Laptop Screen is very dim

[mhaff]

I had my Compaq Armada E700 at a remote office yesterday. It was working fine. I took it home. Left it in the garage where the temp never dipped below 50 degrees. When I booted it up today at the home office the screen was extremely dim. I can just barely see an image. An external monitor works fine so that tells me the intermal video components are fine.

What could cause this?

TIA

 

[stduc]

Is the backlight on, but dim? Or is the backlight not working?

It's probable that a cable has become dislodged. You could try the screen at different angles. If you find a position where the light comes on then its almost certainly a cable problem. In that case the laptop will have to be dismantled and the cable re-seated.

Because you said you can barely make out an image I don't think it can be power saving settings - but I guess they are worth a check.

 

[Crowley16]

temp never dipped below 50"

did you leave the laptop running during this or was off at the time?

you could have burnt something out, from what you say, it's most likely the backlight is broken, one way or another...

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[mhaff]

The laptop was off overnight.

 

[stduc]

I assumed 50F!

mhaff - not getting shirty - but I did ask a couple of questions!

 

[mhaff]

Stduc,
My apologies, I wasn't trying to blow you off. I would say the backlight is extremely dim. I say this because, to check the graphics, I hooked up an external monitor, when I do anything, I can see see the the faint image matches that of the CRT.
I did swing the monitor back and forth as you suggested, nothing changed.

 

[stduc]

No offense taken. I just thought it a bit strange you replied - but didn't answer - lol

There will be a ribbon cable connecting the screen/backlight assembly to the motherboard. You usually have to remove the keyboard and/or split the case to gain access. You can do it yourself, or return it to the shop/supplier.

So it rather depends on how brave you are.

There is a small possibility the backlight has gone & willl need replacing however.

 

[danomac]

I had an old toshiba that did this and it turned out to be some power saving settings in the bios. It was really hard to fix as I didn't have an external monitor to hook up to reset it with...