 3400 10.4"

The procedure:

I wish I took some pictures of the process, but it was really simple… a gentle touch and knowing how to solder helps.

Required tools: #1 philips head screwdriver, GOOD philips jewelers screwdriver, soldering iron (and accoutrements), light duty wire cutters, and exacto type knife

1) Pull the battery, harddrive, and any PCMCIA card from the tablet.
2) Remove all the screws from the back of the PC, none are hidden in any compartments
3) Turn face up and pry off the gray front piece(not the most difficult one of these I have ever done)
4) Remove 6 obvious screws holding digitizer on, then fold up, 180 deg, like opening a laptop all the way
5) Remove the 4 tiny screws holding LCD
6) Now… at the top right corner of the LCD is are two wires going to a small white connector on the screen controller board. These are what connect the bulb we are replacing, carefully disconnect this connector.
7) Now fold the LCD to the right, as if opening a book from the back to look inside the back cover. Have something about as thick as the tablet to lay the screen on, like a book or a few magazines.
8) Yell at your kids to get away from you as you work. No you can’t help them get to the Hanna Montana web page right now!
9) At the top of the back of the LCD is a metal retaining bracket held on by 2 screws, remove those screws and gently pull the bracket out of the notch in the plastic LCD frame.
10) Now you walk away from that mess over to where you are going to solder.
11) Pull the old bulb out of the bracket. (Bulb is only 2mm in diameter)
12) Slide the two white mounting dampers from the ends toward the center of the bulb, just far enough to get them out of the way.
13) Cut off the leads right at the glass on each end
14) Remove the two white mounting dampers and what seems to be a microscopic clear rubber band or O-ring from center of old bulb and pre position them on the new one
15) With a very sharp/exacto knife remove any heat shrink that is going to prevent you from de-soldering the old trimmed leads from the wires.
16) Trim the leads on the new bulb to 4 or 5mm, or use your judgment
17) Tin/re-tin both wires and leads, then solder the new bulb to the lead
18) Slide the two white mounting dampers toward the ends from the interior length of the bulb, use the metal bracket as a guide
19) Reinsert the bulb into the bracket, ensure that you get your orientations correct such that when you re-attach the bracket to the LCD the connector is at the correct end
19.5)at this point I used some silicon to attempt to insulate where I cut away heat shrink, I realized on reassembly that due to placement of this item into the plastic notch on the LCD my exposed soldering would be isolated from coming into contact with anything. Do what you feel is necessary.
20) Re-insert the bulb/bracket assembly into the notch on the LCD ( this is the only challenge, as now we are touching the new bulb and you don’t want to bust it jamming it in there), making sure to have the screw holes lined up.
21) Re-connect the white connector to the LCD controller, much easier than taking the damn thing off.
22) Through 45) do everything else in reverse order…

The only difficulty was some of the screws were very tight and I spun the shaft of my jewelers philips and had to hunt up a better one.

Now the screen is as bright as ever, just need to find a use for this old tablet, as we have newer and better things for streaming MP3/audio now.

[bmhome1]

Great job! I replaced a CCL bulb in Powerbook a few years ago and know how nerve-wracking handling that incredibly thin (1/8" dia) bulb is until installed.