I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook. Recently, and for no apparent reason, when I pushed the power button to turn on my notebook, the computer would turn on, but the monitor would not show any image or even any sign of light (doesn’t even light up). Is this possibly a driver issue, or will I have to get a new monitor.
No, it’s not a driver issue because this problem occurs as soon as you start the notebook, even before Windows (and drivers) start loading.
First, you’ll have to test your notebook with an external monitor attached to the VGA port on the side of your notebook. If both internal and external monitors have no image, this problem is not related to the notebook screen.
That could be memory related problem. Try reconnecting the memory module. If you have two modules installed, remove them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. It’s possible that one of the memory modules is bad and your notebook will start as soon as you remove bad RAM.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I replaced lcd monitor in my dell laptop, old one is broken but screen lits up, the new one turns on for a while but then screen goes very faint. In a similar situation you suggested changing inverter, but since the inverter works fine with old broken LCD, what else could be the issue ?
August 14th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
HP dv9500t, nvidia geforce 8600m gs, Vista Ultimate
One day after plugging in an external monitor in the VGA port, Windows (seems to) defaults to an external display when there isn’t one connected, and the laptop display doesn’t even come on. I wondered at first if it was a driver issue, but it doesn’t even come on during boot-up. I can plug in the external and it immediately works during boot. Then when Windows starts, I can go in and change the display settings/nvidia control panel to start using the laptop display, but even then sometimes the software is buggy (doesn’t want to display in the native res). When I finally do get it to display in the native resolution, it runs fine until I restart/shut down (as long as I don’t restart Windows it’s fine. No problems during hibernation.) Thanks.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I have a compaq laptop and while I am on the screen at times slowly fades away and turns whiteish.I then have to turn power off and restart it then its ok.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
OK, I jsut replaced the fan on a tosh tecra 9100, and when I restart the screen did not come one, so I opened it back and there was a wire lose at the front, it has an end like the antena ones at the wireless card, but I can not fin a place at the front pannel to conenc it
anyone.. has an image or knows what this is and where it goes. it will be a life saver.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Imad,
Is it brown cable? It’s antenna for the Bluetooth card (not all laptops have this card installed).
Did you remove the CPU? Make sure it’s seated properly.
Check memory modules, reseat them just in case.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Naseer Tahir,
Could be defective backlight (CCFL) lamp inside the new LCD screen. Here’s what you can try. Connect the video cable to the old LCD screen but do not plug it into the inverter, plug the new screen instead.
In this case the data signal will go to the old screen but power from the inverter to the new screen. If the backlight on the new screen still work intermittently, most likely it’s bad backlight lamp.
Also, make sure both LCD screen compatible. Maybe the new screen requires a different inverter board.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
bruno,
Sound like a problem with the LCD screen. Test your laptop with an external monitor. If external video output works properly, I think you have a problem with the laptop screen.
Also, just in case, I would check connection between the video cable and LCD screen and reconnect the cable. Maybe it’s not making good connection with the screen.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
T.J.
Try using Fn+F4 keys (to switch video output) when the laptop starts. Check the BIOS setup menu, maybe you can set the primary monitor in there.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I had similar problem to T.J, it happend when I installed a new video card driver in my laptop but at that time external monitor was connected. I had to uninstall the video card driver and install it with LCD screen connected instead of VGA monitor.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Thanks for the tip, really appreciate your help.
I tried what you suggested, this way new screen stay lit, so does that prove its a bad or incompatible inverter ?
August 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Fn+F4 doesn’t work because until I go into “display settings” the computer doesn’t recognize that the internal laptop monitor is even there. This is apparently the base of the problem: the internal monitor is never autodetected at any point from the time i turn on the computer, to when Windows boots…not until i plug in the external monitor and manually change it to “extend my desktop” and “primary monitor” under Display settings.
Bios also does not have any options dealing with monitors. So far, I’ve disabled the driver, I’ve booted in Safe Mode with Windows’ own standard driver, I’ve reverted back to the original version of the driver, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the current/latest driver…nothing has solved the problem of the display not being autodected.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
I’m trying to repair a Dell Inspiron 1100 that was found in a friends apartment. I bought another broken Inspiron 1100 being sold for parts and proceeded to swap stuff out until VOILA I had a working laptop. I then proceeded to try to find what I needed to have two working laptops, and somewhere in the process I have lost display in the first one. I’ve been switching parts around and I’m a little confused about what is what at this point. I’ve tried switching the RAM around and this has not done it. I’m a little worried that I (might) have fried something because I am working on carpet (its Florida the humidity is in the 90s) but nonetheless it still doesn’t work! Any suggestions?
August 27th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
i have toshiba qosmio e15-av101 laptop—when i turn the computer –i get the message –’computer is starting,—and than it freezes–????—i suspecte something to do with bios
August 28th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Found the problem…..bent pin in the processor. Took it out, straightened the pin and all works now. I feel like a jeenyus.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Hi!
I need help!
I did have a little accident with my computer and the screen is broken.
In the beginning with the broken screen,i can see a blue screen color with few letters.
After few times i tryed to turn it on and nothing on the screen at all but my computer still runing.
I decide to change the screen and still the same nothing on the screen at all.
I also plug my computer with an external monitor still the same problem.
Please,could you help me what i have to do know.
Sam,thanks!
August 30th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I recently went out of town on business and when I came back i tried to get on my Dell Inspirion 6000 and I opened it up and hit the power button the display lit up for about half a second and went off. The computer appears to continue booting up and running but there is nothing on the screen. It worked just fine when i shut it down before i left and four days later this is what it is doing?
September 4th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
My HP widescreen had the same kind of problem. Yesterday, it was running perfectly fine. When I come back from school, though, I sit down, turn it on, and the screen’s just totally blank. I wait a few seconds, it turns off. Try pressing the power button again, this time it stays on a bit longer. The strange thing was, though, was that when I pressed any button on the keyboard while it was off, it would seem to power back up again.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Hello guys, I hope you can help me to solve this…
I have an Acer Aspire 9300 series ( unfortunately I can’t tell the exact model since the notebook is still at the useless technician…) for over a year now, so warranty just expired. Additionally I am on a caribbean island but bought the notebook in Europe, so no good cards at all.
Due to viruses and trojans AND a replacement of my harddrive (needed one with more space) I wanted to completely setup my notebook freshly. Unfortunately the bought harddrive was the wrong one, so I had to put in the old one again. Up to this point it still booted normally.
Then I wanted to reset the notebook to the factory settings, with a shortcut (I think it was Alt+F11, not sure anymore, forgot it). This worked fine too, system told me that the reset finished and that I have to reboot. After that reboot nothing happened, the screen stayed blank, but I could hear some music which I suppose and remembered is the welcome movie of the Aspire. But no display. I rebooted again and again, nothing except 3 beeps, screen still blank. The music didn’t come anymore too. Rebooted hundreds of time, sometimes the beeps didn’t occur, but most of the times they did.
I tried then to connect an external monitor, but nothing on that one too.
Tried to take out the harddrive, put back in, nothing.
Went to technician here, he did the same, external monitor - nothing. Changed memory - nothing. He then told me he will open the notebook and check the display cord, days later he said it was OK and he can’t do anything, I should call Acer. Most probably the motherboard.
The only thing is that it always sounded like it boots normally, lights showed up like it is booting, cd-rom worked when I checked it. It opened and upon closing I could hear it spinning. So can it really be that the video card or motherboard is dead??
I will go to town tomorrow to get back my poor notebook, and I hope you guys can give me some advice whatelse to do?
Thanks a lot in advance!!
September 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I had this exact problem with the same machine:
“I have a Toshiba Satellite notebook. Recently, and for no apparent reason, when I pushed the power button to turn on my notebook, the computer would turn on, but the monitor would not show any image or even any sign of light (doesn’t even light up).”
So I decided to re-open it to check if I forgot to plug something in. Once I made sure everything was plugged in (even a 1 inch white plug near the power supply that is so hard to reach and which I think I forgot the first time). But now, when I plug the computer in, the lights at the front turn on normally but when I press the power button, nothing happens and I mean nothing at all. The machine doesn’t turn on, the light on the power button doesn’t turn on…nothing..
So I reopened it again but everything seem fine…
What to look for?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Hey All,
I’m working on an HP DV5000 which has a strange display problem in that if you remove the back cover of the lcd (the top of the laptop), and the lcd screen is only attached by the cables and hinges, it works fine. The minute you re-assemble the cover, the display no longer functions. It must be shorting out somewhere, but where?
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim
September 9th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Jim Walenciak,
Let’s say the screen is only attached by the cables. Can you make it fail if you torque the screen? It’s possible that there is bad solder joint somewhere on the LCD controller board (circuit board on the back). When you install the back cover, you flex the LCD circuit board and because of that it fails. This is just a guess.
Also, take a closer look at the video cable. Maybe the cable cover is damaged and there are internal wires exposed?
September 9th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Ok. That sounds right. Thinking back, I can remember 3 other notebooks, a Dell D800 and a Tosh M55 & 2515 maybe?, anyway, they had the same scenario; works great till you actually put it all together, then no screen. I’ll inspect for these items and get back to you.
Thanks so much for your help. It’s appreciated.
Jim
September 11th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Ok, check this out.
LEaving the lcd attached only by the hinge assembly and the cables, I started to load the OS,mostly to see if it would run for any length of time. It lasted 8 minutes before the whole thing shut down.
Heat sink/fan are clear. Any ideas. This unit belongs to the wife of one of our military guys overseas; I hate to let it kick my butt.
Thanks again for your help.
Jim
September 11th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Jim,
1. Can you hear the fan spinning? Could be dead fan.
2. Run memory test. I use Memtest86+. Could be bad memory.
3. Run hard drive test. I use Hitachi drive fitness test.
Will it shut down while testing memory and hard drive?
September 16th, 2008 at 6:42 am
As it says above, this is important. I really need to resolve this issue this week so that it does not prevent me from taking my law school exams on my laptop.
Last night I accidentally spilled a small amount of coffee on my laptop (I’d say about a tablespoon). It’s a Dell Studio 1535 (which I can’t seem to find much info on since it’s relatively new). Dell customer support was no help since it’s not covered under the warranty I have; Dell’s website was practically worthless. So, after reading a few how-to’s online, my dad and I decided to disassemble my laptop to see if any coffee had spilled inside (my dad also used to build computers, so we mostly knew what we were doing).
I pulled off the back cover plate, no coffee inside, or at least it hadn’t leaked all the way into the motherboard and all that. I primarily spilled the coffee onto the speaker panel. I also have a few sticky keys, but from what I understand, being a membrane-type keyboard, it would be inadvisable if not impossible to remove these and clean under them. Anyway, I removed the front cover plate of the speaker panel gently and found no coffee. However, after reassembling everything and letting it dry out over night upside down, now when I turn it on, I have no visual. Is it possible that the display data cable/ribbon got torn? How would I tell? It appears to be intact.
Computer works just fine with external monitor, so I’m wondering if I just fried the display panel. In any case, what’s the best way to go about fixing/replacing this? How much is it likely to cost me?
Thanks, I appreciate it!
September 17th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I have a Toshiba Sattellite A105-S4334 and the lcd screen is so dark you can barely see an image. I was able to change the brightness settings all the way down to -60 with the intel video wizard and I can see everything but the colors are screwed up and focus is not too good.
When I boot the screen is readable with a grayish background instead of blue.
Could this be the inverter or lcd screen?
All looks good on external monitor.
Thanks for your time.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I have a similar problem, but with some differences. My laptop’s (Asus G1) screen lights up but displays no image, only gray. I have attached an external monitor but the screen is cluttered with random ascii characters before vista loads. Vista will only boot in safe mode now and run on my external monitor with the lowest possible resolution and lowest quality color and there are columns of pink lines across the screen.
Disk defrag will not load up at all; I click on the program and nothing happens. IE and Firefox will not run longer than a minute as Vista’s Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature will shut them down. I have swapped memory modules in and out with no change in behavior. I was able to run a full virus scan however with Symantec Endpoint Protection.
During the last couple weeks I have had perhaps two occurrences of my laptop being unable to wake properly from Sleep. This morning I got a BSOD error and a screen jumbled with colors and the same pink columns. I immediately rebooted and everything worked fine. I shut the computer down and came back to it later in the day to find this problem I have described. My 2-year-old daughter was playing with the power strip the laptop is plugged into by turning it off and on, but I’m not sure if it’s relevant.
Please help!
September 17th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
My Toshiba Sattelite P105-S6084 will power on and run. The LCD portion of the screen is working fine, but the lighting will only stay on for about 5 seconds and then shuts off again. I have broken it open, as I thought that it was a screen close button problem, but that will power the display up for 5 seconds again and again. I think it is an LCD inverter problem but don’t know how to diagnose. Any comments?
September 18th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Charlie,
If the backlight inside the screen lights up when you turn on the laptop, it’s not related to the inverter.
You said that colors are screwed up and out of focus, and that sounds like a problem with the LCD.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I have a compaq presario V2000. the computer turns on fine and works perfectly. But after usually 30 minutes of use the screen goes blank. I still see that the backlight is on but there is no image. I tried pluggin in an external monitor and pressed the functoion key but the screen says there is no signal. I reseated the memory with no result. I did the some troubleshooting to make sure it wasn’t the inverter or the screen itself they were all unsuccesful. Since restating is the only option thats what i do, but after 30 minutes or so the screen goes blank again. I’m thinking video card problem. help please?
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 am
i have a hp pavilion ze2000. i recently just had to wipe it and re format it. meaning i had to put windows xp back on. but i had my laptop sitting on my bed all day, it was on and it was closed. when i went to use it later that night. my laptop was really hot cause it was sittin on my bed and i think the fan was blocked up so it couldnt cool its self down… but the screen was really dark. lookd like it had a screen saver up it was so dark. so i moved my touchpad.. nothing happened. so i turned it off and back on.. still nothing well later i noticed in certain light i can see the screen and my background all that like my computer is running smoothly i just can barly see anything. its very dark.. so what could it be?
October 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite A15-S157 laptop. I recently (3 months ago) replaced the memory (1 gig), hard drive (80 gig), fan. All was working well until last week when my daughter said the screen was flickering for awhile and then went dark. You can still see the screen faintly. I can plug into an external monitor fine. I’m thinking the back lite is burt out. Another post suggested that I replace the LCD Harness. Do you have any suggestions of stuff for me to try without replacing the entire LCD? Would like to keep it for a spare if it’s not to expensive to fix.
Thanks, Jon
October 24th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I have a similar conundrum. The Toshiba Satellite A105 started with a white screen now - nothing at all. I read to try pressing on the outer edges of the LCD screen - no change. I connected it to an external monitor and it worked great. When I unplugged the monitor and tried to go back to just the lcd screen, now I have nothing - black screen. I tried removing the battery and ac power and pressing the power button for a minute. After I put everything back, I turned it back on - still black. I removed the screws that held the top half of the laptop (kb, screen, touchpad, etc…) to the bottom to try to see where the screen connected to the main board. I removed and reseated the cable, verifying that there were no bent pins and everything lined up. When I put everything back together and tried turining it on - nothing - still black. I checked the cable again - no bent pins and everything was aligned - still black.
I know the problem could be the screen, the inverter, the cable or the mobo. Since I have a limited income and if I tried all 4, I would be at the cost of a new laptop. Can anyone help?
Any and all suggestions are welcomed!
Thanks in advance.
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Hiii i have the same problem ¬¬
I have hp pavilion dv5000
And my screen is just blank and the power button does not light up
I really need some help asap!
Ive tried re-seating the ram
Switching around the memory modules and taking one out and leaving the other in and vice versa
I reallly need some help :/
thanks
November 5th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
T.J. Says
“Fn+F4 doesn’t work because until I go into “display settings” the computer doesn’t recognize that the internal laptop monitor is even there. This is apparently the base of the problem: the internal monitor is never autodetected at any point from the time i turn on the computer, to when Windows boots…not until i plug in the external monitor and manually change it to “extend my desktop” and “primary monitor” under Display settings.
Bios also does not have any options dealing with monitors. So far, I’ve disabled the driver, I’ve booted in Safe Mode with Windows’ own standard driver, I’ve reverted back to the original version of the driver, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the current/latest driver…nothing has solved the problem of the display not being autodected”
I am have the same problem! Though I have a Toshiba Satellite A100-St1042, Windows XP Pro Sp2, and nVidia Geforce Go 7300. Only the external monitor will show the boot-up, but once I get into Windows I can turn on the LCD display. Sometimes I have to restart a few times before it detects the LCD. When I get the LCD on, it will work fine (even restarting) until I turn off the laptop for a short period of time.
Could this be a memory problem? Or BIOS or even the screen itself?
Thanks =)
November 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I have a Dell inspiron 6400 Laptop. One day I turned it on and the screen is black. If I hook it up to an external monitor I am able to use my computer as usual.
Any ideas as to what the problem could be. I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks Susan