Dell notebook screen is 99% dark

[anon]

My wife left her Dell Inspiron 5150 notebook (running Win XP
Pro) to go make coffee. When she came back, the screen was dark.
Now, in a dark room you can just barely see the logon screen. I
thought she might have accidentally pressed the CRT/LCD key, but
when I pressed CRT/LCD, or Fn + CRT/LCD, or Ctrl + Fn + CRT/LCD,
or other combinations, nothing changed. I tried restarting and
holding down F8 to see what I could see in SAFE MODE, but I
could not see when was the right time to press, so this did not
work either. Any suggestions will received with gratitude.

 

[chicagofan]

My wife left her Dell Inspiron 5150 notebook (running Win XP
Pro) to go make coffee. When she came back, the screen was dark.
Now, in a dark room you can just barely see the logon screen. I
thought she might have accidentally pressed the CRT/LCD key, but
when I pressed CRT/LCD, or Fn + CRT/LCD, or Ctrl + Fn + CRT/LCD,
or other combinations, nothing changed. I tried restarting and
holding down F8 to see what I could see in SAFE MODE, but I
could not see when was the right time to press, so this did not
work either. Any suggestions will received with gratitude.

It sounds like it went into a power saving mode like Standby, or something.
Check your power scheme or display settings.
bj

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My wife left her Dell Inspiron 5150 notebook (running Win XP
Pro) to go make coffee. When she came back, the screen was dark.
Now, in a dark room you can just barely see the logon screen. I
thought she might have accidentally pressed the CRT/LCD key, but
when I pressed CRT/LCD, or Fn + CRT/LCD, or Ctrl + Fn + CRT/LCD,
or other combinations, nothing changed. I tried restarting and
holding down F8 to see what I could see in SAFE MODE, but I
could not see when was the right time to press, so this did not
work either. Any suggestions will received with gratitude.

It sounds very much as if the display's back-lighting has failed.
Contact Dell for warranty support.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

My wife left her Dell Inspiron 5150 notebook (running Win XP
Pro) to go make coffee. When she came back, the screen was dark.
Now, in a dark room you can just barely see the logon screen. I
thought she might have accidentally pressed the CRT/LCD key, but
when I pressed CRT/LCD, or Fn + CRT/LCD, or Ctrl + Fn + CRT/LCD,
or other combinations, nothing changed. I tried restarting and
holding down F8 to see what I could see in SAFE MODE, but I
could not see when was the right time to press, so this did not
work either. Any suggestions will received with gratitude.

Try System restore to before the dark night happened <G>.
If still try to remove your Display video card driver in Device Manager and
Reboot your computer, windows will detect your Video card and install the
driver for you.
But make sure you have the driver handy on a Floppy or CD/DVD, if windows
doesn't have the right driver you can select I have disk and install the
driver.
HTH.
nass

 

[SingaporeWebDesign]

Hello,

Try Fn+(Up Arrow Key) or Fn + (down arrow key).

Otherwise, it may be that the LCD back lighting has failed.

--
Singapore Web Design
http://www.bootstrike.com/Webdesign/
Singapore Web Hosting
http://www.bootstrike.com/WinXP/faq.html
Windows XP FAQ

 

[anon]

I called Dell. They did some diagnostics over the phone. Then, since the
at-home service contract was still in force, they sent out a fellow who
replaced the screen and the video card. Now all is well. Thanks, everyone,
for your help.