no display!

[Guest]

I have a dell inspiron notebook running Windows XP. Upon start-up there in no
display on the monitor. It is obviously running and I can hook it up to an
external monitor and everything is fine. Any suggestions as to how to fix the
display problem on the laptop? Thanks!

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Could you have unwittingly lowered to brightness to zero? I've done that
myself a few times.

 

[LVTravel]

Other than Ted's suggestion, the backlight on the monitor may have failed.
If so, it needs to be replaced by someone who knows how to open the case
properly.

The only other suggestion is to attempt to switch from external display to
internal display. Press and hold the Fn key (normally lower left on the
keyboard) and tap the Function key that toggles from internal LCD to
LCD/External display to External display only and then back to LCD internal.
This key may have LCD on the key or a picture of a monitor on it as the icon
and the key is different with different computers (mine is F5 but my wife's
computer is F3.) You may have done that accidentally. When you press the F
key wait about 5 seconds or so for change to take place before pressing
again. It would help to have the external monitor attached and when it goes
out totally, you know that the internal monitor is activated. If the
external goes out and the internal doesn't come up, time for the repair
shop.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like the identical problem to mine. My laptop is a HP zt3000 with ATI
Mobility 9200. I can run Windows XP just fine, and as soon as I install
Vista the display shows all activity until the final stage of installation
and then it goes blank. There is clearly no problem with the hardware
itself, and if I connect an external monitor it works fine. No help if you
want to use it as a portable computer. HP do not have Vista drivers, and the
only drivers on the ATI website for Vista are for 9600. Tried installing
this with no success. Have just reinstalled XP and it works just fine. Yay
: (