Dell Inspiron 15 (5547) - No picture on internal display

JRD761

Estimable
Sep 15, 2015
1
0
4,510
I have a Dell Inspiron 15 / 5547 that is having a display issue.

The laptop is a little over 1 year old (in fact, it's 22 days outside of the warranty.. Perfect timing, right?). I've never modified it, I've only updated it to Windows 10 Pro a couple weeks ago.

The laptop has a Intel i5 processor, and the regular integrated Intel graphics card.

This morning the laptop was working fine. When I got home this afternoon, the display quit working. I can see the backlighting on the display turn on, but nothing comes on the screen at all. I tried restarting the computer several times, but I am still getting no picture on the display during boot or while the computer is up and running. (It doesn't show the Dell Screen, Windows loading screen, or Windows logon screen. It also doesn't show any boot menus, or the BIOS Settings screen).

However, if I connect it to an external display via the HDMI port (the only port it has for an external display), the external display works flawlessly. I've tried checking the function+F8 key: When it's set on "Duplicate Screens", the external display works, and the backlighting on the laptop's display is on, but no picture on the laptop's display. When I set it to "External Screen Only", the external screen works, and the backlighting on the laptop's display turns off and there is no picture on the display. When I set it to "Internal Screen Only", the external screen stop working (as expected), and the backlighting on the internal screen turns on, but no picture on the screen.

I read a Dell Support Article that said to run a LCD Screen Test by holding down the "D" key and power button. This brought some life to the screen - The screen changed colors (White, Red, Green, Blue.. then repeated the colors, then restarted. When it restarted, it again had a blank screen, but the backlight of the screen was on.)

I'm not sure what to do on this. I've ran the "Dell Diagnostics" tests from the Dell website and that says there's no problems reported with the graphics card.

So should I just replace the display? What are the chances the motherboard is bad?
 
Solution
The Dell LCD BIST has been passed, so your LCD screen clearly works fine. The external display works also, so your graphics card and the rest of your laptop are in working order. The problem could be in the ribbon cable that connects your LCD to your motherboard, transmitting the video signal. As it is a delicate process to reseat the LVDS cable, you may want to have the laptop serviced by Dell support.

metalicgeek

Estimable
The Dell LCD BIST has been passed, so your LCD screen clearly works fine. The external display works also, so your graphics card and the rest of your laptop are in working order. The problem could be in the ribbon cable that connects your LCD to your motherboard, transmitting the video signal. As it is a delicate process to reseat the LVDS cable, you may want to have the laptop serviced by Dell support.
 
Solution