DV6000 LCD Screen Won't Come On.

wiggabum · June 21st, 2009, 11:50 AM

Hi,

First of all, HP Costumer is not very helpful if you're out of warranty. I learned that the hard way. They basically don't want to go through tech support with you.

Anyway, I had installed an ActiveX controller from egreetings.com. After that, the desktop went black, except for the cursor. I could see everything upon Ctrl+Alt+deleting. Upon reset, the screen would not come on. No backlight and no picture (after shining a flashlight on it.).
I've updated bios and video drivers. There's no picture on boot either. I don't know if it's a faulty lcd because both LCD AND backlight aren't working.

If anyone can help me, I would be appreative. Thanks.

Ralph

osprey4 · June 21st, 2009, 09:07 PM

Hi, Ralph:

Welcome to TechIMO.

Can you boot to Safe Mode? If so, try system restore.

wiggabum · June 21st, 2009, 09:35 PM

Thanks for the welcome.

I've already tried system restore. Forgot to mention that. I restored to a point before installing the ActiveX controller. Would a driver/os issue affect the screen being blank at boot, though? I'm not sure how things are set up with laptops.

osprey4 · June 23rd, 2009, 09:21 PM

Booting to safe mode bypasses drivers, so that's the way to tell.

wiggabum · June 24th, 2009, 10:31 AM

I tried booting to safe mode already as well. I've basically done most of the basic things to test. I do not think it is a driver issue as, like i said, there's no image when the laptop is booting. To me, it's either the bios or a physical problem (connection or the screen itself). I'm praying it's not the screen but I don't know enough about how laptop lcds work to properly tell if it's a dead screen. I also cannot access bios (says f10, but doesn't take me to bios).

blueooze · June 24th, 2009, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wiggabum

(says f10, but doesn't take me to bios).

Does this mean that a message is displayed on the screen for a short time, and then it goes blank? Or is it completely blank the entire time?

If you plug another monitor into the back of the laptop, you can determine if it is a problem with your video card. If the display on the external monitor works, then this is either a problem with your inverter board, LCD screen, or perhaps the LCD cable.

wiggabum · June 24th, 2009, 01:12 PM

Sorry. I haven't been thorough with my description. The video card is fine as I have an external display connected. That is how I am able to go into safe mode, etc. When trying to swith the laptop display on (via display manager) the external screen refreshes but the laptop monitor is still shown as not activated. Like I said before, I'm convinced this is a bios or hardware issue.

How would I be able to diagnose which of the problems it is?: lcd, lcd cable or inverter.

There's no backlight so it could be the inverter, but there is also no dim picture on the screen. Can it be both at once? I'm thinking it might be some common cable between the both of them, if that exists? This is where my lack in experience with laptops makes things hard for me. I'm also not comfortable opening the whole thing up unless I'm pretty sure it's a cable issue.

blueooze · June 24th, 2009, 01:27 PM

It's always a sort of guessing game unless you have the equipment to test inverter boards/screens, but with your description of the problem I am going to guess it is an inverter problem. A bad screen will usually produce some sort of backlight or screwed up picture, but complete black sounds like the inverter. If you plan on replacing this yourself, you are going to have to open up the screen anyway, so be sure to look at the LCD cable on the back of the screen to check for any scorch marks, as I have had this happen in a few laptops, and it is a pretty cheap thing to fix.

The LCD cable connects to the back of the LCD, then to the inverter, and then to the graphics card. So yes, there is a shared cable.

wiggabum · June 24th, 2009, 02:24 PM

Thanks blueooze. I actually already opened the lcd part of the laptop. Just didn't want to open the system area. I will check the cabling at the back of the laptop when I get home and also see if I can test the inverter somehow. What kind of tool would I need?

blueooze · June 24th, 2009, 03:00 PM

An inverter tester is essentially a CCFL tube, like those found inside an LCD screen. I believe these can be found on the internet somewhere (although last time I looked I didn't have any luck), or you can just build your own out of the spare parts from another laptop.

Good luck. Display problems are a real pain with laptops