So a long while back my Dell laptop's screen starting going dark on me for no apparent reason (about 20 minutes after firing up windoze). I talked to the tech support folks who told me I needed to buy a new laptop. Instead, I bought a software upgrade of windoze. Everything was working fine until this week when the predictable screen-shutdown has started up again.
Is this a virus? Has anybody experienced this and know of a solution?
(I also have this "wandering mouse" thing going on occasionally, but that's less irritating).
I should prolly just get a new power supply for my Mac and stop putting up with this nonsense.
Posted by Lara (Member # 132) on :
How old is your laptop?
Posted by alluvion (Member # 7462) on :
about 4 years.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Does it go completely black or just not as bright?
Posted by alluvion (Member # 7462) on :
At first it would just dim, and (oddly) if I yanked the power cord out, it would resume the regular brightness until the battery wore down. Lately, it just goes to black with a faint image of what was on the screen a moment ago.
Since I can immediately power the thing back up, this strikes me as a software malfunction rather than a hardware problem.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
Since there is a faint image, doubt that it's software, or a hardware problem of the computer portion itself.. Odds are that even the LCD itself is working just fine. However, the LCD screen is backlit; and without that backlight, the image is very hard to see.
Given the amount of time the computer&screen would operate before the blackout would occur originally, odds are that the powerwire from the computer to the backlight got frayed from opening and closing the case over the years. Think in terms of how a coathanger will break from bending it 90degrees, then repeatedly bending it back&forth on the same spot. Same thing happens to the cables that connect from the computer to the LCDscreen. Because the cable isn't bent as severely as the coathanger example, it takes a lot longer for a break to occur.
First you would get intermittent opens -- ie the backlight powerwire isn't in one piece; however the two pieces are touching -- as the computer's operation heats up the cable, and causes the two pieces of wire to disconnect. Eventually, the wire pieces quit touching even when the machine is cold.
Common enough problem (to boo the tech-support dude for failing to consider it) that there is a relatively easy-to-install and relatively cheap connector piece (for both the LCD and the backlight) that you can buy as replacement. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it at the moment. You can probably call a computer repair shop to get the name for free.
Though it might also be the backlight itself gradually going out, I'd think that that would be a less likely problem. And even less likely that it's the LCD that's failing.