On Thursday, August 09, 2012 17:05:45, James E. LaBarre wrote: > On 08/08/2012 12:10 AM, Aram J. Agajanian wrote: > > On Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:45:50 -0400 > > > > "James E. LaBarre" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Anyone have any experience with recent distros (kernel 3.2.x) that > >> have working drivers/modules for the Broadcom 43xx wireless chipsets? > > > > My netbook has the Broadcom 4312 chipset. The wireless NIC connects OK > > with Fedora 17. (The latest kernel is 3.5.0.) > > Yep, the standard LiveCD install worked fine on the Inspiron 1520. Of > course, being kernel 3.3.4, I wonder if it's something broken in the > 3.2.x level of the kernel.
That's possible. Either way it's good you got it fixed. > The trick with the first-boot configuration, > of course, was that I had to power-cycle the laptop quite a few times > until the LCD display stayed readable enough to finish the setup (the > display manager insisted on making the external monitor a secondary > display, and the firstboot was on the primary). Once I'm working again > & actually have the money to order parts, I'll need to get a backlight & > inverter board. But for now I can at least determine the machine is > worth fixing. As someone who actually tried to replace a CCFL backlight and the inverter in an IBM T20, I warn you that doing so is very difficult and I don't recommend it. It's an attractive prospect because the parts are relatively cheap, but the liklihood of the procedure failing is high. The main problem is in soldering the ends of the CCFL backlight. The backlight is extremely thin -- a couple of millimeters -- and the leads coming out must be extremely short. The wires are typically only exactly the right length. The combination means that the solder joint has to be butt right against the glass of the backlight, and that means there's a very good chance of causing thermal cracks in the glass during the soldering operation. Additionally when putting the LCD panel back together there's a very real chance of crushing or cracking the CCFL backlight. This part of the operation has to be done mostly blind because the light spreader goes over the backlight, obscuring the view of whether the backlight is correctly in the well made for it and the wire. I have a family member that does this work reguarly, and his method is to purchase a new LCD panel from eBay and then replace the whole LCD planel in one go. This is more expensive, but it's guaranteed to work. After my experience, this is the method I would recommend. And if you do opt for doing the CCFL and inverter replacement, let me know what yor experience with the operation was -- and I wish you the best of luck. -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Sep 5 - OpenStack Oct 3 - Mobile Web Development Nov 7 - Typography: Physical Art to Digital Art
