laptop screen turned black but laptop still running

[anetry]

My toshiba laptop screen suddenly turned black,but if looking closely you can still barely see what is on the screen, like the screen saver turned it self on, but I restarted my computer many times and it loads up but still no results.
I had this problem about 4 months ago, so i called toshiba helpline and they were very helpful and gave me instructions while on the phone. The guy on the phone told me to shut down the system, unplug it, take the battery out and press ON button for 20 seconds, then realise the finger and wait another minute, and it worked perfectly until now. When I called yesterday, the guy on the phone wasnt very helpful at all, he just said that the light bulb probably needs to be replaced.
I did do what the other guy told me over the phone but it didnt work so i think the bulb that lights the screen is broke.

I was wondering how much would it cost to replace such thing. And also, from reading other threads about the same problem, it only happens when the laptop is not plugged in and my battery is dead. It does not work, my laptop has to be plugged in to pwer socket non-stop. Would you have any suggestions what to do? except buying new part?

[JANINE]

It seems that your backlight has gone, however this part alone would at least cost half the price of a Laptop, consider it being Toshiba buy a new Laptop as Toshiba charge quite alot.

My toshiba laptop screen suddenly turned black,but if looking closely you can still barely see what is on the screen, like the screen saver turned it self on, but I restarted my computer many times and it loads up but still no results.
I had this problem about 4 months ago, so i called toshiba helpline and they were very helpful and gave me instructions while on the phone. The guy on the phone told me to shut down the system, unplug it, take the battery out and press ON button for 20 seconds, then realise the finger and wait another minute, and it worked perfectly until now. When I called yesterday, the guy on the phone wasnt very helpful at all, he just said that the light bulb probably needs to be replaced.
I did do what the other guy told me over the phone but it didnt work so i think the bulb that lights the screen is broke.

I was wondering how much would it cost to replace such thing. And also, from reading other threads about the same problem, it only happens when the laptop is not plugged in and my battery is dead. It does not work, my laptop has to be plugged in to pwer socket non-stop. Would you have any suggestions what to do? except buying new part?

[islandgal]

My toshiba laptop screen suddenly turned black,but if looking closely you can still barely see what is on the screen, like the screen saver turned it self on, but I restarted my computer many times and it loads up but still no results.
I had this problem about 4 months ago, so i called toshiba helpline and they were very helpful and gave me instructions while on the phone. The guy on the phone told me to shut down the system, unplug it, take the battery out and press ON button for 20 seconds, then realise the finger and wait another minute, and it worked perfectly until now. When I called yesterday, the guy on the phone wasnt very helpful at all, he just said that the light bulb probably needs to be replaced.
I did do what the other guy told me over the phone but it didnt work so i think the bulb that lights the screen is broke.

I was wondering how much would it cost to replace such thing. And also, from reading other threads about the same problem, it only happens when the laptop is not plugged in and my battery is dead. It does not work, my laptop has to be plugged in to pwer socket non-stop. Would you have any suggestions what to do? except buying new part?

THANK YOU!!! THIS FIXED MY LAPTOP!!:lol:

[jon_dev87]

Hi i have the same problem i am running an acer 5650 and it still loads up and i can hear the plinky plonky start up sounds but the screen is black, its not the backlight bulb thing because i can brighten and darken the screen with the contrast buttons but its still just black, even during the boot up i can't see the bios screen thing or anything, it was working fine and then i restarted and now after that restart is just black... the fact that it happened after a restart makes me think it's not a hardware problem, anyone know what it could be? or if not is there a way i can easily reformat my pc without the use of a screen during the reformat process :S

[Justadash]

Hi.

I just found this post and have joined to answer it for any others with the problem who may also stumble across this site in search of an answer. I recently contacted Compaq with this problem which happened after my laptop crashed in the middle of graphics intensive apps' running.

Turns out is something to do with excessive charge stored within the components of the laptop. In this situation there is a failsafe that will stop current going to different parts and being the screen uses more power than anything it is most often affected.

Unplug the power, take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 60seconds. This will release any excess charge built up in the machine. Put the power back in and turn on. That's it. You can also then of course replace the battery.

Now there will always of course, be various reasons for your screen to fail etc but most will not allow your laptop boot with all lights on and all the little 'plink' noises you can hear which suggest the laptop has fully booted.

I hope this helps although I would imagine far too late for the person who posted the original problem :P

[krnsun]

OMG that is EXACTLY what happened to me today... STEP BY STEP! phone call and all.. lol.. thanks for answering this justadash! :D

when i called toshiba tech support.. but they couldn't figure out that i could see "through" the black.. and kept trying rephrase it as "blurry?" and i was like NO!... so they were not helpful at all.. but google truly is the best.. i'm going to try what you recommended right now!

[Justadash]

I all checking back after being notified of the reply by krnsun. To update my post, it was not long after all of this that my graphics card fried.

Being it is a laptop, it of course meant going to an authorised Compaq repairer and they said first that the screen was cactus.

After having it there a week, I was told it was the graphics card and the whole mother board had to be replaced. Since getting it back it has never ran slower. I perhaps will be asking for help on that in another thread when I have time.

All in all, the fix did work for quite a while but I fear it was a sign of things to come. One certainly wouldn't expect it to be normal behavior and the true test has been passed with me not having to do the 'take out battery and hold down power button' technique since the repair in November last year.

So no good news in the end for those experiencing the problems in this thread IF they are related to my problems.

All the best.

[AlexHP]

I had this problem today - my laptop (a brand new HP) was working fine and I rebooted it. It would turn on and the fan would start, but the screen didn't turn on. I plugged "laptop screen black" into google, found this thread as the first result. The following worked perfectly for me:

Unplug the power, take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 60seconds. This will release any excess charge built up in the machine. Put the power back in and turn on. That's it. You can also then of course replace the battery.

I figured I'd be taking it to a dealer for sure. Hopefully my graphics card/motherboard don't die...Thanks!

[ducatichick]

I have exactly the same problem. I have a brand new Toshiba L40-17M, and whenever I am using it, the screen frequently goes black and I have to turn it off by holding down the power button.. Thus I am assuming is not healthy for the laptop?

Should I replace it under warranty or will I have the same hasstle??? :(

Regards

Becci

[IIMarckus]

I had a similar problem with my laptop, an IBM X24 Thinkpad. The light would frequently go out, making it almost impossible to see (although you could still make out some details without the light, it was extremely difficult). The problem went away, but one day I dropped the computer and the light never came back on.

The problem turned out to be a loose screen inverter. I took off the screen bezel and tightened the connections, and the light's been fine ever since.

[Trionztek]

@ducatichick,

You are right about it not being good for the laptop. Since ist in warranty, best get it changed.

[Quantegy15]

POSSIBLE SOLUTION for screen going black!!

My Girlfriend's Toshiba Satellite A75 screen started flickering once in a while for a few weeks and eventually went out. It would boot up and would be working fine until the Windows start-up screen started, then it would display nothing but the backlight. but it would still load up to the sign-in screen (I only know this from the usual sounds of it booting up). I took it back to where we bought it and the service guy claimed that it was a twisted wire and said he fixed it. but as soon as we got back home it still happened. I eventually took the laptop apart and looked for myself. and found nothing out of the ordinary.

As I was putting it all back together I saw what the problem was....the additional RAM that I installed had become loose. I took it out and put it back in and the machine ran perfectly. Hopefully this helps someone before they take it somewhere and they charge you $80 for a half hour of work to tell you the wrong solution.

[gabagabaz]

Wow! when i read this i was amazed. I have the EXACT same problem. I have a toshiba laptop and the screen turns black but the computer is still on. I think it is more a problem with the brand of the computer. It has already happened to me twice today. I usually turn it of by pressing the on button though. :(

[scscscotty]

I have to tell everyone that I never thought in a million years that would work. I had the same problem and I took the battery out and held the power botton for 20 seconds and my sreen came back to life. Thanks for the helpful post. It really works!!
Scotty

[tammysugar]

I am having this problem also, only I had something totally different happen ...just before it went black...
I have an acer spire 3100 and yesterday when I opened my laptop to use it, my desktop screen was devided into 4 seperate squares..this never happened before so I rebooted it and I could hear windows running, but a completely black screen...any suggestions?...i have tried taking the batter out and holding down the power button for 60 seconds then replacing the battery and restarting...stil I can only hear windows' little opening sounds..just a black screen.
will teh fan posibly need cleaning?..will system restore maybe help?...im lost...please help.:(

[dubzilla]

i have a acer aspire 5920 and have tryed the above methods but it did not work for me i still get the black screen with the writing visible only when you use a flash light to shine on it, it has froze on microsoft corporation with the small box above flshing the green bars left to right as if loading, does anyone have any ideas as what the problem could be,thanks in advance.

[jschert]

The screen on my daughter's Toshiba Satellite A105 would not come on when she turned on her computer. I read the thread that said this-

Turns out is something to do with excessive charge stored within the components of the laptop. In this situation there is a failsafe that will stop current going to different parts and being the screen uses more power than anything it is most often affected.

Unplug the power, take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 60seconds. This will release any excess charge built up in the machine. Put the power back in and turn on. That's it. You can also then of course replace the battery.

Anyway, we did the "unplug the cord, take the battery out and hold down the on button for sixty seconds" and wala... It is working again.. Wow.. That is so cool..
jschert

[Puregold71]

I have an HP Pavillion laptop, and one day the screen was black. I rebooted and I could hear it start up and the Window's sounds, but cannot see anything. I hooked it up to another monitor, and I can see the Window's logo loading page, but nothing appears after that. I tried removing the battery, holding down the power thing, but that had no effect. I do see a bit of light behind the screen when I power on, so something is lighting up. It's not really visible.....I only notice it when I power on and power off. Any suggestions?

[bimmerm3]

Hi.

I just found this post and have joined to answer it for any others with the problem who may also stumble across this site in search of an answer. I recently contacted Compaq with this problem which happened after my laptop crashed in the middle of graphics intensive apps' running.

Turns out is something to do with excessive charge stored within the components of the laptop. In this situation there is a failsafe that will stop current going to different parts and being the screen uses more power than anything it is most often affected.

Unplug the power, take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 60seconds. This will release any excess charge built up in the machine. Put the power back in and turn on. That's it. You can also then of course replace the battery.

Now there will always of course, be various reasons for your screen to fail etc but most will not allow your laptop boot with all lights on and all the little 'plink' noises you can hear which suggest the laptop has fully booted.

I hope this helps although I would imagine far too late for the person who posted the original problem :P

I just read this and tried it. I have an HP DV6000. I spent four hours on the line with HP and they had me try that. They decided it was a backlight issue. I found that it is cheaper to replace entire screen vs backlight. Just did that and screen still black. Any ideas out there?

[joeybiscuit]

Unplug the power, take the battery out and hold down the power button for around 60seconds. This will release any excess charge built up in the machine. Put the power back in and turn on. That's it. You can also then of course replace the battery.

I hope this helps although I would imagine far too late for the person who posted the original problem

But it wasn't too late to help me! Thanks so much for posting that.
I was panicking! My Toshiba is only a week old!

[lbc62]

My laptop is doing the same thing, but it seems to be hinge related. As I open the laptop lid, it turns black, but then as I move it back towards me to close it, the screen reappears. So I only can have it open about half way to see the screen. Any ideas on what this could be?

[chentwinks]

There is more going on than you think. The battery re-sete is a band-aid fix to delay the inevitable failure that will likely hit just beyond warranty. I'm still fighting with HP to get some help. Check out this site: hplies.com.

Good luck.

[dvinnage]

Laptop have a "fuser" which can be replaced inexpensively. Could be the answer, or not.

[michelle0306]

My laptop had the same problem where the screen was BLACK.. i turned off the power, and took the battery out and held the power button and everything.. and then when I turned the computer back on, the screen DID light up and the initial start-up flashed on the screen very quickly, but after that the start-up did not resume as normal. The screen just continued to stay lit, but also blank. I DID mess around with some of the function keys before reading this thread.. so I'm wondering if I could have caused a different problem. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas to help with this?? This laptop is very new so I'm not really sure why it's having problems.

[mdzubair]

hi guys. how are you? hope and wish you all are fine.
i have hp pavillion dv1000 and when i start it starts normaly like always,, i can see the icons on the destop with its very hard to see the sreen is to much dark. i can't even brighting up with fn + f8,
can any one help me please ..
thanks,,,

[[e-mail]]

I'm having a similar problem - computer is on, screen is always black, and i can just barely make out things on it. i had to connect my laptop to an old desktop monitor just to be here. i tried removing the power plug and battery and holding the power button (a couple times), and today i replaced the inverter - kind of a pain but not too bad - and nothing changed. what else could it be? as i said, i can still see things on the screen, though barely and certainly not enough to use. im on a dell e1505, warranty expired. would really appreciate any help.

cheers

[LaptopNomad]

To distinguish between CCFL backlight failure and a dead inverter:

Screen flickering, hissing, black spot in corner.

or when the CCFL inverter dies

screen suddenly black

Please note this is for CCFL screens only. LED screens don't have a fluorescent tube.

Good luck!

[Alain Jacomet]

INCREDIBLEEEEEEEE YOU FIXED MY LAPTOP TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you!!!

[ArthurDent]

I have the problem in the title (screen black) but not sure whether the laptop is running - when I connect an external monitor, that's blank too.

Holding down the power switch when unplugged without battery did not make any difference.

I suspect a fried motherboard or video chip. See http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread226423.html for description of details.

All help appreciated. Thanks!

[TBigRagu]

Hi Gang, I've been pulling my hair out on this one. Gateway Laptop M6316 with a 15.4" monitor, running XP media center. The back light is out. I tied two inverter boards and even replaced the bulb and still nothing. I checked the wires all looks good. I am at a loss.