dell inspiron, black screen

boden08

Distinguished
Jun 20, 2009
17
0
18,560
hi all,
just a quick question, after turning on the laptop I get the dell logo_Once the bar loads up to around 50% the screen goes black.

I have tried to see if I can see any faint traces on the screen and cannot see anything. I have connected it up to an external monitor and this display works perfectly fine.

So am I right in saying this requires a new screen, just could not understand why I can see the dell logo at the start and then it goes blank.

any information would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks
 

turkey3_scratch

Estimable
Herald
Jul 15, 2014
571
0
5,210
Try taking out the laptop battery and plug in the laptop and try running it like that. If it works, then there must be an issue with the battery not being able to supply enough power to the screen. Just a wild guess on what the problem could be, but worth a try!
 

turkey3_scratch

Estimable
Herald
Jul 15, 2014
571
0
5,210
Hmm... See this is weird because you know the screen can work because it displays the logo. Oh! I think I might know the problem. Windows is probably set to try to display only on an external monitor. Do this:

1) Plug the battery back in
2) connect to the external monitor
2.5) Load Windows
3) in Windows, hit the Windows-key-P combination on the keyboard
4) select the "duplicate" screen display option so stuff will be displayed on both screens

See if that works.
 

boden08

Distinguished
Jun 20, 2009
17
0
18,560
Sorry I should of mentioned in my original post, the laptop was a windows vista but now has windows xp.

The win key+p does not work in windows xp but if I have it connected to an external display and press the fn and f8 to switch between screens, the laptop screen flashes on the goes off.

So I go back to external monitor and then back to laptop screen and again it flashes but their is a small buzzing/fizzing sound within that second that the laptop screen comes on?

Thanks again
 

turkey3_scratch

Estimable
Herald
Jul 15, 2014
571
0
5,210

Try searching in the control panel "displays" or "monitors" or whatever and try to find an option to change the display to "duplicate" because I know XP will have it.
 

boden08

Distinguished
Jun 20, 2009
17
0
18,560
jarotech

The model is the inspiron 6400 (pp20l i think), i can not access the bios through the laptop screen but i can try to access it through the external monitor.

i have searched the display options and no where does it show any information on duel displays or duplicate. going into the display/ settings, i have no identify tabs or any options to change monitors it just displays the single external monitor that it is running on.