Laptop screen not turning on

[Vampiel]

My friend has a laptop and the screen will not turn on. I havent actually looked at it yet but does anyone have any suggestion's what to try? I remember reading that they can get stuck in sleep mode.

[BipolarBill]

Unplug the laptop and remove the battery to reset it.

[Billforce]

I have an older Compaq that it is necessary to pull the battery and short the leads to clear from sleep.

[Vampiel]

Short the leads? This has about about 4 very small leads about halfway into the laptop, that would be kind of hard (something like that).

Well im getting the laptop soon and ill try just pulling out the battery and see if that works, I hope I dont have to short the leads. thanks for the info

[stevedownunder]

Try pressing the FN & CRT/LCD buttons


or FN & [output option 1 : [output option2} buttons whatever they are (usually on the number keys).

This toggles the output from the LCD to S/VGA out and/or both at once.

Also reset system press the bios shortcuts and check bios hasen't been set to use an external monitor only.

Steve

[stevedownunder]

Try the simple things first !



Most users are

[Vampiel]

OK I have the laptop now and the problem is a little different that what I originaly thought.

I can actually bearly see the screen, and I can see it load windows and I can use windows. Its very dim though (I see why they thought it wasnt turning on). So I hooked it up to a monitor and there is a small program in the bottom left corner that when I right click on it, I can select LCD (it has other options but they are all grayed out). When I uncheck LCD I can no longer see it on the laptop built in LCD. Then I check it again (to re-select it) the monitor works fine for about 3 seconds then gets dim again.... Any suggestions?

[Sterling_Aug]

A dim screen like that means the backlight is broken the the entire LCD screen needs to be replaced.

Check ebay.com for another identical laptop that mentions the screen works and swap it out with this one.

You may also want to tell him to buy a new laptop. New screens are WAYYYYYYYYY TOOOOOOOO expensive to replace.

[Vampiel]

What about when it works for 3 seconds after I re-select the LCD in the options. It does it everytime I reselect it, it looks fine for about 3 seconds before it goes dim again.

[Vampiel]

it also briefly displays right when I turn it on

[Vampiel]

Ok, after doing a little research on the net it sounds like the inverter or back light is broken. Does anyone know any good repair centers, I found this one and for this laptop it would be $ 65.00 - 125.00 to fix.

http://www.compue.com/

[Billforce]

Uninstall both the video drivers and the display (screen) drivers. Check for updates and reload them. If it has lost the drivers or they are corrupted on a laptop, the screen goes bananas. When you first start it uses the VGA default settings, perhaps this is why it looks O.K. to start with.

[Vampiel]

It only looks ok for about 1 second. Even if I click to goto the bios the screen still goes dim.

[stevedownunder]

could you not just plug a monitor into the VGA out socket?

this would check drivers, invertors, (whatever they are) etc

[Vampiel]

Originally posted by stevedownunder
could you not just plug a monitor into the VGA out socket?

this would check drivers, invertors, (whatever they are) etc

I know its not software related b/c it goes dim in the bios, it's a short in the connection I believe. Im just going to have to send it out for repair. Thank's for the suggestions.