OT: laptop video problem

[Dave Labrecque]

Dude. It's a Dell.

Video displays look fine initially during boot, but then when it gets to the higher-level Windows OS stuff, it's all scrambled and unreadable. Tough to mess with drivers and things when I can't see what I'm doing. Kind of a Catch-22.

Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Thanks a zillion!

[Craig Allen]

Safe mode.

[Mark Stebbeds]

Any thoughts on how to proceed?



Make sure the res is set for the monitor's native res.

Mark

[Dave Labrecque]

Make sure the res is set for the monitor's native res.

Mark

Can't do Safe Mode; can't see anything, even safe mode.

Turns out I can see the screen contents, they're just so dim as to be unreadable. So, to clarify: each screen displays properly for a couple seconds (during boot-up), but then goes (almost) black immediately. Weird. I've been able to output to an external monitor to trouble shoot, but still no luck. I've updated the video driver and video bios.

Other thoughts? It's like some kind of power-saving mode is kicking in prematurely. But that's just a guess. That's just what it looks like. I dunno.

Help!

[MMP]

I think the backlights use a kind of ballast thingie (tech term;) ). Perhaps it is failing, similarly to a fluorescent lamp?

Regards,

MM

[Craig Allen]

I think the backlights use a kind of ballast thingie (tech term;) ). Perhaps it is failing, similarly to a fluorescent lamp?

Regards,

MM
It sounds like that is the problem. The only other thing would be to check the bios for some sort of power saver option like you said.

[MikeDee]

Ugh, I had that backlight problem on a Dell Inspiron 5000 about 7 years ago. In fact, whenever the fault was detected at power-up, the machine would not boot. I'd have to reset and attempt to boot over ½***8729;dozen times! :mad:

I can't tell you how many times I'd finally get into Windows, then the machine would go blank. I could barely see what was there...I had to blindly keystroke my way back to alt+F4 to shut down (forget about the mouse cursor...like looking for a needle in a haystack).

The irony is that the machine, which had a 3-year warranty, had this problem from Day 1...but Dell wouldn't give me a new machine, AND they never changed the backlight. They claimed it was a MB problem...so they changed it (from a PII 333 to a PII 400) and sent back the machine...without a new driver disc!

I did get one a day or so later...then some months later the CD cracked while in the comp case...bad move on my part. I never could find the correct drivers at the time, since my Dell service tag # no longer coincided with the machine's updated specs...the drivers posted for my machine were no longer valid.

I went back & forth with Dell during the entire 3-year warranty period. In this regard, they actually lost money...they would've been better off giving me a replacement immediately. But that's the corporate culture for ya....

What a nightmare...guess why I had Sony machines for the last 5 years before upgrading to the Fujitsu. :rolleyes:

Thanx for taking the trip down Memory Lane with me, Folks! Hey, anybody interested in a used, er, I mean, certified [or is it certifiable?] preowned Dell Inspiron 5000? :D

[sebastiandybing]

Try connect a external monitor, on my laptop I need to hit the "FN+F4" to
activate the external monitor output.

Sebastian

[Dave Labrecque]

Try connect a external monitor, on my laptop I need to hit the "FN+F4" to
activate the external monitor output.

Sebastian

Thanks, everyone. We'll have the "ballast" idea checked out. Thanks, MD, for your sad story. My dad (it's his Dell) has gotten similarly frustrated with Dell support of late. Sebastian, I did hook up an external monitor -- to reinstall drivers and bios's. It worked fine (the ext monitor, that is; the reinstalls didn't help). Another reason to suspect the laptop's screen hardware, methinks.

Thanks, everyone! :)