Laptop monitor

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I have an oldish laptop which I want to sell, but there is a problem with the monitor.

Once the laptop is up to running temperature (after 15 mins of use), the screen goes blank and never comes back on again.

Restarting it, the display comes on until just after the windows loading screen comes up.

I've replaced the power inverter thinking it was that, but the problem still exists.

It's a Dell running XP. Oh and the battery is knackered, I've read somewhere that this could cause the issue, but that seems unlikely to me.

[Nearly Retired (I am now)]

Presumably you won't be telling all this to the prospective buyer.

I had an old laptop that overheated after 15 minutes and stopped working. I took it apart, removed all the fluff from the cooling fan and re-assembled it. It now works a treat.

I temporarily cured a dodgy battery in another laptop by giving it the freezer treatment. I can't remember the precise time in the cold, but the advice was along the lines of wrapping the battery in plastic to prevent damp and also any possible chances of spillage spoiling your food. Then freeze it for 6 hours and let it warm up to room temperature without forced heating. Hey presto Gromit - it worked for a good couple of months and I then had to freeze it all over again.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Was planning on ebaying it, but I would tell any prospective buyer it has this fault.

I've tried that with the battery, but it really is beyond that now.

I guess a new screen would be required for it.

[AnOther]

If you've changed the inverter then I doubt it's the actual screen at

fault, more likely a component on the motherboard or even the graphics

chip itself.

A fairly conclusive test would be whether it does it do the same if connected to an external monitor.

[Théière]

Have you set up powersave features that with a knackered battery means the screen won't power up? what happens with an external monitor attached?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I've since reinstalled xp, and haven't changed the default settings for power saving. It is always plugged into mains, as soon as I unplug, it switches off the battery is that bad.

As for external monitor, I forgot to mention that. It works fine with an external monitor.

[AnOther]

Are you absolutely sure it's not the inverter again. Even with no backlight you should still see a feint image on the screen.

I once had an ultraportable laptop which was plagued with inverter problems and I lost count of the number of times it got replaced only to fail again anything from a few days to a few months later.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

There is a faint image, yes.

So if the new inverter has failed, what is causing it to fail?

[AnOther]

Could be just bad luck. Was it a genuine Dell item or 3rd party ?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Genuine Dell.

About 3 years old now though.

[Araucaria]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]Genuine Dell.

About 3 years old now though.[/quote]

I find it amazing that manufacturers (like Dell, but I know others are just as bad) are able to get away with selling computers that fail completely within three years.

My Dell laptop lasted four and a half - good going I was told. But out in the hangar I have two old Citroëns dating from the 1960s that are in perfect running order, and which I confidently expect will still be CTed and going strong in twenty years time. I appreciate it's not the best of comparisons but I wouldn't even think of taking the computer out of doors, let alone out into snowstorms, frost, gale force winds, summer heatwaves, torrential rain: it sits quietly on my desk and goes phfut after being treated like royalty.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

hahaa nice analogy.

Very true though.

But they don't make 'em like they used to!

[AnOther]

I think luck plays a major part. I've had maybe 6 or 7 laptops of various manufacture and apart from the one I mentioned earlier which went through a succession of screen inverters I had no problems of significance with any of them and that one was the only one I ever had occasion to send back for repair.