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Black Screen When Power Plugged In
I got home from work today to see my laptop on, but only displaying a black screen. I tried rebooting, but the black screen remained unchanged (or more precisely, switched various shades of dark grey/black as the laptop booted up).
After unplugging the power supply and rebooting, everything worked without any problems. After I plugged the power supply back in, the screen stayed for about 5 seconds before going black again. While the screen was black, the laptop remained on and the battery recharged.
Later (with the battery power run down a fair bit), I was able to restart the computer while plugged in and proceed as normal at first. However, after about 90 minutes the screen went black yet again.
Any thoughts or specifics on what might be causing this?
System Specs: Dell Inspiron 1545, approximately 4 years old, running Windows Vista.
Other Things I have tried:
-Adjusting the brightness settings directly.
-Checking the power saving options to make sure that the brightness wasn't set down for "while plugged in"
-Unplugging the power supply after the screen goes dark (no effect for several minutes -- I ended up rebooting in unplugged mode).
-Starting in Safe Mode (no effect)
Things I haven't tried yet
-Using a different monitor (I have no other monitors, and my TV doesn't support a direct hookup).
-Removing the battery, or anything at all that would require taking a screwdriver or anything to the computer.
DELL-Sujatha K
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May 4th, 2013 04:00
Hi kcostello3,
I appreciate for the touble shootings steps tried.
I recommend you to connect the Ac adapter to a known good wall out let and check the LED on the Ac adapter (without connecting to the computer). If there is steady light, connect the Ac adapter to the system and power it on. At Dell logo tap the F2 key every two seconds to go BIOS Screen. In the BIOS screen click General to expand and highlight ‘Battery Information’ and check the status of the Ac adapter. While you are in this screen, click ‘Load Defaults’ button to reset BIOS defaults. Click Exit to exit from BIOS screen.
You may also run test on the screen. Shut the system down, press and hold the letter 'D' and power on the system.This will initiate diagnostics on the display. Check the status of the display and please revert. Let me also know the LED status of Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock key on the keyboard or if there any LEDs on the system when the screen goes blank.
Awaiting your response.
kcostello3
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May 4th, 2013 12:00
From the BIOS screen:
Battery Health: Normal
AC Adaptor=65W
When I tried to enter display diagnostics, all I got was a white screen with thin pink and blue vertical lines. My keyboard does not have LEindicators.
One additional thing, when the screen goes black, I can still see a very faint shadow on the screen. It's too weak to make out anything, but it changes when I hit the start menu key.
kcostello3
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May 5th, 2013 00:00
More updates/details
The problem has now been occurring even with the power unplugged. One strange thing is that the brightness settings seem out of whack -- I'm typing this with the brightness at 0%, and everything's perfectly visible. But with brightness at "normal" levels things are painfully bright right before the screen goes black.
DELL-Sujatha K
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May 7th, 2013 16:00
Hi kcostello3,
Thank you for the update. Since there is good display when the brightness at 0% I request you flash BIOS and update the video driver from the link below:
http://dell.to/QjjZDA
Enter the system service tag and click Submit for latest version of BIOS and video driver.
In case the issue persists even after BIOS and video driver update I suggest that you connect an external monitor and check the display on the external monitor. Reply with the status.
ocuser
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December 26th, 2013 13:00
I had same problem & spent days trying dozens of things. Windows obviously worked. I could use Remote Desktop to access it.
SOLUTION: If you have a second computer, use Remote Desktop by choosing 'Run', type 'mstsc', type the name of the computer with a black screen, and connect. After logging in, open 'Control Panel', and choose 'Power Options'. On the left panel choose 'Choose when to turn off the display'. On the row labeled 'Adjust plan brightness', under the 'Plugged in' column, turn up the brightness slider.