Patent ID: 8289269

Claim:
A display device comprising (i) a transmissive display panel, (ii) a backlight including a plurality of fluorescent tubes that irradiate the display panel with light, (iii) an inverter section that supplies a driving voltage to the backlight, and (iv) a control section that controls whether to drive or stop the inverter section and that stops the inverter section when at least one of the plurality of fluorescent tubes is not lighting, in which a display is carried out by controlling an amount of transmission of the light with which the display panel is irradiated by the backlight, said display device, further comprising: a mode determination section that determines whether a driving mode of the display device is a normal mode in which to indicate a normal state of the display device or a maintenance mode in which to carry out maintenance work on the display device, upon receiving, from the mode determination section, a signal indicating that the driving mode is the maintenance mode, after having stopped the inverter section due to a fact that at least one of the plurality of fluorescent tubes is not lighting, the inverter control section drives the inverter section again so that the inverter section works only for a predetermined period of time thereafter, thereby lighting all of the plurality of fluorescent tubes except the at least one of the plurality of fluorescent tubes not lighting.