Black screen..help.

[krikle]

Hi,

I have an older Compaq presario V2000 and the screen is completely black. The computer is on and running fine...but no display whatsoever. When I plug it into an external monitor, it displays perfectly on the monitor..but can't get any display on the actual laptop screen.

Could this be the backlight or the inverter? If it's the backlight, it's probably just as well to replace the screen, correct? I think the inverter is a much cheaper thing to replace but is there anyway of knowing which one it is for sure? I don't have a spare inverter on hand for this particular model. Thanks for your help.

edit:: Actually, if you look REALLY closely..you can see the screen extremely dim. I can see the desktop but barely. Its very black.

 

[Guest]

In your position, given that it's an older model and a popular brand I would look on e-bay (or flea market) for a similar model being sold cheap or for spares, though obviously with a screen that works !

This has several advantages over buying components -- principally being that you find out where the damage occurs when disassembling the donor machine and so can prevent that when it comes to your computer.

Also you get other spares. In all, can be cheaper than shopping for individual components -- especially as you might have to buy both rectifier and illumination in your case.

 

[krikle]

Yeah I see what you're saying... but an inverter isn't very much. So there's no way of telling if this is an inverter problem of if the whole LCD needs to be replaced? It isn't my machine so...quite frankly..I'm not paying for it lol. An invter is less than 20 bucks..I haven't priced a new screen yet on ebay.

 

[Guest]

You're probably right but my experience was that a little disk tray for a Dell laptop was about $15 on e-bay (at that time) but I could buy a whole Dell laptop with a broken screen for $22 in a flea market.

The flea market buy included a tray and the hard drive in it plus CD drive and replacement for the case parts I'd damaged originally opening my laptop.

 

[krikle]

I live in a small town...no flea markets lol.

I've read that if the picture is black, but if you can dimly see it..its an inverter problem.

just wondering if there's anyway to distinguish between an LCD/backlight issue or if its the inverter...