hi.
Yesterday i dropped my son’s laptop on the floor whilst i was cleaning his room. I haven’t told him because now the screen isn’t working properly and i think i may have broken it. But it did work for a few hours initially after it was dropped, so it might not be related.
when he switches it on, the start up stuff comes up but when its time to log on, the screen is just black and stays black. it doesn’t change no matter what you press or anything.
Does anybody know what could be wrong, or where is a good place to take it to be fixed, how much it would cost? I have no idea 🙁
when you switch it on sone white writing comes across the bottom of the screen, i dont know what it says. it would then normally go to the blue screen with his name on it and he types his password to log on, but it wont get that far now.
i know it wasnt broken before because he uses it everyday after school.
Is the start up stuff a little dim? Are you sure the screen is black and not just very very dim afterwards (take in a dark cupboard and shine a torch as the screen).
Could be the LCD backlighting inverter has gone. Just done this on my sons, £10 part, DIY fix.
the graphics are handled by the computers own processor until the operating system loads and enables the graphics card. you should be able to start the computer in safe mode (hold the f8 key whilst the computer starts up) which will not enable the graphics card i think. this may allow you to get files off it. dropping it could have broken a connection on the card or something similar
this is mostly speculation after a similar thing happened to me, i’m no expert
i just switched it on again and the writing only flashes up for a second or so, it says windows error recovery, then a list of stuff underneath, then it disappears.
i think i broke it 🙁
i have been switching it off, lots of times trying to get it to work, sometimes you dont get to see any writing, sometimes it is there.
it is a Compaq.
Somewhere, in South Nottinghamshire, a 14 year old boy is quietly sobbing in to his hands muttering to himself. It sounds like, “Oh, no, she’s going to find it….oh no, she’s going to find it….”
😉
Life was so much simpler when all we had was hard copy gentertainment!
If I had a 14-year old son and I found a huge stash of filth on his laptop, he’d be in big trouble and I’d be bitterly disappointed. “Son, have I taught you nothing about encryption?”
Again, with all due respect, he’s fourteen. The only way there won’t be anything you’d disapprove of on there is if he’s found somewhere else to hide it.
But anyway. I was going to offer to take a look at it for you, but it sounds like you’ve got a more local offer.
I’d suggest that your first action is to tell your lad. For all you know, he’s rigged it so that it appears to be broken should his mother feel a sudden need to go checking on him. ‘s what I would have done.