• We hope you have a fantastic holiday season to close out 2025! Thank you all so much for being part of the Tom's Guide community!

Laptop with broken screen

D34thW4lk3R

Honorable
Apr 17, 2013
16
0
10,560
Hello guys i need your instant help !!! i have a laptop that has a broken screen!!
I am using an external monitor but i see signal only in the windows welcome screen.
So i cant format the laptop (cant access bios and boot order since i have no signal).
I i formatted laptops hard disk in my computer without installing windows, only formation, cause i thought that when i put it back into the laptop thw windows installation cd will start by itself since operating system is missing.
I was wrong ;(
No signal and i cant do nothing !!!
Is there any possibility to isolate the laptops screen and work directly from external???
Plz help me
 
Laptops generally have a Fn selection for:
laptop screen
mirror laptop and external
external only

What make/model is yours?
 
Are you not able to use the FN+F4 key or the like to switch the laptop display from internal to external to internal/external ?
 
fn + f4 does nothing !!! before formating the drive i could see signal only after windows welcome screen and log into to windows normally!!
Now i cant access bios or boot order and i cant install windows and my customer is going to kill me 😉
Is there any way to seclude the laptop's screen?
 
So you said you don't have a hdd with windows on it and want to do an installation with an external monitor. You just have to push the power button and close the lid, the laptop will use the external monitor.
 
Fn+F7 is usually the keystroke to switch to an external screen.

You said you can see the welcome screen. What does it do after that? Does the monitor say it's out of range, and then go to sleep?
 
I did the same thing in another laptop and by pressing fn + f4 i could swap screens and work properly... i think its something else as the dear friend said above... smt wrong with the mobo