Black screen on laptop

[Clanscorpia]

My brother just got our parents old laptop and he updated in to windows 10 but a few hours after his laptop said something like 'Windows had an error, please restart'. He did and now when he turns on his laptop nothing posts to the screen, not even BIOS so it's not the HDD. He hasn't hit the laptop against anything and this is the first time it's happened. I tried to follow a guide on iFixIt but that didn't work. I'd prefer not to open the laptop but I will if I have to.. Thanks!

[duncanmccl]

Possible screen replacement? Try using the VGA connector to a monitor or TV and see if you get anything. If that no work then I can't really give much more support.

[MoonlightSylv]

22 minutes ago, Clanscorpia said:

My brother just got our parents old laptop and he updated in to windows 10 but a few hours after his laptop said something like 'Windows had an error, please restart'. He did and now when he turns on his laptop nothing posts to the screen, not even BIOS so it's not the HDD. He hasn't hit the laptop against anything and this is the first time it's happened. I tried to follow a guide on iFixIt but that didn't work. I'd prefer not to open the laptop but I will if I have to.. Thanks!

I'd do what ^ that guy said first. Also what laptop is it and do the fans spin up?

[Clanscorpia]

The fans spin up and everything, the lights turn on to but not displaying. I'll check outputting to another display now

44 minutes ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

I'd do what ^ that guy said first. Also what laptop is it and do the fans spin up?

 

1 hour ago, duncanmccl said:

Possible screen replacement? Try using the VGA connector to a monitor or TV and see if you get anything. If that no work then I can't really give much more support.

 

[VinsinityKT]

I had something like that once. I don't remember the error but the worst case scenario happened for me which is a dead motherboard. Lucky, I still had it under warranty.

[zeros]

Hope it works on VGA, maybe bios changed first display choice to VGA. Otherwise something with the windows update. 

 

Oh get a lamp and point it to screen, maybe the backlight broke but it's still showing images, had a T32 IBM laptop  that broke that way. 

[Clanscorpia]

11 hours ago, zeros said:

Hope it works on VGA, maybe bios changed first display choice to VGA. Otherwise something with the windows update. 

 

Oh get a lamp and point it to screen, maybe the backlight broke but it's still showing images, had a T32 IBM laptop  that broke that way. 

VGA doesnt work, but it does detect a laptop on the other side as it says 'check cable connection'. It says that when something is connected but not outputting. It happened after updating to windows 10 but I'm nearly positive thats not it unless it completely blew up and fried the BIOS.

[Clanscorpia]

11 hours ago, zeros said:

Hope it works on VGA, maybe bios changed first display choice to VGA. Otherwise something with the windows update. 

 

Oh get a lamp and point it to screen, maybe the backlight broke but it's still showing images, had a T32 IBM laptop  that broke that way. 

Lamp doesnt work either

[Clanscorpia]

If someone could help that'd be amazing. My parents are basically on the verge of killing me for updating.It's stupid because the laptop has default settings on and windows 10 is now a recommended update so automatic update for them.... Tried to tell them but you know parents when they are angry....

[zeros]

On 04/02/2016 at 1:31 PM, Clanscorpia said:

If someone could help that'd be amazing. My parents are basically on the verge of killing me for updating.It's stupid because the laptop has default settings on and windows 10 is now a recommended update so automatic update for them.... Tried to tell them but you know parents when they are angry....

Yup 99% the windows update blew your laptop, strangely enough one of my friend had the same issue but i didn't trust her because it looks so impossible from a windows update to break your laptop.. I recommend pulling the HDD out check if it's SATA if it is and you have a PC just connect it inside with sata connectors and save all data, maybe format and try a new windows update? 

Alternatively you can get a SATA to usb dock. (Or IDE in case the drive is that old) 

I'd also try to remove battery to reset bios, you'd have to open the laptop though. 

Maybe after saving data try to get help at a specialist or if still in warranty then that. 

Let me know what you'll  do. 

[110%]

Id plug the laptop into a tv or monitor with a hdmi, vga, etc cable or something and leave it for a while..like 1 hour. See if the screen pops up (that has actually worked for me in the past). You could also hit the windows key+p and see if you can change around which display it will display to. Is there a recovery button? Try a system restore if possible. If not, maybe the screen is dead? Although if the laptop isnt displaying to an external display who knows..

 

edit- lastly, if the screen is dead I have replaced a screen on an old laptop one time and the screen was fairly cheap. I believe it was about 70$..pretty reasonable

Edited February 15, 2016 by 110%
add info

[Clanscorpia]

6 hours ago, 110% said:

Id plug the laptop into a tv or monitor with a hdmi, vga, etc cable or something and leave it for a while..like 1 hour. See if the screen pops up (that has actually worked for me in the past). You could also hit the windows key+p and see if you can change around which display it will display to. Is there a recovery button? Try a system restore if possible. If not, maybe the screen is dead? Although if the laptop isnt displaying to an external display who knows..

 

edit- lastly, if the screen is dead I have replaced a screen on an old laptop one time and the screen was fairly cheap. I believe it was about 70$..pretty reasonable

Doesn't work.

 

6 hours ago, zeros said:

Yup 99% the windows update blew your laptop, strangely enough one of my friend had the same issue but i didn't trust her because it looks so impossible from a windows update to break your laptop.. I recommend pulling the HDD out check if it's SATA if it is and you have a PC just connect it inside with sata connectors and save all data, maybe format and try a new windows update? 

Alternatively you can get a SATA to usb dock. (Or IDE in case the drive is that old) 

I'd also try to remove battery to reset bios, you'd have to open the laptop though. 

Maybe after saving data try to get help at a specialist or if still in warranty then that. 

Let me know what you'll  do. 

My mom brought it into her schools IT guy and he thought the display driver was outdated when we upgraded. He's going to try to fix it because my mom doesnt trust me to -.- I'll tell you what happens after that

[zeros]

5 hours ago, Clanscorpia said:

Doesn't work.

 

My mom brought it into her schools IT guy and he thought the display driver was outdated when we upgraded. He's going to try to fix it because my mom doesnt trust me to -.- I'll tell you what happens after that

Alrighty. Hope he won't delete all the things from it

[Clanscorpia]

2 hours ago, zeros said:

Alrighty. Hope he won't delete all the things from it

Its just games, all the important data was removed

[deWaardt]

On 2/4/2016 at 2:31 PM, Clanscorpia said:

If someone could help that'd be amazing. My parents are basically on the verge of killing me for updating.It's stupid because the laptop has default settings on and windows 10 is now a recommended update so automatic update for them.... Tried to tell them but you know parents when they are angry....

I love it when people that have absolutely zero knowledge about tech, and those people are usually the people that are so retardedly stupid they can't even plug a USB cable in a USB slot, try to tell you what's best, and prevent you from fixing it yourself

 

It just... it makes me cringe. It's like telling a car mechanic he should bring his car to another mechanic because he should not fix it himself.

Ugh...

 

About the laptop, I hope the repair shop near you is proper and doesn't completely fuck it up because 140% of all repair shops I have been are just some Mexican taxi drivers that have absolutely 0 idea what they are doing and you end up with the thing still being broken while you have to pay quite a lot.

 

ALL JOKES ASIDE,

 

As to fixing it yourself, have you tried a CMOS reset? (removing the CMOS battery and battery pack and leave it for like a hour or so)

Tried to turn it on without RAM and Hard Drive? With both of those removed it should output some beep code complaining the memory is missing, or the caps lock/scroll lock/num lock lights start flashing in a certain patern.

 

If it does the beep/flashing lights thing with RAM and HDD removed the board might be fine, but some other component like the RAM died.

[zeros]

3 hours ago, deWaardt said:

I love it when people that have absolutely zero knowledge about tech, and those people are usually the people that are so retardedly stupid they can't even plug a USB cable in a USB slot, try to tell you what's best, and prevent you from fixing it yourself

 

It just... it makes me cringe. It's like telling a car mechanic he should bring his car to another mechanic because he should not fix it himself.

Ugh...

 

About the laptop, I hope the repair shop near you is proper and doesn't completely fuck it up because 140% of all repair shops I have been are just some Mexican taxi drivers that have absolutely 0 idea what they are doing and you end up with the thing still being broken while you have to pay quite a lot.

 

ALL JOKES ASIDE,

 

As to fixing it yourself, have you tried a CMOS reset? (removing the CMOS battery and battery pack and leave it for like a hour or so)

Tried to turn it on without RAM and Hard Drive? With both of those removed it should output some beep code complaining the memory is missing, or the caps lock/scroll lock/num lock lights start flashing in a certain patern.

 

If it does the beep/flashing lights thing with RAM and HDD removed the board might be fine, but some other component like the RAM died.

He didn't check, and for now he can't as he said above that his parents took the laptop somewhere.

[Clanscorpia]

4 hours ago, deWaardt said:

I love it when people that have absolutely zero knowledge about tech, and those people are usually the people that are so retardedly stupid they can't even plug a USB cable in a USB slot, try to tell you what's best, and prevent you from fixing it yourself

 

It just... it makes me cringe. It's like telling a car mechanic he should bring his car to another mechanic because he should not fix it himself.

Ugh...

 

About the laptop, I hope the repair shop near you is proper and doesn't completely fuck it up because 140% of all repair shops I have been are just some Mexican taxi drivers that have absolutely 0 idea what they are doing and you end up with the thing still being broken while you have to pay quite a lot.

 

ALL JOKES ASIDE,

 

As to fixing it yourself, have you tried a CMOS reset? (removing the CMOS battery and battery pack and leave it for like a hour or so)

Tried to turn it on without RAM and Hard Drive? With both of those removed it should output some beep code complaining the memory is missing, or the caps lock/scroll lock/num lock lights start flashing in a certain patern.

 

If it does the beep/flashing lights thing with RAM and HDD removed the board might be fine, but some other component like the RAM died.

He works for my mom's school and has set up their whole network server so I think he knows what he's doing. I don't think its RAM because it makes no error noise and when they unplugged the laptop it made a Windows charger unplug noise so the display driver thing makes a lot of sense. Thanks though!