Not sure where this belongs as it seems to fit in a couple of categories so I thought I'd start here. My wife rebooted her laptop yesterday, an aging system but still works great other than this issue and she insists on keeping it. Problem is the screen is extremely dark. Darker than you can make it on purpose. First I thought the damn thing wasn't booting until I noticed some VERY faint images on the screen. Used a flashlight to maneuver around trying to fix it with the standard settings but no dice. I know the screen is good because when it boots the boot screen is fine. Also when it gets to the sign on screen it's normal until you try to click it then gone. What could do this? More importantly can I fix it? Tried system restore but it failed to fix anything. Suspicious behavior. Almost like a virus but it's protected with Windows Security Essentials which I've had good luck with. In a word. HELP! I hate it when I can't figure it out.
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Laptop screen is dark
- Thread starter Rigit
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2005
- Location
- Bermuda
If the laptop has a 5000 series ATI graphics card, try removing the latest drivers and installing Catalyst 13.4 or earlier. My Asus laptop has no backlight without Cat 13.4 or earlier...it's a known issue with 5000 series mobile chips.
- Thread Starter
- #4
It is not dark for the splash screen to hit F2 or F12 but ONLY when it gets to windows. It's worked fine for years. How do I tell if it even has a backlight? Can't see that being the issues since the screens appears normal except for getting into windows.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2005
- Location
- Bermuda
My wife gave me a long stare as I was pointing a flashlight at the laptop's screen. I looked up and said, "What?" She replied, "What do you mean 'what'...why the hell do you have a flashlight pointed at the laptop?"
I was able to see everything in Safe Mode as the offending driver didn't load. Unfortunately, the uninstaller will not run in Safe Mode, hence my flashlight-assisted driver un-installation in Normal Mode.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
hold a flashlight up to the screen and see if you can see anything... if you can then its a bad back-light.. if you cant it may be a bad inverter... but more than likely its the back-light.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2005
- Location
- Bermuda
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2003
If the screen comes up at all during any of the boot process, then the issue is not hardware related. I does not sound like bad back lighting, it is not the inverter and its not a loose plug. If the screen comes up fine until you enter Windows, its a driver issue.
One way around this is to connect an external monitor to the laptop. This will help you get around the dark screen issue. Also, if the external monitor works, you know the video card is good. If it doesn't work, that's usually a bad video card.
One way around this is to connect an external monitor to the laptop. This will help you get around the dark screen issue. Also, if the external monitor works, you know the video card is good. If it doesn't work, that's usually a bad video card.
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2004
An excellent test, to isolate the LCD itself from the video chipset. Hey theres always a clip on booklight.. :hide:
- Thread Starter
- #11
Well I'm not sure what to think. If I leave it alone for a bit when I come back and move the mouse it lights up for a second or so then gone. It has stopped showing the splash screen as well but I've only tried to boot it once. I'm trying to find a driver but the only one I found so far is for intel I series cpu's. This has a dual core pentium 4...Intel Pentium T3200 / 2 GHz. I'm not home now but when I get home I planned on plugging in a second monitor to it. That has now been sugested as well here so seems like a likely next step. But If I do fine a driver I'll try that too.
- Thread Starter
- #14
Do what I did, boot the woman, replace the computer!
I made a command decision instead. She loves her tablet so I bought her a new laptop convertible.
Toshiba Portege M780-S7230 Tablet PC - 12.1" - Wireless LAN - Intel Core i5 i5-520M 2.40 GHz - Titanium Silver - 3 GB RAM - 250 GB HDD - DVD-Writer - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - Convertible - 1280 x 800 (LED Backlight) - Bluetooth
Backlight will blow in 6 years again but I have NO intention of letting her keep computers that long again. That rig is 6 years old and showed it's age for a while now. Freaken Dual core Pentium 4 She loves already and is moving her stuff to an external drive as I type.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
Did you try holding a flash light up to the screen like i previously stated...
- Thread Starter
- #17
Yes it has a faint image that can be seen with a flashlight. It comes on for a while and then as suddenly as it came back it goes out. Doesn't matter since I'm replacing the the out dated box for a new modern version.
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
Yeah its a bad back light... pretty simple to replace if you know what your doing... but if its out its probably time to replace anyways.
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