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Monitor is on but displaying all black
Hello,
I turned my Inspiron on and the monitor turned on but it is simply displaying a black screen - there is absolutely no text or images. This is from the moment that it is started up. I do not see any of the bios or Dell imagery that usually appears.
I was able to get a few glimpses/flickers of the screen when I went to close the top - it flashed to a screen that could be seen but then quickly returned to being black.
DELL-Rishi
2K Posts
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September 19th, 2015 23:00
Hi JoeyKirkland,
Thank you for the update.
Based on your description, I would suspect the video card as well. However, on this system, the video card is integrated on to the motherboard. So, the motherboard assembly needs to be replaced.
If you would like a service call from Dell, you could contact us via Twitter - @dellcares - and we can help setup a paid service call.
If you would like to replace the parts yourself, then you could contact - http://www.parts-people.com/ and order the parts through them. The part might cost about £140 (About 220$ I presume). Since the system is 5yrs old and is incompatible with the latest OS, my personal advise is that you invest your money in a new machine.
Let us know if you have any other queries.
DELL-Rishi
2K Posts
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September 17th, 2015 01:00
Hi JoeyKirkland,
When did the issue start? What is the exact system model? What is the OS installed on the system? Is there any physical damage / liquid spillage on the system?
Press and hold fn key + power button to start the system. It should initiate diagnostics. If you do not see any display, after a few minutes, it should beeping. Count the # of beeps.
Press and hold the "d" key + power button to turn on the system. It should change solid colors on the screen. If you see this, then the LCD is fine and the video card is suspected. If you don't see this, then the LCD is faulty. An external monitor will confirm this.
Try connecting an external monitor and check if there is any video seen.
Keep us updated.
JoeyKirkland
3 Posts
0
September 19th, 2015 09:00
Hello!
The model is a M5010. It has windows 7 folks. There is no spillage or damage. It just happened.
I have tried:
1. Using a monitor. Nothing happens. The laptop screen just flickers.
2. Removing and replacing the battery.
3. Switching the memory around.
The sound and everything else seems to work OK. So I have theorized the video card went considering the flickering when we switch to another monitor and unable to transmit the data. This plays a lot of Everquest2 and has for many years so the component likely failed due to that.
SO this leaves with two options:
1. Somehow repair the video card, it's integrated. This is 5 years old and is out of warranty.
2. Replace it by buying one which can be inserted. But this will likely require being able to see the screen to install drivers and tell windows to use it instead of the broken integrated one and as such, won't work.
How do I gain access to the hard drive on this model so I can extract the data using some of my extra tools? The case looks to be pretty solid/one piece on the bottom and the only access to the internal components is the memory.
ejn63
9 Legend
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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September 19th, 2015 12:00
Service manual is here:
< >
Quite a bit of disassembly required to access the hard drive.
JoeyKirkland
3 Posts
0
September 20th, 2015 21:00
Hello!
Thanks for the reply and for confirming my belief. We have decided to get a new machine, we were thinking about doing it anyways.
Thanks.