laptop screen blacking out

[Justin Jeffries]

I have a Compaq Laptop Presario 900 running Windows XP Pro: Mobile AMD
Athlon(tm)XP 1500+ 1.33 GHz, 496 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD. In the past few days I
have noticed that when I leave the laptop unattended for a few hours and
return, the screen will be blacked out or off. However, if I look at the
right angle I can still see Windows running and programs active on the
desktop, etc. The computer doesn't turn off, the monitor just blacks out and
turns off. I checked the power settings and its all fine. What is the
problem here? Thanks. --Justin Jeffries

 

[Bob I]

Backlight powered off? BIOS power management perhaps? Have you checked
the manual for description of features? Perhaps some documentation on
the HP/Compaq site?

 

[D.Currie]

I have a Compaq Laptop Presario 900 running Windows XP Pro: Mobile AMD
Athlon(tm)XP 1500+ 1.33 GHz, 496 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD. In the past few days I
have noticed that when I leave the laptop unattended for a few hours and
return, the screen will be blacked out or off. However, if I look at the
right angle I can still see Windows running and programs active on the
desktop, etc. The computer doesn't turn off, the monitor just blacks out
and
turns off. I checked the power settings and its all fine. What is the
problem here? Thanks. --Justin Jeffries

Could be a power management thing, or it could be a hardware problem with
the screen, or it could be a screen saver -- I've seen one that does exactly
what you describe -- it just gets really, really dim, but if you look hard
enough, you can still see what's there.

 

[Justin Jeffries]

It is not a screen saver or the power settings. What hardware could be
causing this?

 

[Bob I]

Try the BIOS, or contact HP/Compaq tech support. It is not a Windows XP
issue.

 

[D.Currie]

Could be the screen itself or I guess more appropriately, the backlight. Or
it could be the video chip doing something strange.