Weird Dell Inspiron 1000 LCD problem

sthomas

I have a strange problem with a laptop, everytime I move the LCD display foward even alittle bit the screen goes off. The fans still run for a couple of seconds before they stop. The power, battery, and hard drive light stay a solid green but I am unable to do anything with the computer. It is like it goes into standby mode but won't come out of it. I push the power botton, spacebar, Enter key, I move the mouse but nothing happens. The only way I can get the laptop to work is by holding down the power button for several seconds then it shuts down and I am able to turn it on again after that. I updated the video driver and the bios. I set all of the power option settings to never and I turned off Standby and Hibernation. I installed all Windows updates and delete temp files, I also checked for Spyware and viruses (none found). When the computer screen goes blank I tried pressing the Fn key along with buttons F1-F12 and Esc but none of this works. I also checked the bios for power settings but there were none there. Does anyone have any idea's? The OS is Windows XP Home edition with SP2 installed. I checked support.dell.com and unfortunatley found nothing on this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

sprkymrk

There's a flat cable that runs through the base of the laptop and up through the hinged area on the left as you are looking at the screen. It's probably pinched or loose. They are a pain to fix. I hate taking laptops apart.

You can test by hooking up an external monitor and seeing if it works regardless of your LCD screen position.

sthomas

I hooked up a CRT monitor to the laptop and it did the same thing. Both the CRT monitor and the LCD monitor went black. The green light on the CRT monitor started flashing like it was not getting any signal.

Slowhand

Sounds like the integrated video card is crapping out. If both the external monitor and the LCD screen on the laptop, itself, are going out when you move the screen, that means there's something going on with the onboard video. The really bad part of this is that it means the whole motherboard has to be replaced, something that's not worth the $1,500 it'll likely cost, if you don't have a warranty from Dell.

malcybood

Yeah sounds to me like a motherboard gone kaputt! If it's in warranty or you've got hardware contract you'll get it replaced no problem.

If not you will have to replace it yourself as Slowhand said

sthomas

The weird thing is it only does it when I move the LCD screen foward, I can move it back as far as it will go and it still works ok. Anyway, thanks for the help.

Silver Bullet

Most laptops have a trigger/sensor that senses when the LCD is closed and once triggered, depending on what you have it set to do, it will hibernate, standby, turn off the monitor etc. There is a possibility that this sensor is giving you this grief.

I know you mentioned that you adjusted some Power Options, but what do you have it set to do on the option "When I Close the Lid of my Portable Computer" (wording may be slightly different.)

Can you tell if anything s hitting this sensor when you move the LCD forward?

malcybood

Good point silver bullet....

I remember now I think about it that I've had some support queries on laptops where the LCD button that activates the screen to switch off was getting stuck, it could be something along these lines and check the power options in control panel - Power Options - Advanced tab, then

when I close the lid of my computer
Do Nothing

sthomas

I set the option "When I push the sleep button on my computer" to Do Nothing and the option "When I close the lid of my computer" to Do Nothing. The only option I have set is "When you press the power button on my computer" set to Shutdown. I will check to see if the sensor thing is causing problems. Thanks for the help.

Silver Bullet

Did you already have it set that way or did you just change that setting?

Does it still act the same the above settings?

sthomas

I already had it set that way. And the strange thing is I can move the LCD screen back all the way so the laptop and screen are at a 180 degree angle but when I move the laptop foward even alittle the screen goes off and so does the second monitor if I have one attached.

Silver Bullet

Sounds like you are going to need to break it down and make sure that all the cables are fully seated, not pinched, damaged etc..

Good Luck.

Does it do the same if you are sitting at the BIOS screen?