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Laptop Screen Question

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Jonathan, Jun 30, 2013.

  1. Jonathan

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    Yesterday my laptop screen started acting odd. It would randomly go black while I was on my computer. Now the computer itself was not frozen (if I was playing a game, I could still hear the animations when I clicked with my mouse). Sometimes the vision would come back after a few seconds. Other times it would not come back at all, and I would have to restart the computer to get the screen to work again. I'm not particularly computer savvy myself, so I'm not sure what may be going wrong or what I would need to do to fix it. Therefore, I thought I'd ask my fellow EC'ers for your thoughts about it. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated :slight_smile: .
     
  2. Stridenttube

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    Next time it goes black take it into a dim area and shine a bright light on the screen. If you can see whatever was supposed to be on the display then your LCD backlight is failing and you will have to have it replaced.
     
  3. Miaplacidus

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    Otherwise, maybe issues with the cable that connects the display to the motherboard.
     
  4. biggayguy

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    That happened to the laptop I bought last year. Fortunately I had paid for insurance so the store replaced it with a new one.
     
  5. Miaplacidus

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    Guess that having the cable replaced, is cheaper than the same thing for the lamp.
     
  6. Ridiculous

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    If it comes back without fail when you restart the computer I'm putting my money on it being an issue with either the graphics card or the graphics driver.
    If it was an issue with the screen hardware then I would expect it to persist through a restart.
     
  7. RainbowMan

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    It's also possible that it's the power to the display, and resetting the computer resets the power circuits. Somewhat unlikely, but I'd check the backlight with a bright LED flashlight as recommended already.

    If it's just a loose cable that's fairly easy to fix (though I wouldn't think that it would consistently come back after resetting the computer if that were the case).

    How old is the laptop and what's it worth to you would be questions that I'd ask myself. Sometimes it's more effective to just replace the laptop as opposed to fooling around with fixing it (particularly if it's out of warranty).

    I'm a bit of a gadget freak though, and have to have the latest thing. Even though I just bought a new laptop that I'm writing this on right now, I'll probably buy a new one when Haswell comes out :grin:
     
  8. Miaplacidus

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    Didn't get that. Yeah.

    Under modern Windows operating systems (such as Windows 7) that might be the graphics driver crashing repeatedly. Usually, if/when it recovers, a balloon shows up over the notification area (where the clock is) saying that the graphics driver crashed.
     
  9. Jonathan

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    It's a custom designed HP Pavilion dv7t-4000 laptop that is about three years old and that cost a little over a thousand dollars. I've already tried the hard reset (taking out the battery and holding down the power button) but it didn't seem to help and the screen still randomly goes black. It also happens at different times. Sometimes it goes black at the start up (after the windows screen) and other times after I have already logged on and have been on the computer for a decent amount of time. I also have tried using an external monitor to see what would happen (hooked it up to my tv). When the laptop screen went black, the monitor continued showing everything fine. However, it would not allow me to click or open anything (but the mouse would move).

    From the times that I remember it coming back after a few seconds, I don't remember ever seeing a balloon notification near the clock, but maybe it just never grabbed my attention. I'll look specifically there the next time it comes back.

    If it is the graphics card, I'll be somewhat pissed off...I custom built the laptop specifically so I could have a pretty good graphics card and could play games on it (I can't remember off hand the exact graphics card I had put in).

    Thanks for all the replies by the way, I really do appreciate them.

    ---------- Post added 30th Jun 2013 at 09:10 PM ----------

    Scratch that part about the external monitor. I just tried it again and it the tv works fine when the laptop screen goes black.
     
    #9 Jonathan, Jun 30, 2013
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2013
  10. Stripe101

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    This was happening to my old laptop!Just got rid of it. But then again, that thing was from 2006. How old is yours?
     
  11. Ridiculous

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    I would try updating your graphics driver, or trying an old driver. I had something similar happen to mine about a week after updating my driver and it was fixed when I reverted.

    Anyway it's the easiest thing to check and you'd be pissed off if you went and replaced something else only to find out it was the driver all along.
     
  12. RainbowMan

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    So probably not the graphics card hardware itself, or the driver. This leads to a physical problem with the display or the cabling to it.

    You mentioned that you're not very tech savvy, but if you're slightly handy and good with small parts you could probably replace the display without too much hassle. I had to do that in one of my laptops (I stepped on it and cracked the panel, no other damage) and the panel cost like $100-$150 or so, and free labor since I had a friend do it for me, but even so only took about 20-30 minutes (of course, what a shop would charge...no idea. But that gives you an idea of the complexity)

    If you still have a warranty on it, just send it in....
     
  13. AAASAS

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    It's the cables connected to your motherboard.

    I had and still have the same problem.