Question : Problem: Laptop backlight question...

Hi,
I have a Dell Inspirion 5150 laptop for about 2 years now.  Its been giving me no end of trouble but the latest thing thats gone wrong it the backlit lcd screen.  For a while now it has had a pink hue when I first boot it up, which fades back to white after about 20 mins or so.  Annoying but not the end of the world.
Then it started flicking if I dimmed the screen, more annoying but still ok.  Finally the backlight has taken to completly turning off after about 2 mins if I turn on the laptop at the hightest screen brightness.  I have found if I turn on my laptop with the screen dimmed, after about 20 mins I can turn up the brightness and it will stay on.

Can anyone tell me is it definetly the ccfl tube thats gone, the pink hue and flickering suggest that however I'm not so sure about the turning off after 2 mins problem.  Someone suggested to me that that might be the inverter, or something that they called the driver board messing with my power.  I want to try to repair it myself, I really don't want to spend €300 for a €20 light...

Anyway any advice would be appreciated

Answer : Problem: Laptop backlight question...

Backlight circuit.
Wires...
Inverter... (converts power from the laptop into 900 to 1300 Volts for the lamp(s).
Cold Cathode Lamp(s).
~ That's all of it...

There is no way to -be certain- which is bad because an inverter that's putting out the wrong power may give the same symptoms as a tube that's going bad.

Inverters are generally far easier to replace than lamps (and fairly easy to re-sell if that wasn't the problem) so my approach is usually to replace the inverter and see what happens before I go after the tubes...

PCBONEZ