Black screen on laptop even with external monitor

[hussa15033]

Hey there guys,
So up til yesterday my laptop was working fine (I have a HP Pavilion DV6). Yesterday I was playing GTA on my laptop when the game crashed so I decided to just turn the laptop off (I can't remember if I selected "update and shut down" or "hibernate" so the laptop may have updated before turning off <--- included this info incase it's relevant?

So anyway, this morning I tried turning the laptop on and the screen wouldn't come up, it would stay black there were no beeps or sounds, the fan is running and the power indicator light is turned on (as it should be) however the display isn't coming on. I tried fiddling with the keyboard, pressing different keys etc however still no beeps or anything
After searching online for solutions, I tried the following but to no avail:
- disconnecting all power sources, plug, battery, and holding the power button to "discharge" (or whatever). I did this for varied amounts of times, 30 secs, 1 Min, 2 mins, etc.
- reseating the RAM modules (I have 2 ram sticks and 2 slots, I tried literally every combination, putting each ram stick in each slot alone, having no ram sticks, switching slots however it's always the same result)
- connecting to an external monitor, I tried press f4 (which is the switch display button), fn + f4, fn + f1-12 however even the external monitor shows "no connection" or similar
- unplugging the display cable from the motherboard and replugging (incase it was loose or something)
- shining a light on the screen in case the backlight wasn't working

After trying these things for a few hours I eventually gave up, I have no idea what's wrong with it, is it the motherboard? RAM slots? Video card?

Any and all help is appreciated

PS: a couple of weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I replaced the thermal paste on the laptop to fix the fan as it was quite loud and the CPU was heating up quickly, it did fix the issue and the fan or quieter and the temps of the CPU and motherboard was lower, just thought I'd mention that

 

[webworkings]

Did you make sure to turn off the laptop before connecting the external monitor, turning on the external monitor and then turning on the laptop? If not done in that order, sometimes it won't work.

If you did do that, or you do and it still doesn't work, then you are probably looking at a graphics card/GPU problem. And either it will need replacing, or the whole motherboard will.

 

[hussa15033]

Thank you for your reply
Yes I restarted the laptop a couple of times while it was plugged in however the monitor was still blank
During the time, the external monitor was powered on, and the laptop was off however it was still plugged in. I'll try it in that exact order soon, disconnecting all power from the laptop and let you know