My Dell XPS m170 notebook having a problem with the monitor
I have a Dell XPS m170 notebook and I am having a problem with the monitor. I was playing some games last night and all of a sudden it went black but it was still on it did not turn completely off. The computer itself was also still on because I could hear the game sound. It did this twice last night and I let it set for around 20-30 mins and then it would work again. I figured it was due to overheating, but today I was just surfing the web and the laptop had been on for about 5 hours and then it did the same thing again. Now I have not gotten the screen to work. It has a glow but it is just black. I hooked up a normal monitor to it and it worked fine. I ran the diagnostics test and it found no problems but I do not know if that checks the LCD when I have it hooked up to another monitor. Any information would help.
Turn on the notebook and wait until the LCD screen goes black. Take a closer look at the screen. Can you see a very faint image on the screen? It will be a regular desktop with icons on it, but very very dim. Can you? If yes, than most likely you have a faulty screen inverter. I think replacing the inverter board might fix your problem. Here’s Dell XPS M170 notebook service manual, it has disassembly instructions. The inverter board is located inside the display assembly. You’ll see it below the LCD screen as soon as you remove the display bezel.
July 8th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I have a Dell XPS M1530 that was working fine until today when I turned it on it was blank, completly dark but when I connected it to my television as an external monitor it works perfectly fine and shows the monitors as the main screen. It is not even reading the laptop monitor and I have tried rebooting and also selecting the Fn/F8 buttton to switch between monitors…nothing happens.
Any ideas?
June 11th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
i hane a loptop XPS 170 and I kneed to replase my screen wear can i find oun and haw much will it cost? also I kneed the drivers CD so that i can restart my computer wear can i find it also???
May 16th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Sorry to revive an old thread…
I have the same problem as Robert above, when I start up it has vertical red dashes, then goes into a black and random screen. I first ran a diagnostics and it found bad sectors, so I replaced the hard drive-didn’t work. I discovered after the XP reinstall that I could start Windows just fine, but when I installed the nVidia driver, the problem started again-I booted up in safe mode and deleted the driver, and it was fine again. While thinking about it, it dawned on me that there has to be some hardware problem (I booted up once by mistake with the hard drive disconnected and it still had the red dashes). I am replacing the inverter right now, and if that doesn’t work i will replace the cables to the screen, and if that doesn’t do it I will assume it is the video card (and part out the computer since a video card is $180). Results to follow…
January 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I have a Dell XPS 1710 and I have red vertical dashes on my screen. I was told to replace my mother board that did not work any Ideas. when it boots the screen goes black and the only way I can turn it off is to take out the battery and unplug it
January 4th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I am having close to the same problem as the OP. And it seems the exact problem as Derek several lines down. My xps m1710 LCD goes out 100 percent no dim resolution it just blanks completely out. I can hook up another monitor and it will work fine. It seems i can trick the LCD to come back on by booting with an external monitor and pulling out the cord. It will then switch back to the laptops LCD. This doesnt happen every time sometimes I have to repeat the process.
If anyone has found a cure for this please reply.
Scott
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Hi,
I have a Dell XPS 1530 lap top, the machine works great.
However the screen starting playing up a few months ago. When I open the screen at certain angles, the display goes all fuzzy. It only corrects if i move the lid to an angle its wants.
I dont have Dell warrenty any more and was wondering if there is a quick fix for this?
December 30th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Jim, it could be your adapter, maybe it doesn’t provide sufficient power, like when under load the voltage drops by too much, but that’s just speculation. Have you tried another adapter?
October 26th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I have the Dell Inspiron E1505 that does the ghost trick. When running on AC, the LCD goes almost completely black after a few minuets. Put it to sleep and wake it back up and it goes bright again for a few minuets and back to dark. If it is running on battery, even in full performance mode, it stays bright until the battery runs dead. I can’t see it being the inverter as any other laptop I have seen with a bad inverter, it just goes black or stays black regardless of running on AC or Battery.
I tried updating the bios, windows, drivers, bios settings etc. to no avail. It even does it when booted to the dell diagnostic software. Again, if it is on battery only, in the diagnostic mode, it will run until the battery dies.
It does seem like a voltage issue or something, but I measured the DC voltage coming out of the adapter at a steady 19.45V which should be fine as it states output of 19.5V.
I am baffled at this point! Why would the difference in power sources cause it to behave differently?
August 28th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
My daughter has a Toshiba M35X-S114.When you turn it on you hear it boot up,but there is nothing on the screen.The screen does appear to be lit,but there is nothing on the screen.I have hooked it up to an external monitor.It shows the toshiba logo, the xp logo, and then goes blank. This is the 3rd time this has happened. 4-2007, 2-2008, and now. The first two times our warranty repaired it.now it is 2months out and toshiba say,”sorry!.Any help?
August 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I am the owner of a Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 M170 Laptop that at first was my main laptop until my Clevo m590KE replaced it for gaming. Though durable, after the warranty expired (after 2 years) the video card suddenly went belly up and right when I was trying to sell it. Dell stated that the video card would cost $700 dollors but EBAY had one for brand new for only $360. So I bought the card from ebay and it arrived, the DELL seemed extremely difficult to take apart but in reality, it wasn’t. The video card assembly popped right out and the new one fit perfectly, now it works fine!
Note: IF your experiencing a blank screen and the external monitor shows distortion of any kind (lines, little smiley faces or hearts in ASCII format) then the card is toast. Save yourself the pain, by a laptop cooler.
Dell so far has been the most dependable company in supplying a good laptop but tech support needs to take a few years of English 1301 and 1302 in America so you can understand them on the phone.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Stacey,
Start your laptop with an external monitor and when it’s booted to the desktop press and hold down Fn key and at the same time press a few times on F5.
Fn+F5 switches video output between internal and external screen. It can help.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I have a toshiba M35x-S114 with a screen issue. It seems to glow a bit but is completely blank (whitish) when the laptop is powered on and then goes black as the os boots (I hear the beep). Completely black, I cannot see anything even with a flashlight. Hooked to an external monitor and works fine – windows boots with no trouble and display is good. Is this an inverter, backlight or the lcd screen? How do I tell what to replace?
August 10th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Quick Fix for Dell Laptops (found through customer service), worked for me, probably for you
so, turn off your laptop, and then turn it back on, while it is loading windows repeatidly tap F2 and you should get a blue screen where it has options you can’t access normally. you use the arrow keys and enter to navigate and select what you want. I can’t remember exactly what the menue options are but it goes somthing along the lines of “display Brightness” then you can select either the AC option (plugged in to wall) or Battery option and adjust the maximum brightness of the screen, my battery brighness was set to 8 (the highest) but my AC option was set to 3, why I have no idea but I just changed it to 8 aswell then selected the save and quit option, no more dark monitors to me
July 16th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Hi Everyone,
I’m having the same problem as everyone else with a Dell Inspiron 700m (~3y old):
after StartUp, I get a couple of minutes of use and then my backlight goes out. I can “standby” the computer (fn + Esc) and then powerup and I get function again for a few minutes before the lamp goes out.
As a quick-fix, I’ve found that I get extended usage from the computer by turning the backlight down to the lowest setting (this has been my crutch, on the lowest setting, it will stay on indefineately at work).
I’ve also noticed, coinciding with this, that sometimes the inverter board does not acknowledge that it is plugged in (the battery-charging light does not illuminate). Unfortuneately, last night I replaced the inverter board to no avail.
This is a curious (and common) problem as evidenced above. It brings me to question the functioning of the DC Circuit, and whether or not some part can fail with time, thereby not supplying the required potential (voltage) to the inverter, causing it to “brown-out”. I’m not an electronics person, does anyone have some input?
Additional to this, I’ve found that having it plugged in to a powerstrip at home shortens it’s functional time to just under a minute in crutch-mode (dimmed backlight), which is peculiar to me. I figured this was just a temperature-related issue (my appt is ~75 degrees, while the work is a crisp 65)
possiblly related to a bad inverter, but the same failure with a new inverter makes me think it might be powerstrip-related, and thereby relating it to the DC-powering circuit.
Has anyone have some input? or do I not make sense?
Has anyone solved this problem?
Thanks,
Tim
June 25th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Nick Owens,
Most likely this problem is related to the inverter failure. There is a good chance that replacing the inverter board will fix the laptop. Inverters for this laptop are not very expensive, you can find one here.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I have a Dell XPS M170. I had to replace the video card after 1year of owning this laptop. Now, one year later it looks like I will definetly have to replace it again. NVIDEA GeForce GO 7800 GTX. $600.00
June 20th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hi, i have Dell XPS M1330 i was working on it and i had to upgrade my lap top and after restarting my laptop i saw a message box that your login could not process and my screen went really dark – i tried different things like taking out the battery, restarting, turning it off, etc nothing happened can any one help me on this??
May 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Also, I’ve connected an external monitor successfully. The display on the other monitor has 0 issues. Unfortunately, I do not have an external monitor of my own. In any case, I travel nearly every day and need to use my laptop as an actual laptop to be productive in any capacity.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Laptop Freak: Thank you for this insightful forum and your free advice on issues. I’ve been Googl’ing for about a hour and troubleshooting suggestions found on a variety of forums. I am stil anguishing w/ the same problem so I thought it better to post my issue for you to review. I appreciate any help you can provide.
I have a Dell Latitude D800. I’ve had it about 3 years and about 2 months ago, I opened up the screen to a dim (faint) image. After a review of common problems, I know that my backlight is failing to come on. Typically I can close the lid and re-open it after a few seconds and I can receive 5 – 20 seconds of lit screen before it goes dim. Depending on how long it takes Windows to login, I can usually do a Send/Receive and sometimes even read/reply to an email or two. I’ll even use keystrokes only for a few minutes after since the machine continues to function fine.
I’ve had no drops or other damage to the laptop and from what I’ve read, I don’t think it’s the backlight bulb since apparently they usually outlast the laptop themselves? Either way, it’s the most expensive and time-consuming fix, so I’d like to avoid it.
I took off the LCD frame and reseated the video cable to the LCD, as well as the plug going into the FL inverter from the laptop. That didn’t fix the problem but it didn’t get worse
I tapped the lid close pin but the machine goes immediately into hibernation on a single tap. I power up and it’s a faint image, tap the close pin and it hibernates again. That is 100% reproducable.
I’ve read about opening up the laptop and disabling the lid close function completely but the steps seem shaky and I don’t know if it’s my problem.
I’m in a time crunch as I left my job a few weeks ago and am trying to build a company on my own. If I cannot get my laptop back to scratch, I’m up a creek. I’ve got $0 to buy a new LCD screen or another laptop and I’ve got even less time to go down any of those paths.
If you can help, you would be my savior. If there’s anything I can do for you, maybe we can find a good trade.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:50 am
Going back to the Dell XPS LCD issues on a M170 with a Sharp WUXGA as originally posted…LCD goes black but in looking close there is still an image. So it is “lights out” on the LCD…hehe. Ok so we turn off the laptop and then restart. The LCD is fine for 10 minutes then starts to flicker in the center of the monitor and eventually it’s lights out again. We hooked up an external monitor and that works fine but limits mobility.
Got a used inverter off ebay and it worked for two days, then what do you know…light’s out. Bought a new inverter and this time it lasted a week but now you can’t see the “ghost” image when the monitor goes black. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!!!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I did what you said and it works just fine. The only time it doesn’t work is when the laptop is on and then I plug in the power cord and it turns black… Thank you for helping me -Kourtney
March 10th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Kourtney,
Did you try to start the laptop just from the AC power when the battery is unplugged?
Remove the battery, plug it the power adapter and turn the laptop on. Can you get video on the screen at all?
March 9th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Hi, I have a problem with my gateway laptop. When the laptop is on and I plug in the power cord to it the screen goes black. It’s only about a year and a half old. When it does this if I am listening to music or something then it will just start to skip, so it’s still on. Can you help me? Thanks a lot. -Kourtney
May 27th, 2007 at 7:44 am
hi, I have been through you site and it has been very interesting and helpful, but the laptop I have is not listed anywhere for help or even parts.
I have an Hi Grade C5515 laptop, and never taken a laptop or computer apart, so I can not get any part nos.
The problem is the computer itself is working but the screeen is black, if you look close you can see it loading, with what I have read it may be the FL inverter, how do I or where do I look to get the part no, with past expirence with Hi grade I find them not very helpful and very expensive
So please can you help
regards
stella
May 10th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Wow, I have a cascade failure of problems. I bought my laptop, a Compal Hel 80, from Cyber Power PC in autumn of last year for college. About a month or two ago I started noticing that the LCD screen would have a pinkish tint on boot up but would dissipate as I left the laptop on. Today, I turned it on and the bios maker’s logo is bright pink but as soon as Windows begins to boot up the screen dims. I can see the blue loading bar in the center but very faintly. I hooked up the laptop to an old CRT I had around and the video is perfect and crisp. So I was wondering if it was either the bulb or the inverter or even both that have caused my woes. I don’t want to lug a CRT around with me to class… that could get tedious pretty quickly.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hi,
I received the inverter I ordered off Ebay and it doesn’t fit the laptop. There are two screw holes on the new one and mine screw hole is in a different place and there is only one screw hole. I contacted the seller and the response was that the Inspiron 2200 may use different inverters, that I should not assume that they would all be the same? Is this true? I have since taken out the inverter from our laptop and taken pictures to send to the seller to see if they have the correct one. I also did another search on ebay and the ones that come up are not the same as mine? They are the same as the one I was sold.
Thanks for the help,
Charlotte
March 6th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I ordered a video card on my dell xps m170 and this fixed the problem. Very odd the old video card still works fine with an external monitor just not with the LCD. Thanks for the help
.
March 6th, 2007 at 11:37 am
My daughter just called me about her Dell E1505 laptop: “ok so this afternoon my screen all of a sudden went really dark – not completely black cuz I can BARELY see what I’m doing, but I tried different things like taking out the battery, restarting, turning it off, etc. but it just keeps going out.” She tells me that it only happens when it is plugged in, not when it’s on battery power. Sounds similar to some of the problems mentioned above, but I didn’t see any real solutions mentioned in the entries above. Did anyone come up with an answer to this problem?
March 5th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Sharon,
Probably there is nothing wrong with the screen but I’m not sure what is causing the problem. Enter the BIOS setup menu and check if there are any setting for the LCD brightness when the laptop runs from AC or battery power. Set BIOS to defaults. Check on the Dell website if there is a newer version of BIOS available for the laptop and upgrade it if needed.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Jerry,
You cannot damage laptop when you disconnect the RTC (CMOS) battery. Yes, it does reset the BIOS back to factory defaults but on most laptops it’s set to default anyways, you only loose time and date. Enter the BIOS, set time and date and it’ll be back to what it was before you disconnected the coin-cell battery.