This article provides advanced troubleshooting steps for resolving laptop display issues when common fixes fail. When the common fixes do not resolve the issue, we guide you back here for detailed troubleshooting steps to help resolve your laptop’s display problems.
In a well-lit environment, the computer might be on, but the screen could appear blank because the display brightness is set to its lowest level, making it seem like it is not turned on.
To adjust the display settings, perform the following steps:
If the issue persists, go to the next step.
Connecting an external monitor bypasses your computer’s LCD and can help identify if there is an issue with the screen, which might be why the computer is showing no video.
For more information, see Dell Knowledge Base article How to Connect a Monitor to a Dell Computer.
Accessories like external hard drives, USB devices, Wi-Fi antennas, printers, and VR headsets can sometimes interfere with the boot process. If your computer screen remains black on startup, disconnect all non-essential peripherals. Reconnect the devices one by one to see which device might be causing the issue.
No matter how careful you are, accidents can happen. Has the laptop been dropped, something heavy dropped on the laptop, or liquid spilled on it?
Figures 1 and 2: Example of Broken Plastics
Internal damage caused by these sorts of situations could prevent the computer's display from working correctly.
Unless you have an active accidental damage policy, you have to cover the cost of repair yourself. For out of warranty repair service, see Dell Knowledge Base article How to Arrange an Out of Warranty Repair on Your Dell Computer.
The Video Playback Troubleshooter helps find and fix issues with your display, including playing movies TV shows or videos.
For Windows 11 perform the following steps:
For Windows 10 perform the following steps:
When the current display settings are not optimal for the LCD on your laptop, what you see on the screen may be distorted or not the right size.
For Windows 11 perform the following steps to check the LCD screen settings:
For Windows 10 perform the following steps to check the LCD screen settings:
Resetting the graphics drivers may help with any corrupt settings causing distorted images on the LCD panel.
For Windows 11 and 10, perform the following steps to restart the graphics drivers.
If you encounter a display issue after an update, reverting to a previous version of the display driver might help resolve it.
To roll back the driver, perform the following steps:
Due to all the programs and services that run during normal operation of the computer, something could have gotten corrupted or interfered with each other causing a display issue. Booting into Safe Mode eliminates any program that is not necessary to run the computer.
To learn how to boot into Safe mode, see Dell Knowledge Base article How to Boot into Safe Mode in Windows 11 or Windows 10.
When the display works correctly in Safe Mode, it means that some program has caused the issue with the display. To correct this issue, Dell Technologies recommends updating Windows and the drivers for your computer.
See the Dell Update Windows and Drivers library page for more information.
System Restore in Microsoft Windows creates restore points whenever you install a new application, driver, or Windows update, or when you manually create one. While using System Restore will not impact your personal files, it will remove any apps, drivers, and updates that were installed after the restore point was created. This allows you to go back to a time when the display was working correctly.
See Dell Knowledge Base Article How to Use System Restore in Microsoft Windows for instructions on how to use the System Restore application.
If after performing the previous steps and the issue continues, the best course of action is to Reset (Windows 11) or Refresh (Windows 10) Windows.
This process will:
See Dell Knowledge Base articles for information about Resetting or Refreshing Windows:
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