Dell laptop stuck on black screen, won't show bios

[ColonelJoe]

I dug out an old Dell e6520 laptop that I family member gave to me a few years back. I decided to try to get it running again today. Plugged it into the powerbrick, removed the battery and fired it up. The screen turns on but is just black. I tried restarting it, and it had a bunch of weird graphical glitches and really could not see anything at all. (Reminded me of driver issues I was having once with an old gpu)

 

There is no drive installed either. But correct me if I'm wrong, it should still boot to bios no? No bios screen or logos or anything show up. Just a blank black screen. I appreciate any help 

[ColonelJoe]

After more googling I'm going to try replacing the cmos battery. 

 

 

[OddOod]

Oof my dude. That's a relic. I'm at the point where I'm phasing out the last of my 4th gen laptops

Does it have external display option?
CMOS is not a bad idea either

[ColonelJoe]

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

Oof my dude. That's a relic. I'm at the point where I'm phasing out the last of my 4th gen laptops

Does it have external display option?
CMOS is not a bad idea either

Thanks for the reply. Yep it's quite ancient lol. I just want to use it for browsing the internet while watching TV. And maybe some light spreadsheet work. 

 

Good idea on the external display. It has hdmi and vga. I'll give the hdmi a try first, if not, I do have a vga display I can dig out. 

[OddOod]

Any luck

[ColonelJoe]

On 5/20/2025 at 8:25 AM, OddOod said:

Any luck

So the CMOS battery finally came in today. Replaced it, still getting a black screen. Found out from my brother who gave it to me, that he left it on the floor in his room several years ago, and he thinks it may have gotten stepped on that's why it's not working lol. 

 

I'm debating if it's worth finding a replacement screen on ebay. No guarantee that is what the issue is. And I would almost be surprised if it was? The actual screen looks perfectly fine, no scratches or cracks or anything.