Dell turns on, screen is still off.

[0wn3dz]

Hello, I have a laptop Dell Latitude E5540, running Windows 7 x64. A few months ago I started experiencing this problem. I press the power button, laptop behaves the same way as it normally does, leds turn on, fan starts spinning, but the screen is completely off, no "black screen" with the backlight on, it's just off. And it stays like this for no matter how long you wait. Once you turn it off by holding the power button and then turn it back on, same thing happens. After doing this multiple times, eventually the screen turns on, post, dell logo, and the laptop boots to windows without any problems. This issue got worse by time, requiring more and more restarts until the screen comes on, and now it reached the point where I am unable to get the screen working.

I've already tried:

- connecting to external monitor via HDMI, monitor is not detecting any input.
- connecting to external monitor via VGA, monitor is not detecting any input.
- taking the hdd out and turning the pc on, same issue.
- laptop has two ram slots, filled with two 2GB sticks, i tried taking one out, switching slots in all possible cominations, nothing.
- taking both ram sticks out, laptop turns on with black screen and turns right off.
- taking the battery out and holding the power button for 30 seconds, then plugging in the charging cable and turning the pc on, nothing.

That's about it I guess, any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[webworkings]

When you connected the external monitor, did you make sure to do so while the laptop was off. Turning on the monitor and then turning on the laptop? If not it may not correctly register it.

Now if you did do that, then I would say the graphics card/GPU is toast. Depending on your device, if lucky, it is one you can just replace. Unfortunately many if not most would require the entire motherboard be replaced.

 

[0wn3dz]

Yeah I did it in the correct order just like you said.
Well, that's pretty much what I thought too, but one day after countless attempts to turn it on I went to sleep and the other day it turned on on the first try.. That's what makes me doubtful...

 

[webworkings]

Have you checked the GPU and Motherboard to make sure there is nothing loose, damaged, burnt, etc?

 

[0wn3dz]

I haven't checked for burns or damage yet, that requires the time consuming process of taking the whole thing apart, but i took off the parts which require less effort and nothing seemed loose. I'l probably take it apart at the weekend.