Screen on my laptop going black
I have a Gateway mx6025 and I have a problem with my screen going black. I can still faintly see the screen if I hold it to light. I have it hooked up to an external monitor and I’m using it now to type this. The problem started a while back if you moved the screen it would go black and you could restart it and it would be ok. Now it’s always black it just flickers on when you first start it up for a second. Is this something I can fix? I took it apart once but didn’t know what I was looking for I thought maybe a broken wire or something unplugged but I didn’t see anything.
I think you might have a failed screen inverter (FL inverter); this problem is very common with laptops. The inverter board acts as a power supply for the LCD screen backlight bulb, it converts low voltage DC power into high voltage AC. On most laptops the inverter board is located inside the display assembly below the LCD screen and you can get access to it if you remove the screen bezel (LCD mask). When the screen inverter goes bad the backlight will not turn on anymore or it turns on for a short time and then goes off, but you still can see a faint image on the screen and the external monitor works just fine. First of all I would make sure it’s not just a loose connection and reseat connectors on the inverter (it looks like you already done this part). Next, I would try replacing the inverter board. It might fix your problem with the backlight. It’s possible that you have a faulty cable, bad motherboard or even bad LCD screen, but I would try replacing the screen inverter first.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 am
Hi,
I have a HP Pavilion DV6000 and its not letting my see nothing its black but my computer is on. I shut it down but still i dont see nothing.
I really need help some on my friends say to get a Y cable to connect it to my TV??
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hi,
I have a toshiba laptop and it broke a few weeks ago because the screen went black. I took it into the computer place and the button that shuts off the screen when you close it was stuck. Well last night it happened again and if i push that button the screen will flash on but goes away in a matter of seconds is there anyway i can fix it with out taking it in?
February 5th, 2009 at 10:32 am
RebeccaRose,
February 5th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Ben,
The laptop still works fine with an external monitor attached and you can use it with external video, right?
Try downloading and updating the BIOS. I know that some people experienced exactly the same problem with their Satellite 105 laptops and updating the BIOS helped to fix it.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:22 am
OK HERE IS THE DEAL I HAVE A TOSHIBA SATELLITE A105-S2236 FIRST MY LCD SCREEN HAD A BUNCH OF HORIZONTAL LINES BUT EVERTHING STILL WORKED SCREEN WAS BRIGHT AND COULD SEE EVERYTHING ONLY THING IT HAD LINES IN IT, SO I RESEARCHED THE PROBLEM AND FOUND THE CONCLUSION THAT THE LCD WAS BAD SO I ORDERED A NEW LCD FROM EBAY REPLACED IT WHEN I TURNED IT ON EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECT BUT THEN I STARTED TO NOTICE AFTER A FEW MINUTES OF BEING ON THE SCREEN WOULD GO BLACK BUT I COULD STILL SEE THE WINDOWS ONLY BY SHINING A LIGHT ON IT SO I HELD THE POWER BUTTON AND TURNED OFF AND THEN TURNED ON THE SCREEN AND IT WOULD COME BACK UP EVERYTHING WORKED BUT AGAIN AFTER A FEW MINUTES IT WOULD GO BLACK. THEN FINNALY IT WENT BLACK AND NEVER TURNED BACK ON I NOTICED THAT AT THE BOOTOM OF THE SCREEN WHERE THE INVERTER BOARD IS LOCATED IT GOT REALLY HOT AND I BELIEVED SOME OF THE PLASTIC SLEEVE THAT COVERS THE BOARD LOOK LIKE IT MELTED A LITTLE. I TOOK THE OLD SCREEN AND PLUGGED IT BACK IN AND THE SAME THING BLACK BUT I COULD STILL SEE THE WINDOWS AND THE HORIZONTAL LINES I KNOW THAT THE OLD SCREEN WAS WORKING BESIDES THE LINES I NEED HELP IN DECIDING WHAT TO DO A NEW INVERTER BORED COST 49.00 DOLLARS SHOULD I BUY IT OR ARE THERE ANY OTHER WAYS TO MAKE SURE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS
February 5th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Today I cleaned my keyboard with a light brush and left the room. I came back to a black screen on my Windows XP Compaq Presario V3000 laptop. Windows is running but is way too dark to see it and work (I did the flashlight test)
WEIRD THING Screen runs perfectly on battery power. If I plug in power cord it turns black immediately.
If I boot the machine with power cord. I can see the windows loading, loaded screen and my desktop briefly. Power cord still lights up at the plug in location and charges battery.
I tried power supply plugged in both with and without battery in its slot – screen does not work. Any Suggestions?
A technical friend checked my BIOS and said nothing in there that should be causing problem. I have hibernation turned off and power settings on Never.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
why when i go to full screen on any website does the screen go black but the sound keeps on doing???
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Laptop freak,
My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A135-S4656. One day opened up my computer it was black just black I adjusted the screen nothing happened tap the key it came on fine for the hour or two I used it. Got home turned it on it was blacked tapped nothing happened adjusted the screen got a picture it flickered and the colors were inverted and wavy lines across the top.I restarted the computer and the flickering was worse and chunks of the screen were black. Now I can get to stop flickering if I hold it a certain way but still all the colors are inverted. please help thank you.
P.S. I have defraged my hard drive ran a virus scan restored it.I’ve run out of Ideas helped.
December 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am
my acer travelmate 4720 was working fine all this while but suddenly there was a clicking sound (like when you force shut it down) and the screen went black. i tried to shut it down because the mouse light was still on meaning the laptop wasn’t shut down yet but it couldn’t be shut off! thought it was out of batt so plugged in the power but nothing happened. Someone please help!!!
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
hi all … I also faced a similar problem with my compaq laptop with the screen turning black after being kept on for some time, the power management scheme makes the screen go black but it never turns on… until u have to restart it again and again. I recently came across another forum saying that this is happening because of excess charge built up…and can be corrected by unplugging the battery and the power cord and restarting it again…this has worked but its not at all permanent…the problem starts over again and again…my warranty has already expired and don’t know what to be done…can this be a software problem?or a graphic card related problem? of-course not but can any body suggest me what to be done to rectify this problem.
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Yesterday my laptop was slowing and so i restarted it and it said that a drive is failing or about to fail. then it froze and i decided to let it rest over night and today when i turn it on it goes black. what do i do? can i fix it myself?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Hey there, my laptop has been having this problem since of this morning, this has never happened before.
Whenever I start the game World of Warcraft, it runs fine for a few moments, I would say a minute or two tops, than my screen goes completely black, and I am forced to restart the laptop by pushing the button.
When that happens, I can still hear the sound on the back, so I know the laptop didn’t shut down or anything, except that the sound is very sluggish, sort of like I am getting extremely bad hardware lag.
I have a Sony Vaio laptop which I have been using for about 3 years now.
Intel Pentium Processor 1.86GHz, 1.00GB of RAM
I would be sooo grateful if you could help me.
thanks in advance
August 15th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I used to have the same problem, but then I opened up the outer border of the screen and tighted some wires and the problem went away
August 12th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I have a hp laptop and I came home from work today and the screen is black. The power is still on but nothing shows up. I tried to power it off but it won’t turn off, it just makes a clicking noise like its trying to shut down, but can’t. I took everything out and put it back in and it worked for awhile. But then it did the same thing a day later. All the lights are on and the fans are running but the screen is black and it will not power off.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hello, My Name is Henry.
I am somewhat experiencing a similar problem.
Except I am sure it is not a backlight failure.
I have a Toshiba Satellite a105-s2071
I was doing some work on it, and opened it up.
Nothing big just changing memory, and cleaning.
After i closed it up and tried turning it on.
It turned on fine, but the BackLight wont turn on.
I know its not a backlight failure or something like that because there are usually signs. and there are none.
I’m pretty sure i must have done something to a sensor of some sort that tells the laptop whether or not the lid is open or closed.
Can anyone help me fix this?
July 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
i have an hp dv2000, a little while ago as i was using it, the screen started flashing black and then back to normal. it did this for a while until the screen just stayed black. i turned it off manually and then turned it back on and it would work again like normal but then after a while it started doing it again. after it started flashing and the screen would go black, it would turn off and turn on and reboot by itself. but this time when it turned back on it would just stay black, so i left it on for a while to see if it would fix itself but nope, the screen would just stay black and after a couple of mins it would reboot itself again but to the same black screen. and i just kept repeating the same thing so i just turned it off. i try turning it on everyday to see if it starts, and i think out of the many times its started up normally like 3 time but then after being on for a bit it does the same thing, so if any one can help me it would be awesome, thx!!! =)
July 28th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I hve a Compaq Evo n620c. The display goes on shortly after booting (Compaq splash screen), but then becomes black – whether one allows the booting continue, or presses F10 for BIOS settings. Tried reformatting the hard drive, reinstalling the Windows and the drivers – no help. Tried BIOS reflashing, installing new CMOS batter and no luck.
Frome the discussion it sounds like it might be an inverter, not a backlight lamp?
The laptop works well on the external monitor.
Are there instructions available for n620c how to replace the inverter?
July 18th, 2008 at 7:45 am
Ed,
These instructions for taking apart the display panel on a HP Pavilion zv5000 could be helpful if you decide to replace the inverter board yourself.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I have an hp pavilion zx5000 and occasionally the screen will dim to a point where you can barely see what’s on the screen.
I went out and bought a separate flat screen which got me back in business but I lost my mobility. Then I discovered by accident one day that if I hit the display lid switch several times, the screen will eventually come back.
The flat panel always displays with no problem but again, I bought the laptop so I can take it places.
I’m really happy I found this discussion because I finally know what the problem is – it sounds like the problem is a failed screen inverter (FL inverter)
July 16th, 2008 at 1:20 am
MARY!!!!
I ahve the same problem. PLease let us know if it works or not. I have no $ to send it to HP and I do not knwo a lot about computers. PLEASE HELP
June 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
i have a gateway mx3042, and recently my screen started flickering and goes solid black, i freaked out for a couple of days then it started working fine, but now it will flicker and stay black, i can still see the screen when held up to the light, please help me
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Hello….have the same problem…when i turn my pavilion dv6000 seems that everything is working except screen…it is black…then i turned off and turned off my notebook again and then i started windows in SAFE MODE and bah everything fine no problems so then i restarted again in normal mode and……screen in black…what a problem???? thank you
June 21st, 2008 at 6:35 am
hi i have a toshiba A215 7414 and i was using it and then the screen went black so i turned it off and wait a couple of minutes then turn it on but the screen wasnt coming but the computer it self was plz tell me what to do
June 1st, 2008 at 6:54 am
Hey,
I had the same problem with my Toshiba Satellite 1805-S254. I reformatted Windows Xp Pro and the problem stopped! Might have been a virus. Anyways, hope this info will be useful!
May 16th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Hi, I have the same problem as Mary H “I have a HP Pavilion dv2000 laptop, and all of a sudden, when i turn on my computer, the screen is black. This only happens sometimes, though. Occasionally, when i turn it on, the computer will be working properly, however, the screen will be black. When it does work, it works fine. Basically, when it starts up, it either works perfectly, or does not work at all. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
”
Unfortunately, i live in Africa (Uganda) i’m not sure how much it would cost me to ship the laptop to HP, and i think the warranty has expired (about 3 months now). Please advise me. Thanks alot!
May 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
HP notebook. screen blank on start but with other indicator lights on with the key panel. OS not loading. After a few tries the Os loads. Some times goes dead black again. HP Note books have a motherboard issue which HP is willing to replace with a an extended warrentee.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Mary H,
This could be memory related problem. Do you know if the laptop has two memory modules installed? Try reconnecting memory, just removed it from the slot and install back in. Test the laptop with each memory module separately, installing them one by one in each slot.
If the laptop works with one module in both slots but doesn’t work with another module in both slots, apparently you have faulty memory module.
If the laptop works fine with both modules installed into the slot 1 but will not work with both modules installed into the slot 2, apparently the memory slot is defective.
Test the laptop with another known good memory module if you can.
This is just a guess, I cannot give you a better advice without taking a look at the laptop.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Why does it gotta be black? Why can’t it be going white?
May 6th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Hello again. Well, i did try and put a flashlight to the screen, but i could not see anything. It’s looks as if the computer were turned off. No picture at all.
I also tested it on an external monitor and the picture didn’t show up as well.
Thanks!
May 5th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Lori,
I’m not sure exactly why it’s happening. It’s possible that the inverter board overheats causing this problem. Here’s what you can try. You can remove the LCD mask as it explain in this disassembly guide (steps 20-23) and get access to the inverter board. Touch the inverter board when the laptop is on. If the inverter board is really hot, this could be your problem and it has to be replaced. This is just a guess. Proceed on your own risk.