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principalj
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October 22nd, 2003 14:00
Display blanks out on startup
A couple of things:
1. Thanks for posting the information about fixing jagged fonts in Explorer. I emailed support shortly after I got my 8600 WUXGA Inspiron about the issue and I got a message telling me to plug and unplug the video cable and press the fn-f8 toggle. Not very useful help. Your message here solved all the problems perfectly.
2. My screen blanks out on boot-up sometimes. I called support and they walked me through prying up the front nameplate cover and unplugging and reinserting the LCD cable and running some tests. All to no avail. The fellow said that a tech would call and double check the symptoms, which happened shortly after that - but he got cut off, and never called back. So far, my tech support experience has been underwhelming.
In the meantime however, after opening and closing the cover a couple of times, the screen is back on. I took the nameplate cover off and reseated the LCD cable and thought that fixed the problem. It keeps coming back. On one of the occasions that I tried it, I brushed the little button that is pressed when the lid is closed and the screen came back on just like that. Now the last couple of times that it has happened, I pop the cover, press the little button and all is well.
Do I have a problem that needs a repair? Or is there a software/firmware glitch with the cover switch that needs some attention?
Thanks for your thoughts - I've been very impressed with the quality of the responses here. Keep up the great work guys - even if you can't solve my problem over the net here,...
Greg
I, like MANY others, have a similar problem (I have an Inspiron 8200)
The problem appears almost always if the resolution is changed, but it can also happen without any apparent cause.
I have red MANY posts in this forum, about inverters (the high-voltage powersupply whitch delivers power to the backlight) that fails.
The symptoms is, that de backlight goes off, while theres still at picture on the screen... you can still see the picture (althou its not easy) if you place the screen under some lightsource.
I had this problem, and Dell's support was to apsolutely no help... they haven even heard about the problem (there are thousands of messages about it in this forum).
I think I got the same help as everyone else calling about this... check the cable to the displaypanel, run diagnostics... but no matter how hard I tried convincing the guy that it was a inverter-related problem, he denied it...
My problem was, that there was no guarantee on my system, so I did not want to buy a new display... instead I opend the display to see if I could solve the problem myself (I am an electronics/computer proefssional)...
When I got it opend, I found a circuitboard (the inverter), on which there was a small IC, which controls a step-up transformer... this IC was HOT!!
Electronics usually do not like heat, so I tried to cool it down using at peltier-module ("heat-pump" used to cool microprocessors.)... and guess what... IT WORKED!!
Actually, if i placed a finger on the IC (while the computer was running), it removed enough heat, to allow it to function normally... (read: the backlight did not turn off when i changed the resolution)
If anyone wants to try this, be aware that its a high-voltage inverter... its NOT fun to touch the outputs, so be carefull...
After removing the inverterboard from the displaypanel, i discovered, that there is some alluminium undernieth it... I THINK it's there to cool the electronics, but im not sure...
What I did to permanently solve my problem was, that I used thermal compound (also used between CPU-cooler and CPU in computers) to allow the heat generated by the electronics to be more effectively transfered to the alluminium. To ensure that the circuitboard stayed where it should be - pressed hard against the alluminium (be carefull... its a LCD, and its easy to breake) - I glued the corners of the circuitboard to the alluminium.
THIS SOLVED THE PROBLEM ! ! !
I did all this only a few days ago, so I can not say for sure, that the problem will not come back... but this far, I have not expirienced any blackouts (it did it several times a day before I "repaired" it
principalj
97 Posts
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Posted October 22nd, 2003 23:00
Hello Rollie;
The display only blanks on some startups from cold. I know it's going to do it when I don't see the Dell bootup screen, but then, the blue Windows XP screen will appear and the display will stay on until about 20 seconds after my desktop appears, then it goes out again.
When that happens, only pulling the cover and gently flicking on the "screen" button (I'm not sure what it's called) will restore the display. The button is pressed by the pin just below the Dell logo on the lid. That is spring loaded and is not definitely not sticking. I can't tell how the smaller button on the motherboard is designed - whether it is spring loaded or if it pushes against a dome like the keyboard key switches do. If I knew it was spring loaded and was supposed to have some travel, then for sure there is something wrong. It it's design is more like the key switches, then I can't tell what's wrong.
Since it goes off then on so consistently when it messes up on a cold start, it seemed more like a firmware/hardware issue than a bad connection. I disabled most of the power options so it wouldn't go into sleep or hibernate when the cover was closed - I selected "do nothing."
Does any of this sound familiar?
principalj
97 Posts
977
0
Posted October 22nd, 2003 23:00
I don't believe it's a hot IC problem since it does it most consistently on the first start up of the day (the first time I open the computer and turn it on). Almost every other shut down and restart works fine for the rest of the day. The chips would not be hot yet on startup. An external monitor works in all cases.Hello,
I get this problem everytime I boot up for the first time. I've found that it helps occassionally if I just move the mouse around after the windows loadup screen and it'll boot up. I got this problem after I got a few patches updating my system. Anyone know if they can play a role in any of this. Also, I get the problem where my computer will "window" down my resolution while showing the full screen in the native res. for example, i have res set at 1024x768, but the native res is 1600x1200, so it'll show a screen in the center that is 1024x768 and have black areas around the outside filling in the whole screen. This goes away after I change the resolution around and it finally does what I want it to do.
Danny
Rollie_R
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2248 Posts
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Posted October 22nd, 2003 18:00
Greg,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
If the display blanks regularly, and you find that the screen closure button is down, then the system should be serviced. If the LCD goes blank, and an external monitor stays on, and reseating the cables does not permanently fix the problem, then it should be serviced.