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hardware troubleshooting question - LochnarITB - 03-10-2006
I'm afraid my laptop (VPR Matrix 185a5) may have bit the dust. I'm hoping that someone here might recognize the symptom and offer a suggestion. I was playing WoW last night when the laptop display flickered and then faded to black. The machine boots up fine but the screen doesn't come back. However, there is a button on the machine to switch from the laptop flat screen to a monitor hooked up to the back of the machine. If I switch it to monitor and then back to the native display, I can see the screen flicker. It reminds me of a flourescent bulb trying to start. It dimly lights up in the lower right corner, at differing intensities and radiating out varying distances, and then fades away again. The part that does light allows me to see that the desktop is there and I can see the pointer move if it is in that area.
Any suggestions? Does this sound like the video card or the actual display hardware? Does it sound like something easy to fix? Any suggestions greatly appreciated and could very well save a life...
hardware troubleshooting question - Walkiry - 03-10-2006
LochnarITB,Mar 10 2006, 09:46 AM Wrote:The part that does light allows me to see that the desktop is there and I can see the pointer move if it is in that area.
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The backlight of your LCD is busted. You can kinda fix it if you're handy with soldering tools and cabes and crap like that, but it's a pain. The rest of the hardware of your laptop is surely perfectly fine. Just put a lamp right on top of the LCD and see that the desktop and the mouse pointer are there. If they are and behave as you'd expect, it's the backlight.
hardware troubleshooting question - LochnarITB - 03-11-2006
Walkiry,Mar 10 2006, 06:10 AM Wrote:Just put a lamp right on top of the LCD and see that the desktop and the mouse pointer are there. If they are and behave as you'd expect, it's the backlight.THANK YOU!! I was able to backup my machine (of course I hadn't done it for a month) by holding a flashlight to the screen while searching for the mouse pointer and entering information. :wacko: I've called local service people and it looks like I might get away with only putting in $100-$200 if it is the inverter (not sure what it does). If the screen has to be replaced, then I might be out of luck because of cost and/or part availability. If I could afford it, this would have been the excuse to replace it with a new gaming laptop. Oh well, if I can get back to playing at all, it's good.
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hardware troubleshooting question - Walkiry - 03-11-2006
LochnarITB,Mar 11 2006, 01:14 AM Wrote:I've called local service people and it looks like I might get away with only putting in $100-$200 if it is the inverter (not sure what it does). If the screen has to be replaced, then I might be out of luck because of cost and/or part availability.
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If the screen itself is in good shape (i.e., you could see the desktop and mouse pointer with the flashlight), worst come to worst, you can get extra cathode lights attached to the side of the LCD to make a new "backlight", with reasonable expectations. If you local service doesn't do that, shop around a bit. Let them take first a look at it so that you know what exactly seems to be damaged, that'll be useful information :)
hardware troubleshooting question - LochnarITB - 03-11-2006
Walkiry,Mar 10 2006, 09:57 PM Wrote:If the screen itself is in good shape (i.e., you could see the desktop and mouse pointer with the flashlight), worst come to worst, you can get extra cathode lights attached to the side of the LCD to make a new "backlight", with reasonable expectations.While I was able to find my way around shining the light down on it (a shallow angle seems to work best), it was not even close to being sufficient for anything but the emergnecy backup. Any form of external lighting will clearly not work. I wish that it would but sigh...
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hardware troubleshooting question - Walkiry - 03-13-2006
LochnarITB,Mar 11 2006, 11:28 AM Wrote:While I was able to find my way around shining the light down on it (a shallow angle seems to work best),
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(Emphasis mine).
Typically these "external LCD" kits work a bit like the Afterburner for the GBA, you have a strip of cathode lights along the sides of the actual LCD (so, inside the casing of the laptop) and, thus, can actually work fine depending on the size and type of LCD, the light goes at the very shallow angle of 0° :)
Anyway, a real repair shop will probably have better advice than me ^_^