LCD bad contrast - squeezing fixes?

[RocketMBA]

Hey,

I had a search around but I didn't find anything that was quite like my problem. I've got a problem with contrast with the panel from a Samsung 152V.

The problem appeared overnight. I've attached a few photographs to show the problem (excuse the not-so-great quality). Basically, I the contrast of the image is very poor until I squeeze around the FFC ZIF on the pictured board. As soon as I squeeze the right area, the picture comes back to life. The harder I squeeze, the nicer the picture.

However, if I do this with an insulated object or while wearing gloves (to insulate myself), squeezing has no effect.

I've checked the FFC connections with a multimeter and they're fine. I've also checked for broken traces on the board with the ZIF and I can't find any. I can't find anything that looks out of place.

I'm a bit puzzled as to how to fix this problem. Any help would be much appreciated!



Matt


Attached picture: Squeezing the ZIF area

 

[RocketMBA]

A picture of how it looks when squeezing...

 

[RocketMBA]

...and a picture of how it looks when I let go.

(One thing to note is that sometimes the colours could be considered "inverted" when there is a lot of white on the screen - the Windows 2000 startup screen, for example, looks inverted).

 

[RocketMBA]

Alright, I found that bridging a couple of pins on the underside of the ZIF brings the contrast back, but a group of resistors next to it gets very hot very quickly.

 

[RocketMBA]

All sorted. Turns out that a certain pin was getting less voltage than it needed (had 0.97 when it needed at least 1.5v to look good) so I tapped a suitable amount off a nearby pin.

I suppose I should really work out what caused the voltage drop, but... Nah.