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Laptop with no OS and no screen and not detected on external

ACNHds
By ACNHds
in Laptops and Pre-Built Systems
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Go to solution Solved by Selle,

A laptop will always use the internal display as the primary display, and only display bios on the internal display. The easyest way to get it to display bios and post screen on a external display is often to open the laptop and disconnecting the display cable from the motherboard

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Hello guys i have this old laptop that I was planing to use to store stuff and keep some downloads when i leave my house with the new laptop since my internet connection is not good. But this laptop has an empty hdd with no OS and the screen is broken. I have an external VGA cabled monitor as well as hdmi. And both are not detecting the laptop’s BIOS so i can not boot it from usb. Anyone knows what I can do to fix this or get access to anything?

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7 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

And both are detecting the laptop’s BIOS so i can boot it from usb.

Am I mis-reading this or are there words missing from this sentence?

 

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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6 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

Hello guys i have this old laptop that I was planing to use to store stuff and keep some downloads when i leave my house with the new laptop since my internet connection is not good. But this laptop has an empty hdd with no OS and the screen is broken. I have an external VGA cabled monitor as well as hdmi. And both are detecting the laptop’s BIOS so i can boot it from usb. Anyone knows what I can do to fix this or get access to anything?

What do you mean by access? If the drive is empty, there is nothing to access. If you want to install windows you just have to create a boot drive using the MS install tool and have a free usb drive you can spare. 

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4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Am I mis-reading this or are there words missing from this sentence?

 

I fixed it. For some reason I didn’t write any “not”.

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12 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

Hello guys i have this old laptop that I was planing to use to store stuff and keep some downloads when i leave my house with the new laptop since my internet connection is not good. But this laptop has an empty hdd with no OS and the screen is broken. I have an external VGA cabled monitor as well as hdmi. And both are detecting the laptop’s BIOS so i can boot it from usb. Anyone knows what I can do to fix this or get access to anything?

So you can get into the BIOS but not anything on the drive? As @Applefreak said, there is no OS to access the files stored on the HDD or SSD. You can however live boot from a Linux Distro of your choice and you should be able to access files.

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5 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

What do you mean by access? If the drive is empty, there is nothing to access. If you want to install windows you just have to create a boot drive using the MS install tool and have a free usb drive you can spare. 

I already have the bootable USB but I can’t see what’s happening so I can boot it or install any OS.

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2 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

I already have the bootable USB but I can’t see what’s happening so I can boot it or install any OS.

So you have no output from the laptop? (nothing at all shows up?)

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Just now, birdflyer said:

So you can get into the BIOS but not anything on the drive? As @Applefreak said, there is no OS to access the files stored on the HDD or SSD. You can however live boot from a Linux Distro of your choice and you should be able to access files.

There are no files on the hdd and I don’t care abt them if there are. But without being able to see anything I can’t start with the basic steps (booting it from USB or check the BIOS even)

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3 minutes ago, birdflyer said:

So you have no output from the laptop? (nothing at all shows up?)

Exactly no output at all on the external monitors and it has a broken screen.

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Just now, ACNHds said:

Exactly no output at all on the external monitors

Got it. Does the laptop have integrated or discrete graphics?

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1 minute ago, birdflyer said:

Got it. Does the laptop have integrated or discrete graphics?

integrated graphics 

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2 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

Exactly no output at all on the external monitors and it has a broken screen.

Also what model and brand is the laptop?

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Just now, birdflyer said:

Also what model and brand is the laptop?

it’s an old HP and tbh i can’t find anything to know what model it is.

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1 minute ago, ACNHds said:

it’s an old HP and tbh i can’t find anything to know what model it is.

Everything powers on fine? (no error light dances or flashes? fans spin up, HDD spin, etc.?)

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Just now, birdflyer said:

Everything powers on fine? (no error light dances or flashes? fans spin up, HDD spin, etc.?)

As far as I know yes everything is powering on fine 

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5 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

As far as I know yes everything is powering on fine 

There should be a key you can press to switch to an external monitor. Look for a key cap that has a tiny monitor or tv like symbol on it.

 

Used to be FN-F4 on HP

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1 minute ago, Applefreak said:

There should be a key you can press to switch to an external monitor. Look for a key cap that has a tiny monitor or tv like symbol on it.

 

Used to be FN-F4 on HP

It doesn’t have an OS installed so it cannot access this feature. 

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20 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

It doesn’t have an OS installed so it cannot access this feature. 

It's a hardware feature baked into the bios.

 

Holt the FN key and press F4 to switch between internal and external monitor.

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2 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

It's a hardware feature baked into the bios.

I didn't know that but still it didn't work.

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I just removed the HDD and installed it on a regular laptop. I'm installing windows on it and I'll place it in the broken laptop when I'm done. This should work. Hopefully. 

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2 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

I just removed the HDD and installed it on a regular laptop. I'm installing windows on it and I'll place it in the broken laptop when I'm done. This should work. Hopefully. 

As long as you cannot get an output signal, having the OS won't do much. Is your monitor recognizing a signal, usually there is some kind of indication if the monitor backlight gets bright or the led turns green or blue on some screens instead of the standby orange color.

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5 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

As long as you cannot get an output signal, having the OS won't do much. Is your monitor recognizing a signal, usually there is some kind of indication if the monitor backlight gets bright or the led turns green or blue on some screens instead of the standby orange color.

Mine dims its light and it's not doing that no.

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8 minutes ago, ACNHds said:

Mine dims its light and it's not doing that no.

So no signal then. Sadly that is most likely the result of a broken graphics card. 

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1 hour ago, Applefreak said:

broken graphics card

Agreed. With it being integrated graphics, it most likely is the APU (CPU) which is even worse.

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A laptop will always use the internal display as the primary display, and only display bios on the internal display. The easyest way to get it to display bios and post screen on a external display is often to open the laptop and disconnecting the display cable from the motherboard

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