"You have my sympathies."
Posted on 01/11/2016 1:15:14 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
i am using a borrowed laptop, an hp pavilion g7-1310us Notebook PC, running Windows 7. Last night the screen went black. i have no idea why. powering off and rebooting did nothing. i am thinking there must be some button or command that will turn the screen on. thanks in advance for help. p.s., HELPFUL comments welcome.
Try hooking up a monitor to it and pushing the correct buttons to use same ilo the connected screen.
Try hooking up a monitor to it and pushing the correct buttons to use same ilo the laptop screen.
Are you plugged in, or using battery? Screens often shut down when batteries hit 10%.
"You have my sympathies."
Older laptops 3+ years or so, often burn out the monitor. Plugging in an external monitor will often help by giving you access to the laptop if the problem is the screen itself.
If you plug in the external monitor and the system comes up, then you have (most likely) a bad screen. If it does not come up, you may have more serious issues.
They used to use a florescent lamp(s) to light the screen. They can be replaced, but if you are not doing it yourself the labor is likely non-economic.
Boot in safe mode. If you can see a screen, but it later goes dark, it may be a graphics card failure, or drivers.
Sometimes if it’s all black despite your being able to tell the computer is on, it may be a problem with backlighting in the laptop screen. Many older laptops use thin fluorescent tubes at the edge of the screen to make it visible and vary the brightness, and these are easily replaced by a computer repair shop. Often the screen is fine, just not backlit.
Are you logged in?
Does it make any noise at all? A blip or a beep or anything like that? Do any lights come on, even if only for a moment?
If you had the pink tinge, hold a flashlight up to the screen when you are running the computer.
If you can see dimly the desktop or windows logo, the problem is either the ccfl bulb in the display or the inverter board.
These provide the back lighting for the LCD display. The inverter board powers the bulb, the bulb provides the light from behind. While both parts are relatively cheap, the bulbs are a pain to change--the display must be removed and the bulb removed from the display and the new one inserted and the connections soldered. It is very easy to break the bulbs, so if you take the project on, buy a couple because the first time you do it, you will likely break one.
If that is the case, and you decide to take on the project yourself, do a web search for replacing inverter board or ccfl bulb for your make and model of computer. There is a lot of information out there to use and you cna watch a couple of times before you attempt it.
Doh! I thought you were talking about an external monitor!
In this case, the graphic settings (screen resolution) may be set to a level so high that the laptop cannot display, so it appears black.
You can try hooking an external monitor to it and see if it will output to it. At least that means that the computer is still usable.
Hopefully it isn’t a dead LCD.
There are several things you could try.
1) As some others have said, connect an external monitor.
2) If you don’t have a manual for that laptop, use another computer to Google and download an online copy of the manual. It should tell you the combination of keys to press to toggle video output between the laptop screen and external monitor.
3) Look for any LED lights on the laptop to indicate bootup activity, such as a flickering hard drive light.
hold the power for 15 seconds make sure it’s powered completely off. Unplug from AC power. Remove the battery, plug AC back in then hold power down for 15 seconds again. Unplug from AC, then reinstall battery. Plug back into AC once again and try turning the laptop on.
or if nothing simple works, it could just be that the screen inverter is gone or the screen itself needs to be replaced.
It was hard, admittedly, I struggled with it..but I resisted.<{> And I am a better man for having done so....
Let’s go through the options (some have already been mentioned):
1. Hook to an external monitor and power it up or press the display change key (usually function and F5 - just look for it on the top row).
If it works then you probably have a dead laptop screen or inverter and just need it replaced. If not, your entire video chipset is dead or damaged. You might be able to get it “reballed”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WUyi3BtK0M
2. Reboot and see if you can see “shadows”. Same results as #1.
3. Battery/power. Turn off laptop, take out battery, plug it back up and turn it on. If everything spins up and makes noise and the power light comes on, then your screen is dead, etc. etc. If none of these things happen, then you have a power problem.
That’s all I can give you before I start my long commute home.
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