Hello techy kind of people. .It's been awhile. I have a problem or rather my old laptop has a problem. It's had a rough life, neither usb port work and I think the DVD is dead. The new issue is the screen is black. About 80% of the time I can get an external monitor to work. Pressing Fn and F5 will sometimes cause a flicker on the screen. The longest was about a second .or two. The screen looked fine. The display on the external monitor is nice and clear, no flickering or lines.
Some times when I'm typing random keys will "wake" the screen up. It was fine until one night the AC got unplugged and the battery went dead. On startup I had the black screen.
It was fine until one night the AC got unplugged and the battery went dead. On startup I had the black screen.
I suspect that the above is a coincidence and what you may need is a new keypad and video cable/ribbon or at the very least a partial dismantle to check that both the video and keypad ribbons are securely connected.
Can you post the brand and model name or number of the notebook so we can do some research.
NB: Not having any working USB ports rules out what would normally have been suggested for the keypad as in connecting a USB keyboard.
The USB ports are broken. Laptop took a tumble with devices attached to the ports. That was about 6 years ago. No problem until now. External monitor works with a full start up. The times it doesn't is when waking up.
The USB ports not working means you have to have a work around or repair/replace the mainboard which may not be a cost effective option.
The external monitor not waking from sleep/hibernation could be a setting issue but in all honesty I've mainly seen that with Windows 10 and not Windows 7.
What OS are you running.
Not sure how much time etc that you are wanting to put into this but fwiw disassembly and parts numbers etc here the keyboard is an easy one to check but the MB to screen video cable/ribbon is somewhat more involved.
I have lots of time, money not so much. I'll try some disassembly might find something came loose.
When the external monitor fails it has a display initially but looses the vga signal before windows is load. If windows loads the display will remain until I turn the laptop off. The laptop can be on for hours with no problem.
I had the laptop closed up and AC and external monitor disconnected for about 4 hours. Laptop was in sleep mode.. After hooking up the external monitor and AC I woke it up via the start button. External come up right away and about 10 seconds later the laptop screen came on. It stayed on for about 20 seconds. I didn't touch or do anything it just appeared and disappeared on it's own.
Sorry but until now I was not aware that the external monitor was going out as well.
When the external monitor fails it has a display initially but looses the vga signal before windows is load. If windows loads the display will remain until I turn the laptop off
That sounds more like a driver issue.
You have Windows 10 installed to which there are no drivers for the machine so some questions regarding this;
When did you install Windows 10 on this computer.
What if any drivers have you installed on the computer since you installed Windows 10.
Is Windows 10 fully up to date.
Regarding your update, power board for the screen or even a build up of internal heat or static could cause such behaviour, a good clean out with canned compressed air is in order when you do you partial disassembly.
As part of your investigative and cleaning work I would suggest that you also remove the RAM and give the memory slots a blast of air and then put the RAM back in.
Sorry but until now I was not aware that the external monitor was going out as well.
Mentioned in first post
That sounds more like a driver issue.
You have Windows 10 installed to which there are no drivers for the machine so some questions regarding this;
When did you install Windows 10 on this computer.
About 2 years ago. No issues until now.
What if any drivers have you installed on the computer since you installed Windows 10.
Just whatever Windows installed during the upgrade. I'll check the version when I check for updates
Is Windows 10 fully up to date.
I think it is but will check.
Regarding your update, power board for the screen or even a build up of internal heat or static could cause such behaviour, a good clean out with canned compressed air is in order when you do you partial disassembly.
As part of your investigative and cleaning work I would suggest that you also remove the RAM and give the memory slots a blast of air and then put the RAM back in.
did that already. I have some good contact cleaner. Maybe a little of that.
Sorry, misread your OP as the external screen being ok
If both screens have issues it is related to either the graphics solution or the RAM, any chance that you can try getting into Safe Mode or leaving it sitting in the BIOS to see if the issue is still present.
Exited bios and let laptop startup. Once the sign in screen appeared the monitor came on. 10-15 seconds then black. Didn't notice anything unusual on the external at the time the laptop screen went black.
any chance that you can try getting into Safe Mode or leaving it sitting in the BIOS to see if the issue is still present.
If the screen goes black on the external screen when the notebook is left sitting in the BIOS it is not a driver issue and the cause is hardware related.
No problem and for now can we just stick with what happens with the external screen, discussing the notebook screen and the external screen in the same sentence is most confusing.
I left the laptop om sitting i the bios for 4 hours. No problem with the external monitor. Then I used it for about 5 hours getting some downloads for a different laptop and watched a couple of videos. No video issues on the external monitor. Windows is up to date, only Win11 is offered as an update.
I didn;t get too far with the disassembly, couldn't find my little specialty toolbox for releasing the ribbon connectors. I did get some dust out of the fan and reseat the ram. I'll try again this afternoon.
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