blank screen

[schiehallion]

My son was using his toshiba satelite laptop this morning and everything seemed fine, but now that he has opened it up again we get zilch just a blank screen . i even tried opening it in safe mode but no joy the screen remains blank but the indication lights show its trying to boot up but without a pic we dont know what is happening any clues guys? the lap top is 20 mnths old and has started running slower than usual recently dont want to restore if i can help it due to pictures he wants to try and keep plus why restore if its something simple any help would be appreciated cheers

[ChuckFickens]

I assume as you have tried it in safe mode the screen works during boot up?

it may have switched its self over to using an external display (mine does it sometimes if I shut the lid during boot up)

if you loook at your f keys along the top of the keyboard one of them should have markings in a different colour that will either be a little pic of two screens or will say something like LCD/CRT on it (I believe from memory it's F5 on toshibas) try holding down your fn key and pressing this to see if it will switch the screen back on.

[schiehallion]

we have tried that key and the brightness keys and the lock keys we just get no response whatsoever if it wasnt for the power light being and the sound of the system running you would think the lap top was turned off

[ChuckFickens]

Do you see anything at all when you first turn the lappy on? if you don't then a windows restore won't cure it as the problem is there before windows even loads.

if you shine a light on the screen and look very closely can you see any sign of a picture at all?

it may be that the screen is working but the back light isn't.

If that is the case it's probably either the back light its self or the screen inverter has blown.

They are both fairly cheap repairs if thats the case (less than 100quid)

If your worried about the pictures on the lappy then you should be able to plug a normal monitor into the lappy and use that to copy the pics off the computer.

[schiehallion]

we have just noticed if you turn the screen to the light and press various buttons on the keyboard something comes up on the screen that looks like dialog boxs but the screen remains too dark to read what they say i have tried the brightness buttons but to no effect

[schiehallion]

looks like you hit the nail on the head chuckfickens a visit to pc world looks on the cards ................cheers

[ChuckFickens]

LOL.... see my last post.

Back light isn't working then :)

As said above it could be the actual bulb or the inverter that supplies the power to it.

Without testing one of them it's impossible to say which it might be.

[schiehallion]

yup using a torch we could see enough to log in so it is as you said one of the two pc world will sort cheers again