Laptop LCD screen failed...

Serendipity

Well, as some of you already know, I haven't been on the forum for 3 weeks because my laptop's LCD screen died. Or something like that. Really sucked since all my work was saved on my laptop and I had 3 papers due for school this week! Did I back them up? No :eek:

The good thing is, I had a full coverage extended warranty from Micro Center on this laptop, so they were able to fix it over the past two weeks.

The funny thing is, the laptop's LCD screen didn't fail, it turned out to be the tiny little switch that tells the PC if the screen is opened or closed. Apparently it failed and got stuck in the "Closed" position, so the PC would blank the screen (but the screen was still working). So I'm wondering why the screen is so dark, thinking that the backlight had failed, but it was just a simple switch!!

So, to make a long story short, I will be getting my laptop back tomorrow...and will be back on the forum!

VR3

Oh thank god!

My hero will return to thee!

Woo hoo!

Serendipity

Huh?

This is a reminder to everyone, BACK UP YOUR DATA!

Serendipity

And why are you double spacing your posts?

fatchowmein

appadv wrote: »

Well, as some of you already know, I haven't been on the forum for 3 weeks because my laptop's LCD screen died. Or something like that. Really sucked since all my work was saved on my laptop and I had 3 papers due for school this week! Did I back them up? No :eek:

I'm glad it worked out. In the future, if your laptop dies and the problem is not a failed drive and if you needed something on there right away and don't have time to wait 2 weeks to get the system back from the repair shop, remember you can always remove the drive and slap it into an external drive enclosure and hook it up to another pc to recover your data. You'll need an adapter though if your drive enclosure is meant for a 5.25" drive. If you're not comfortable doing it, the repair shop can do it for you at a small fee of course.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203012

Serendipity

fatchowmein wrote: »

I'm glad it worked out. In the future, if your laptop dies and the problem is not a failed drive and if you needed something on there right away and don't have time to wait 2 weeks to get the system back from the repair shop, remember you can always remove the drive and slap it into an external drive enclosure and hook it up to another pc to recover your data. You'll need an adapter though if your drive enclosure is meant for a 5.25" drive. If you're not comfortable doing it, the repair shop can do it for you at a small fee of course.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203012

Haha, Lasareath said the same thing to me. But the only PC I had around here was a Pentium II, no SATA and a 10GB HDD, so I doubt it would recognize my 100GB laptop drive.

BaggedLancer

I'm a bit confused, is this thread about backing up data or a laptop screen that went bad but really didn't? The two aren't even related....

Why didn't you just plug a monitor into your laptop so you could see your desktop and copy or email your papers to yourself? Better yet, ask the people at microcenter to do it for you and just hand them your USB drive.

As for backing up data, yes it's highly recommended.

brettw22

That's what I was gonna ask...........plug an external monitor in so you can youse (yes, i actually typed that and decided to leave it........proof i'm tired) the thing at a minimum..............

Serendipity

BaggedLancer wrote: »

I'm a bit confused, is this thread about backing up data or a laptop screen that went bad but really didn't? The two aren't even related....

Why didn't you just plug a monitor into your laptop so you could see your desktop and copy or email your papers to yourself? Better yet, ask the people at microcenter to do it for you and just hand them your USB drive.

As for backing up data, yes it's highly recommended.

Try this for yourself: hold down the little button on your laptop that senses if the screen is opened or closed. Then you'll see that it's impossible to use an external monitor since the laptop disables the keyboard (Fn + F8 doesn't do anything) and also the mouse.

I use an external monitor all the time.

If you read the first post, you'd see that the switch failed in the closed position, preventing me from hitting the Fn + F8 to get the external monitor display.

Serendipity

This is what I am talking about -

The switch under this thing is what failed, not the LCD screen. I first thought it was the LCD screen due to the fact that I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the Windows startup sound.

The Micro Center warranty guys told me that my LCD panel was okay and replaced the switch.

Serendipity

I just searched "laptop LCD screen" in Google and posted a pic. That's not my laptop, I'd never let it get that dirty!

Now I'm wondering, when this switch is pressed in, why does the laptop turn off the keyboard and mouse? I mean, that totally prevents you from using an external monitor in this situation!!

Airplay355

Probably because people close things in their laptop and it could depress keys and cause issues.

Serendipity

Airplay355 wrote: »

Probably because people close things in their laptop and it could depress keys and cause issues.

Aha, so it ignores keystrokes on purpose (by design).

I also tried using an external keyboard, but there is no Fn + F8 key I could press to get the picture on my external monitor.

This sucks!!

BaggedLancer

appadv wrote: »

Try this for yourself: hold down the little button on your laptop that senses if the screen is opened or closed. Then you'll see that it's impossible to use an external monitor since the laptop disables the keyboard (Fn + F8 doesn't do anything) and also the mouse.

I use an external monitor all the time.

If you read the first post, you'd see that the switch failed in the closed position, preventing me from hitting the Fn + F8 to get the external monitor display.

Easy fix....hit the power button on the laptop and flip the lid closed, it will auto default to external display. You shouldn't have to hit FN-F8 at all.

Serendipity

Laptop will be here today. Will see if that works...

All I remembered is that I couldn't use an external monitor with the laptop's lid open.

Serendipity

BaggedLancer wrote: »

Easy fix....hit the power button on the laptop and flip the lid closed, it will auto default to external display. You shouldn't have to hit FN-F8 at all.

Nope, I still had to hit Fn + F8 to get the output to the external monitor. It didn't matter if the laptop's lid was opened or closed.

With the system running and an external monitor connected, all opening/closing the lid does is blank the laptop LCD screen. It doesn't do anything else. The external monitor stays on until you hit Fn + F8.

BaggedLancer

Never seen that in my life.....if you hit power and immediately close the lid before the XP screen comes up it auto defaults to external monitor. What kind of laptop was this?

Serendipity

Its a hp dv1000. If you hit power and immediately close the lid, the external monitor stays blank until you hit Fn + F8.

It works in the opposite way too...same thing with when you have an external monitor already on, it doesn't get disabled if you open/close the screen. It stays on.