No video on E6420 screen prior to Windows 7 loading.

Hi jamichau,

Please run the LCD BIST on the laptop to check if there is any problem with the LCD screen.

 To initiate LCD BIST:

• Connect the AC adapter to your computer.
• Hold the letter <D> on your keyboard and then turn on your computer.
  You will see four colors (grey, red, green, and blue) on the screen in a sequence.

If you see any colors on the screen the LCD screen is fine. If not the problem is with the LCD screen and LCD needs to be replaced.

As per the description the POST screen behavior looks normal in your laptop, the Dell screen will be available only for 3-5 seconds during POST.

Please reply with results.

Thank you for the suggestion.  Here are the results: I shutdown the computer, waited a short while, held the D key, turned on power (continuing to hold the D key), and never saw anything on the monitor. However, as long as I held the D key, the machine would reboot every 20- to 30-seconds, so I'm not certain the BIST works properly on this machine, at least not with BIOS A16.  So, I powered it down and back up, not holding the D key, and it booted into Windows 7 without problem, other than I saw no post info on the screen prior to the OS loading.

To me the problem really appears to be the BIOS simply not outputting any video to the built-in screen on the laptop during POST or while in BIOS configuration, because the screen works fine once the OS begins to load.

-J

Hi jamichau,

I suggest you to uninstall and reinstall the video card drivers to fix the problem. Please follow the below mentioned steps:

1. Click “Start”.
2. Click “Control Panel” and select “Device Manager”.
3. On the “Device Manager” window, expand “Display adapters”.
4. Right click “Intel(R) HD Graphics” and click “Uninstall”.
5. Ensure to check the box “Delete driver software for this device”.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the drivers.
7. Restart the computer.
8. Use the below links to download and save Intel HD Graphics:  http://dell.to/Mbe3zg
9. Click the link, enter the service tag of the computer and select the operating system from the dropdown and select the right Intel video card driver from the list and install it.
10. Run the driver file for Intel HD Graphics, follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver and restart the computer when prompted.
11. Check the functionality of the system.

Please post the results.

Nikhil,

Before I try that, I have a question.  Since my problem exists at the BIOS / POST level, do you think re-installing the video driver, which effects video within the operating system and is not running at initial startup, will make any difference?  Thanks,

-J

Hi jamichau,

Please try connecting an external monitor to the laptop and check if there is display any on the external monitor. This helps us to check if the problem is with the LCD screen or the motherboard/video card of the laptop.

Please post back the results.

A co-worker suggested I try using the FN-F8 key combination to see if that would help.  Here are the results:

As long as the external monitor is connected prior to turning on the power, the image displays there automatically.

I booted it up with the external monitor connected, saw the POST on the external monitor only, pressed F2, went into BIOS setup on the external monitor, then pressed Fn-F8, and the image switched to the onboard laptop screen.

So I powered down, disconnected the external monitor, powered on, pressed Fn-F8, and it did not cause the POST image to appear on the laptop screen.

Then I powered down/up with the external monitor disconnected, pressed F2 a bunch of times right after turning on power and, of course, no image displayed on the laptop screen, but I know it was in BIOS setup, because Windows did not load.  Then I connected the external monitor and pressed Fn-F8 and the BIOS setup displayed on the monitor, so it didn’t matter whether the monitor was connected prior to turning on the power.  I pressed Fn-F8 one more time and BIOS setup displayed on the laptop.

Still not resolved, but at least I now know that the laptop will display video onboard prior to the OS loading, nothing wrong with the screen itself.  I really think this is a problem within the new A16 BIOS, but I need someone else to test on another E6420.  Thanks,

-J

Hi jamichau,

I suggest you to run Diagnostics on the laptop by connecting the external monitor to the laptop to view the screen. This is to check if there is any problem with the video card. Follow the steps to run PSA diagnostics:

1. Connect an external monitor to the laptop.
2. Restart the computer by tapping F12 key. Check the display on the external monitor.
3. In the boot menu screen select Diagnostics from the list and hit enter.
4. If the diagnostics displays an error, please reply with the right error message.

Please post the results.

Question: If I have posted this issue in a true forum, why have not other people offered answers?  Have you somehow taken ownership of my problem?  Are no others allowed to view it?  I would like input from some other people, as your answers, with all due respect, are quite elementary and seem to come from some sort of troubleshooting script.  Had you any real experience working on actual computer problems, you would know that the testing I have done so far negates the need for this diagnostic test.  Would you, please, invite someone from Dell in the USA to take a look at my posts and offer an opinion?  Thanks,

-J

Hi jamichau,

Dell community forum is open to every user to his/her views in posting the problems or providing a solution for the same. I do not have any access to stop or block any user to enter this forum, as it is a public forum and anyone can answer any thread.

If you are able to load into Windows screen by connecting an external monitor, you can also try downgrading the BIOS to the previous version and check if that works.

Please refer the steps provided by fjdcanoe in this link to downgrade BIOS: http://dell.to/P1sMHW