help! laptop screen blank

Theboinkmaster

hi im writing this from ps3 as my laptop screen just went blank . despite numerous reboots the laptop seems to work ok except screen completely blank. i didn't hit it or anything .

its a 3yr old dell xps m1210. i cant connect to tv as need to hit a combination of keys to switch video modes.

any advice?

lil_lisa

What is it doing when you start up? What noises do you hear and what lights come on? The screen is completely black? Do you even see the boot up screen?

Theboinkmaster

all the normal lights come on, it appears to boot fine except the screen is entirely blank, i don't even see the bootup screen

lil_lisa

Can you hear the harddrive and fan?

Same thing happened to a friend of mine, she left it off for a few days and when she turned it on it was working again.

Dulchie

Just to eliminate the possibilities
try the following in order

Boot up the machine, wait for approx 5 minutes now try the following keystroke combination while holding down the Fn key press F8,
see if you get any response from the screen, it is worth doing this at least twice. If no result switch off the laptop, try to connect it to a monitor reboot and see if you get an output,

This should narrow down the possible causes.

ricman

see here,follow the instructions ,fn plus f1,goes to hibernation mode, wait til it turns off itself, then press power button and wait.See does it load up as normal,check the screen resolution.
see http://dondueck.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/dell-xps-m1210-blank-screen-problem/

Theboinkmaster

Thanks for all those suggestions guys - will try them later, cheers

duckysauce

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goat2

duckysauce wrote: »

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take off the battery on the back, mine went blank, tried all, this worked, put it back on a minuit later, and let the computer load itself when you put it on

Knasher

Were there any symptoms leading up to this? I had a laptop in which the screen gradually went a pinkish hue, usually it would take a while from first boot to warm up completely and turn white, but eventually it just died completely. This was caused by the CCFLs that backlight the screen dying and in my case I replaced the CCFLs and its worked fine ever since, just in case you have the same problem. But it's not something I'd recommend to the faint of heart, CCFLs require high voltages so you need to be very careful around them. Additionally actually replacing them was a delicate process involving some of the tiniest screws I've ever seen in my life. But you might be able to find a repair shop to do it for you. Its also possible for the transformer that powers the screen to go, which would again result in a black screen and again its a part that has to be replaced.

When you turn on the laptop can you see anything at all in the screen. Without the backlight (if indeed it is that which is blown) you should still be able to see something on the screen, but it will be very close to black so look closely.

Secondly have you tried connecting your laptop to an external monitor. If it outputs over this then there shouldn't be anything wrong with the actual graphics card in the laptop, and the problem is probably with the screen somewhere.

biko

Knasher wrote: »

Secondly have you tried connecting your laptop to an external monitor. If it outputs over this then there shouldn't be anything wrong with the actual graphics card in the laptop, and the problem is probably with the screen somewhere.

Beat me to it Connect to monitor and reboot.

BArra

im having a very similar problem

basically its a black screen, however u can see things in the background, its just very difficult without the backlight

now if i press the FN key and F6 on my keyboard, it will come to life, the backlight will come on and all is well for a couple of seconds, then it goes back to black

if i keep trying it, FN+F6, eventually it will stay lit and on

however the next day i turn on the laptop its the same thing of pressing fn and f6 a LOT to get it to stay on

would anyone have any ideas of my options? its an expensive acer 8920g 18" HD display laptop, and it cost the bones of 1k around 18 months ago