Laptop screen dark - MVPs please

[N J Jelley]

Hi,

I would be grateful for all positive responses to this major problem -
thankyou all in advance.

My friends screen on her laptop suddenly went *very* dark. She is able to
see the Windows XP Desktop, but only just. The (hardware) brightness
controls on the laptop have no effect. She has also rebooted the laptop
several times with the same resulting screen brightness.

Has she adjusted a setting (if so - how do we reset), or has the screen
died?

Many thanks,

Neil

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,

I would be grateful for all positive responses to this major problem -
thankyou all in advance.

My friends screen on her laptop suddenly went *very* dark. She is able to
see the Windows XP Desktop, but only just. The (hardware) brightness
controls on the laptop have no effect. She has also rebooted the laptop
several times with the same resulting screen brightness.

Has she adjusted a setting (if so - how do we reset), or has the screen
died?

Many thanks,

Neil

It sounds like the display's back lighting has failed. You friend
needs to contact the laptop's manufacturer for warranty support.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I would be grateful for all positive responses to this major problem
- thankyou all in advance.

My friends screen on her laptop suddenly went *very* dark. She is
able to see the Windows XP Desktop, but only just. The (hardware)
brightness controls on the laptop have no effect. She has also
rebooted the laptop several times with the same resulting screen
brightness.
Has she adjusted a setting (if so - how do we reset), or has the
screen died?

It sounds like the display's back lighting has failed. You friend
needs to contact the laptop's manufacturer for warranty support.

What happens when you hook an external monitor to the laptop? (Usually have
to press Fn+F8 to change from internal to external and modes in-between..)

 

[N J Jelley]

Unfortunately, this is not an option in this case.

Neil

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I would be grateful for all positive responses to this major problem
- thankyou all in advance.

My friends screen on her laptop suddenly went *very* dark. She is
able to see the Windows XP Desktop, but only just. The (hardware)
brightness controls on the laptop have no effect. She has also
rebooted the laptop several times with the same resulting screen
brightness.
Has she adjusted a setting (if so - how do we reset), or has the
screen died?

It sounds like the display's back lighting has failed. You friend
needs to contact the laptop's manufacturer for warranty support.

What happens when you hook an external monitor to the laptop?
(Usually have to press Fn+F8 to change from internal to external and
modes in-between..)

Unfortunately, this is not an option in this case.

It wasn't meant as a work-around or solution - but a troubleshooting method.
Does the output to the external monitor look okay or the same..?
You would be pinpointing the trouble-spot.. Video card/Laptop LCD.

Another option would to be to grab something like the Windows UBCD and boot
with it to make sure it is not the software installs issue. (Doubtful it
is.)

Also - what does the screen look like in the BIOS? If dark and the settings
there do nothing - then a circuit has fried.. Most laptops control the
brightness of the LCD in the BIOS when it is powered by batteries to
lengthen usage time on battery power.. If those settings are normal and not
helping/having any effect - the monitor is fried.. Time to get it repaired.

 

[N J Jelley]

It wasn't meant as a work-around or solution - but a troubleshooting
method...

Yes - I know. As suggested by my reply, an external monitor is not
available for troubleshooting.

Another option would to be to grab something like the Windows UBCD and
boot with it to make sure it is not the software installs issue.
(Doubtful it is.)

What is the Windows UBCD?

Also - what does the screen look like in the BIOS? If dark and the
settings there do nothing - then a circuit has fried..

My friend is in another country, and not pc conversant. She,
unfortunately, is not prepared to delve into the BIOS (but I understand).

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Unfortunately, this is not an option in this case.

Yes - I know. As suggested by my reply, an external monitor is not
available for troubleshooting.

Ah - that's too bad (and strange really - usually people have friends with
computers that are willing to allow them to hook up for a minute or two.
heh)

What is the Windows UBCD?

The Windows UBCD is a CD created to help system administrators troubleshoot
a system - including get data off NTFS partitions, test default drivers
versus those that might be installed, edit regitry settings, etc..

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html

Windows UBCD explained:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

My friend is in another country, and not pc conversant. She,
unfortunately, is not prepared to delve into the BIOS (but I
understand).

That's too bad. It is actually a quite safe thing to do, in comparison to
editing the registry.. After all if she exits without saving, then no harm
is done. At least looking and messing with the brightness during different
power options settings would give more detail into what might be wrong. I
would hate to pay someone $100 to find out all they did was go and turn up
those settings in the BIOS to a brighter level. *grin*

 

[N J Jelley]

Ah - that's too bad (and strange really - usually people have friends

with computers that are willing to allow them to hook up for a minute
or two. heh)

Ooh - sarcasm mode = off, me thinks.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html

Windows UBCD explained:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

That's useful - thanks.

That's too bad. It is actually a quite safe thing to do, in
comparison to editing the registry.. After all if she exits without
saving, then no harm is done. At least looking and messing with the
brightness during different power options settings would give more
detail into what might be wrong. I would hate to pay someone $100 to
find out all they did was go and turn up those settings in the BIOS to
a brighter level. *grin*

Yup - I used to be pc support many years ago (not much laptop experience)
so I know the 'turn the brightness up' scenario.

 

[bumtracks]

might want to visit & ask at comp.sys.laptops
What you describe sounds like the fluorescent backlight tube has worn out,
or it's little ballast thingy. My toshiba display/tube at three yrs has
darkened somewhat. Have always run it at medium power, thoughts being it
would last a longer time, apparently not.
Tubes are cheap, labor's not.