Sorry I mispoke a bit, it's called a power inverter. Not a power converter.
I don't know much about the shaking or anything, though. I figure it would just kinda flicker and stuff. Not to sure.
It's job is to take the straight DC (constant voltage) from the laptop and turn it into AC (alternating between + and - voltage) for the lights behind the lcd display. So basicly it "inverts" + to - and then in a short time back to + to +, then back to + to -, so on and so forth.
Ya, what it is usually is a little circuit board that gets stuck in behind the lcd display. It'll have a few small wires going into it and then 2 pairs of wires that go into oppisite sides (top and bottom or left and right) of the lcd unit.
It's a pretty common way for lcd displays to fail.
Normally it wouldn't be a big deal to replace it, but you have 2 things that realy suck.
First off, in a effort to make everything very thin and light in laptops you end up with very fragile wires and lcd displays that rely on the plastic/metal casing around them for their rigidity. If you go into the laptop with a couple screw drivers and begin trying to pop things apart to get to the componats then it's very very very easy to break things.
Then the second sucky thing is that there are a veriety of LCD display manufacturers. And then their are a veriaty of Laptop manufactures. Guys like IBM and Dell and Gateway don't actually build their own laptops, neither probably do most companies from Japan. I think that maybe Gateway MAY make some of their own models, but the only company that I know makes their own is Apple.
Those guys are OEMs. The actuall manufacturer is called the ODM. And these are usually taiwan type companies.
check out the section on "about the laptop market". The ODM's make the laptop, OEMs stick the harddrive/ram/harddrive/wireless card in them and then install and test the OS on them and then sell them.
But even the ODMs usually don't even make the LCD display. They buy them from other people and then build the casings for them. Often even identical model names/numbers you will end up with completely different LCD displays from completely different LCD display manufacturers. Like they may sell one model with a 14 inch display, and then offer a upgrade to a 17 inch display. The 14 inch and 17 inch will amlost always be completely incompatable with each other on a hardware level.
Most displays are very propriatory.
So basicly finding parts for LCD displays are very very difficult. There are lots of parts from lots of different laptops that are exactly the same, but everybody uses their own model numbers and do weird things and document very little of it. So finding parts that are compatable can be very difficult unless you have access to a large number of spare parts and lots of shop manuals and specifications.
It all depends on the laptops. Some types of displays are very common across many manufacturers and thus are easy to find. Some are not. And even if you do find a compatable part, it may not even fix your problem, and you may accidently break something else trying to take it apart and put it back together.
The whole thing gives me a headache just thinking about it. This is why it's very difficult to take a old laptop display and turn it into something you can plug into a computer unless you go thru some place like earthlcd and buy a kit. It sucks because the parts are so plentifull and cheap, but without documentation and commonality between displays it's just not worth it.
So if you can find a person parting out a laptop that has the same display size and exactly the same model number as your laptop you may have a good chance of fixing it on your own. You just buy the entire LCD display unit assembly (or the entire "lid" of the laptop with the hinges and all (I don't know the technical name of it)) then you remove the old LCD display at the hinges and replace it with the new used assembly.
That will most likely work, although it's difficult to tell the quality of the display, and it's used parts after all. Check out E-bay, usually you can find several people parting out used laptops, also there are online vendors that sell power inverters, lcd displays, and lcd display assembles and will try to match you up with a compatable and tested part. (although they can be expensive at times. Most things involving laptops are overpriced)
Also the inverter may not be up in the display at all, and be hovering around the motherboard assembly somewere and be easy to replace without taking much apart. Or it maybe embedded in the motherboard somewere.
Keep in mind, I am NO expert, I just have done some research in the past because I had a old laptop with a ruined display (never bothered fixing it btw, not work the prices and hassle), and also have thought about taking a old Laptop LCD display from e-bay and turning it into a little monitor (that was also to expensive and to much of a hassle compared to the superior desktop LCD displays you can get for cheaper).
Otherwise you can try to call a computer fix-it place that works with laptops and call them and tell them you think that the power inverter is going out, but your not sure (because I am not sure. It may not even be the inverter, and if then it may even be a non-replaceable part on your motherboard), tell them the model number and manufacturer, and explain the symptoms and ask them for a price quote on how much you think it would cost to fix.
here is a typical e-bay laptop parts seller. (keep in mind that I may not be right about the display, I am no expert)