help, my laptop screen is screwed

tywy

so I have a Dell Latitude D505 and the screen "went" on it this evening. I have it set so the screen turns off after 5 minutes. So I came home and flicked the mouse and it seemed that nothing happened but actually the screen is just really dark. I can barely see anything. So I restarted it, I saw the Dell logo bright as normal and then it flicked onto the Windows logo and it's all dull again. Don't know what to do. Really píssed off!!

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Karoma

Enter BIOS (Tapping Del key on boot as far as I know).
Restore BIOS defaults.
Reboot.

If it's still not working, reboot - start tapping F8 this time until a menu appears.
Select Safe Mode.
Log in.
Start-> run-> devmgmt.msc
Expand display adaptors
Right-click video card entry(ies)-Uninstall.
Reboot.

Ruu_Old

Are you running it from a mains adapater or the battery?

tywy

okay so I can't see what's on the screen when I get into the bias. I'm hooked up to an external monitor at the moment, but it only works through windows.so I can see everything once I get into windows.

The weird thing is, the screen is bright for a sec when I boot it and then when I plugged it into the monitor it went bright for a sec too.

Don't know what to do...

tywy

so I phoned dell today, they weren't much help as usual...told me the LCD needs replacing or the motherboard they aren't sure.

so over the phone with the Dell Tech Support guy I disconnected the LCD screen and then connected an external monitor which worked fine. I think the backlight is gone. The only thing is, when I start up and when I switch to the external monitor the LCD flashes bright to the normal brightness and then goes dim again. Would this happen if the backlight was gone?

Karoma

If you remove extrenal devices, restore BIOS defaults, and still can't see anything in the BIOS = hardware issue, TBH. It could be the backlight, the PWB, the MBX, a connector, it's difficult to say. No amount of speculation will confirm what is at fault, or fix it. Curious: How old is it?

tywy

I got it in October 2004 so it's almost 2 years old.

See I can't see anything when I get into the bios to reset anything because the external monitor will only work in Windows. You don't know how to reset the bios so I could do it "blindly" without having to see the screen.

Karoma

Not on a Dell,no. I would have thought the support person would have tried.
Try looking very closely,or using a torch.

Is the warranty up on it or do you have an extended warranty?

tywy

the warranty is up, so if I need a new LCD it'll cost €450 so basically I'm gonna have to buy a new laptop with all the money that I don't have.

If it's the backlight hopefully I'll be able to replace it fairly cheaply. I'm gonna try the bios thing now with a torch, I'll let you know how I get on.

Karoma

If that fails, see if you can start a recovery. (Don't actually proceed.)

tywy

ok so the bios looks to be set to default from what I could decifer.

how do I start a recovery? I've never had problems with the laptop before so forgive me if I ask stupid questions :P

tywy

so yeah I uninstalled the video drivers and it's still not working must be the back light on the LCD or just the LCD is fúcked. Damn

jimmycrackcorm

Sounds like the backlight is gone. Seek out repair compaines if you don't fancy doing the job yourself.

tywy

the only reason I have to think that it might not be the backlight is the fact that it flashes on proper colour on start up and when I plug in the external monitor...I would assume if the backlight was gone then it wouldn't be able to turn on like that...anyway hopefully one of my friends can replace the backlight for me, I just hope it's not the LCD all together.