Laptop Screen Trouble - (happily resolved)

Post by **Cheesy** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:08 pm

So, on Friday I got a laptop. It's a Dell Inspiron E1505, fully loaded with nice hardware because they had a great deal.

Anyway, it was working great for the past three days, and I was using it fine this morning.

However, all of a sudden, I opened it this afternoon and the screen is borked. The computer is working fine--all the right sounds play, etc, but I get nothing on the screen. If I plug it into an external monitor everything is fine, but the built in LCD just won't show anything.

Dell's website had me do a diagnostic thing (BIST), and on that it flashed some colors, which, according to them, suggests possible motherboard or video card failure. But that doesn't make sense, because 1) It's brand new 2) It worked for the past 3 days and 3) it works perfectly with the external monitor.

I'm hoping you guys have some idea what's going on, since I don't feel like spending two hours on the phone with some undertrained guy in India

Thanks,
Cheesy

Post by **ph1l0r** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:15 pm

Did you say Dell? Did you at least buy premium support with it? A notebook has more or less zero user serviceable parts so you will have to deal with them on the phone and be prepared for an exchange. During my internship in states i had to deal with dell quite a lot. I spent hours on the phone for the simplest things. If the computer was bought with premium/business support i got the exchange part we needed within few minutes and without having to do the funny stuff the guys on the phone line tried to make me do: ( Computer not booting, power supply broken. The guy on the phone said we would have to reinstall Windows first before we would be eligle for a replacement....)

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:16 pm

Electronics are most likely to fail in the first 30 days.

You have a cable running from the video chip up to an intermediatary board (forgot what its called) from there the backlit is powered and the LCD is feed data and power.

If the board fails, both the LCD and backlit wont work.
If the LCD fails, it will be lit but wont show anything. Turn the brightness to max and you should see some form of light.
If the backlit fails, you can take a flashlight and shine it into the screen and see the LCD display and your windows desktop.

You should have a key on the keyboard to toggle thru the LCD only, LCD + ext, ext only. Cycle it.

Post by **Cheesy** » Mon May 22, 2006 6:57 pm

Ash2Dust wrote:If the LCD fails, it will be lit but wont show anything. Turn the brightness to max and you should see some form of light.

I think it's this one. The screen changes to a different shade of black when I turn it on, like it's trying to show a black screen rather than just having nothing there. There is definitely some light.

Dell is sending a replacement LCD in 2-3 business days

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:23 pm

....SENDING one? How the hell do they expect you to install it?

StarLord · Post by **StarLord** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:24 pm

Just a question here... How do you replace the LCD screen on a Labtop?

Edit : Ho well Plank was faster than me on that one...

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Mon May 22, 2006 7:25 pm

If you dont have a VERY clean environment, its easy to screw up. LCD components in a laptop are NOT field replaceable.

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:49 pm

Hopefully they are sending the entire LCD/Backlit/intermediate board/plastic bezel assembly.

Even then, theres alot that can go wrong if you've never done one before.

He's going to have to carefully pop the hinge covers, unscrew the hinges, open the base/keyboard or at least get at the video Printed circuit cable (or wires) without tearing it, etc, etc. Not to mention the numerous tiny screws possibly of varying length. Plus not scratching the LCDs in the process.

If they give you a pdf of the disassembly/reassembly instructions, post em. They come in handy sometimes even with different models.

Edit: they better send the whole upper assembly, it could still be the inverter/intermediatary board not sending a signal to the LCD.

Post by **Cheesy** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:01 pm

Err... to clarify, they're sending a technician with it

Course, I never trust them

StarLord · Post by **StarLord** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:02 pm

lol, will he be in the box?

Charger · Post by **Charger** » Mon May 22, 2006 11:29 pm

You better erase all that kiddie purn off teh hard drive, Cheesy. Those Dell Techs are trained to look for it and will turn you in.

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:45 am

I believe Cheesy is over 18, but if he has any pics of himself under 18 he could still be charged. Its been making the news. People are recommended to destroy anything they made of themselves with or without a girlfriend while minors.

Post by **Cheesy** » Tue May 23, 2006 1:12 am

Charger wrote:You better erase all that kiddie purn off teh hard drive, Cheesy. Those Dell Techs are trained to look for it and will turn you in.

Well, crap. Better find my trusty magnets...

Post by **sushi** » Tue May 23, 2006 3:29 am

ok this might be real stupid, cheesy you know of cause that these laptops have a keyboard combination to switch between the different graphic output possibilites (screen, port etc.). Could it be that you managed to switch to external output only without noticing and simply have to switch that back?

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:11 pm

That was mentioned earlier, Sushi. The fact that hes seeing it shift shades of black kinda indicates to me its not the output select switch.