Laptop screen will not display

[electronicsfreak]

I just ran into one of the strangest issues I have ever come across on a laptop. This laptop the screen would not come on sometimes. You would have to keep turning it back off and on, and eventually the screen would come on and stay on as long as you did not turn the laptop off. You could restart and it would stay on.

Now I did some updating on it, putting sp3 on it, also installing all other updates. Noticed the video card driver was not installed, went through HP's site to find the driver. They had 3 drivers available for that model. 2 drivers were for one video card, and the last for another. The first one of the 2 drivers for card a did not work, but the drivers for card b worked. Or it seemed to for a short period.

It loaded up fine but was for some reason on a very high resolution. Something like 1400 x 900, I don't remember the exact resolution. This is a widescreen. Anyway it was showing just fine, then I brought up properties to look at the resolution, all of a sudden the screen went bonkers, lines started going through it, 4-5 seconds later it shut the screen off.

I have not been able to get the screen to come back on since. The make and model is Hewlett Packard Pavilion zd7000.

Any ideas what is going on? Thanks

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[edfair]

Based on the lines suddenly going through it I suspect that you have lost the graphics chip. The other problems would indicate the possibility but the sudden lines would make it probable.
Once a display is stable any glitches indicate an issue with either the video memory or internal counting circuits related to the video registers.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[goombawaho]

If you connect the laptop to an external monitor and you see nothing or the same line pattern, it's likely the video card on the laptop.

If the video card is not discrete (a unit that can be replaced by itself) you'll likely have to replace the motherboard of the laptop.

It may not be worth replacing depending on how much you spent on the laptop and how old it is.

 

[BadBigBen]

Some specs:

Microprocessor
Intel® Pentium®4 Processor 3.06GHz with Hyper-Threading, 533MHz

Display
17.0" WXGA+ TFT (1440 x 900) widescreen display
display with wide-viewing angle technology

Video Graphics
Nvidia GeForce FX Go5600

Video Memory
64MB DDR SDRAM (discrete)

Source: DM793A.PDF - DM793A#ABA 08/20/r3 sl ©2003 Hewlett-Packard Company

It may not be worth replacing depending on how much you spent on the laptop and how old it is.

it's not worth it... Build around 2003...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, I agree with Ben. By the time you fixed the issue (if you are able to, reasonably), you'd likely end up spending more time and money than the whole thing would go for, in perfect condition, on eBay or Craigslist.

Newer machines are just so stinking cheap compared to what new machines used to be, that you can go in the whole quick trying to repair older stuff.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[electronicsfreak]

This particular guy always gets in computers from people and I take and do what I can with them. He has around 10-12 laptops, this one just happened to be his mothers. So I will see if the video card is not on board, and if not, replace it with one of the others. I think I agree with the video chip being fried, as it would not even display via network on realvnc.

Thanks for all the help.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[goombawaho]

I replaced a video card on a Dell D800 ONLY because somebody gave me the laptop. Cost me $120 for the video card and 5 minutes to replace it.

Any time the motherboard is involved with a laptop, you really gotta look hard at whether it's worth it. It's almost getting to the point where desktops are disposable items. We're not quite there with laptops yet though.

Especially since you can find deals like this on new laptops.

http://www.onsale.com/p/Sony-Notebook-Computers/product~dpno~7848881~pdp.fficfee

 

[kjv1611]

Compared to other deals out there, I think that one may still be a little overpriced for the specs. But of course - it IS a Sony.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[goombawaho]

I got to play with one of those that someone had bought - seemed very nice. Just an example.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, I say may be, b/c it seems that systems with the Core 2 Duo CPUs as apposed to Pentium Dual Core do typically go for more than everything else - and for good reason. But there are so many steals out there on Pentium Dual Core and Athlon X2 CPUS, it's just flat crazy.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[electronicsfreak]

Well these laptops I did not buy, nor are they mine lol. I just work on them for fun, well except taking them apart. That part is never fun as none of these laptop makers seem to have any set standards.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon