I dropped my dell laptop, now it turns on & shows the xp windows logo. I notice the the booting bar is in activation but it does not stop, ever.

Most likely you damaged the hard drive.
Listen closely for noises coming from the hard drive when the laptop tries loading Windows. Can you hear repetitive clicking noise or grinding noise? If yes, the hard drive was damaged.
Turn off the laptop as soon as possible. Hopefully you still can recover personal files from the failing hard drive.

If the hard drive was damaged, you’ll have to replace it with a new one and reinstall Windows OS.

My granddaughter tripped over my power cord on my Compaq laptop now my screen shuts down like after I start it the screen goes black. If I touch the display switch I can not see whats on the screen. If I angle it right I Can see my Windows screen. Think I should get another switch and replace it? Or any one got any other idea what to do?

I doubt your problem is related to the display switch.

From your description it sounds like the laptop has either failed inverter board or failed backlight lamp inside the screen.

If the laptop was dropped, probably the backlight lamp was damaged. It means you’ll have to replace the screen because the backlight lamp mounted inside the screen.

If I would have to fix the laptop, I would probably go though the following steps:
1. Test the laptop with an external monitor, just to make sure that external video still works fine. This will confirm that your video card/motherboard operate properly.
2. Reseat video cable connectors on the motherboard, LCD screen and inverter board, just to make sure it’s not just loose connection.
3. Replace the LCD screen and if it doesn’t help, replace the inverter board.

How can I replace a broken screen in an HP Pavilion dv8 notebook? This is a brand new notebook but I accidentally dropped it from the desk and broke the screen. HP doesn’t cover this under warranty, so I have to figure out how to replace the screen myself. Is it possible?

Yes it’s possible to replace the broken scree but not easy.

Here’s official service manual for HP Pavilion dv8 series notebooks. It’s a 3.3MB pdf file. You’ll find disassembly instructions in there.

First, you’ll have to disassemble the notebook and remove the display panel assembly as it shown on the page 4-35 in the service guide.

Second, you’ll have to disassemble the display assembly and remove the LCD screen as it shown on pages 4-35 through 4-40.

You can search for a new replacement LCD screen here.

My screen on my HP Pavilion dv6-1259dx is broken (hit with a pillow, and has funny lines all over it) How do I change the screen on my own. I cannot find any screws for the top where the screen is, like all the sites say to find?

Your Pavilion dv6 laptop should have eight screw covers on the front bezel.
Remove those eight covers and remove all eight screws hidden under those covers.
After that you remove the bezel and access the screen.

You’ll find detailed instruction with pictures in the service manual. This is a 5.5MB pdf file and might take some time to download.

The display panel disassembly instructions are shown on the page 158 in the “Recycling” chapter.

What is a VGA port and where is it because I dropped my laptop and the screen is broken and I would love to get my pictures on my home computer.

The VGA port looks like one shown on the picture below. It’s a D-shaped connector with 15 holes.

If the laptop screen is broken, you use the VGA port to connect an external monitor. In some cases you’ll have to force the laptop to switch from the internal screen to the external monitor using a keyboard shortcut. For example, on Toshiba laptop you’ll have to hold down the Fn key and at the same time press on a F5 key until video appears on the external monitor. Different laptop brands have different keyboard shortcuts.

Alternatively, you can remove the hard drive from the laptop and install it into an external USB enclosure. After that you connect this enclosure to the home computer, access the hard drive and get all your pictures. This post explains how to retrieve files from a laptop with damaged screen.

I just drop my Dell 1420 laptop and ask for some technicians , there is a display but there is no light, they said my laptop’s problem was LCD LIGHTS. Can i just buy any 14.1 LCD lamp?

Most likely the screen has no light because you damaged the backlight lamp. The backlight lamp is mounted INSIDE the LCD screen. It’s very hard to replace the backlight lamp and if you try, there is a good chance that you damage the screen. Do it only if you have nothing to lose. You can use these instructions for replacing the backlight lamp.

The display disassembly instructions could be found in this service manual for Dell Inspiron/Vostro 1420 laptops. It is not necessary to separate the display panel from the laptop. Simply remove the screen bezel, disconnect the screen from the video cable and replace it with a new screen.

Here’s a guide for replacing the screen in Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. The guide shows how to separate the inverter board from the LCD screen. Just in case if you purchase a new screen without inverter. You can find a new replacement LCD screen on eBay.

I accidentally dropped my HP Pavilion dv9700 notebook and the LCD screen got cracked. Can I replace the screen my self or it’s too complicated? Do you know how to remove the broken screen and where I can find a new one?

Yes, you can try replacing the broken LCD screen yourself. You’ll find step-by-step instructions in the manual for HP Pavilion dv9500/dv9600/dv9700 notebooks. You’ll have to read the instructions and find out if it’s too complicated for you or not.

HP uses two different types of LCD screens in these models. Some screens come with single backlight lamp and other screens come with dual backlight lamp.

You’ll have to do some research and find out if your laptop has a single or dual lamp screen. Replace the broken screen with a similar one.

All LCD screens (and their part numbers) used in HP Pavilion dv9500/dv9600/dv9700 notebooks are mentioned on the page 69 in the above mentioned manual.

In most HP laptops the screen/display part number is shown on a sticker glued to the video cable (somewhere close to the connector). In most cases you can find the sticker under the keyboard bezel where the video cable plugged into the motherboard. Find the display part number and google it or search on eBay.

My dog knocked my laptop off the table when it was on now the laptop starts but no image appears on the screen. The light comes on when I press on the power button and the fan starts working, but the screen remains dark. I tested laptop with an external monitor and couldn’t get it to work. The external monitor worked before just fine.

Take a look in the memory compartment. It’s likely that one or both memory modules got dislocated from their slots.
Try reconnecting memory modules. Simply remove modules from their slots and install back. Power up the laptop and see if it fixed the problem.

My Dell Inspiron 1420 was dropped, and the LCD is broken. Every thing else is doing ok. Is broken LCD harmful for eyes? From where can I buy a screen with the lowest price, and can I replace it myself? I have basic electronic knowledge.

I don’t think that broken LCD is harmful for eyes, it’s just hard to use the laptop with a broken screen. You can easily replace the LCD screen yourself if you follow disassembly steps in this service manual for Dell Inspiron 1420 series laptop.
By the way, it is not necessary to remove the whole display assembly from the laptop. Simply remove the display bezel, disconnect the LCD screen and replace it with a new one.
You can find a new LCD screen online but I think the cheapest price will be here.

My daughter has an Acer Aspire 3100 which fell over a couple of weeks ago. It sounded just like an HDD failure to me so I bought a replacement drive and fitted it. I then tried to restore the system using the restore disk that I had created when originally setting it up for her. Everything seemed to go fine until it got to a point where the message at the bottom of the screen said it was loading Windows – when it hung – no activity at all. I immediately assumed it was a problem with the boot disk and tried a Window upgrade disc – similar result, I scrounged a Dell XP system disc from work – no go. Then I popped the old HDD into a remote enclosure to see if it worked – and it did, nothing wrong with it – so it wasn’t the HDD… My local laptop shop had a look and said – it’s the motherboard or the video card (but the Acer splash screen appears when you try to boot it). So, as a last thing to try I set the BIOS to boot from a USB HDD and connected the original hard drive, in its new remote housing, and the thing immediately booted not to Windows but to DOS! It says Windows 98 but it comes up with the C prompt. It says there is only one file on the disc… So I am utterly confused! Can I save this machine?

Here something you can try in order to narrow down the problem.

1. Try reconnecting the memory module. If you have two modules, reseat both of them. This problem may occur because of loose connection between RAM module and motherboard.
Download Memtest86+ and burn it on a CD. Run this utility to test laptop RAM. Make sure it passes test. If you have two modules installed in your laptop, remove them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. It’s possible that one of the memory slots on the motherboards was damaged when she dropped the laptop. In that is the case, you still can use the laptop with one good memory slot.

2. Download Knoppix (live Linux) and burn it on a CD. Try booting the laptop from this Knoppix CD while the hard drive is removed from the laptop. If you still cannot boot to the desktop (similar to Windows desktop) even with the hard drive removed, most likely this problem is not related to the hard drive and something else is going on.

3. I don’t know if you feel comfortable opening up the laptop. If you do, you can try reseating internal components (wireless card, DVD drive, video card, CPU, cable connections, etc…) just to make sure it’s not connection related issue.

4. If the video card in your laptop is a separate module, try reseating the video card. Make sure it’s making good connection with the motherboard.