No visual on my laptop, helps please lads

[Merlin4458]

Ok have a HP laptop, fairly new, but bought from the states. Problem is:

- When i boot the screen doesnt come on

- The laptop makes the normal noises when starting then just seems to give up and the fans die down as if its gone into standby

Ive treid reseating all the ram, reset the cmos, taking battery out and putting back in and reseating the harddrive.

Is there anything else i can do?

Thanks all

[stevie lee]

are you using it on the mains, or a battery?

if mains - are you using the correct adapter/voltage changer leads.. you could've fried the laptop by stuffing 240v into a 110v circuit...


could be very simple - is the screen brightness/contrast turned up enough?

[Will404]

you could always try to pug in an external monitor, to see if that works.
If that were to work, then you would know that it is something to do with your display on the laptop.

[Merlin4458]

always used my HP adapter, and ive tried both with and without adapter.

I could try a monitor i guess, but it sounds as if the laptop dies down again after it starts to boot up, so it must be something else...

[stevie lee]

Is there an OS installed on the drive? is it installed properly? it could be doing the hardware check, looks for OS then can't find one so shuts down or enters power save mode..

I would try altering the boot sequence and use a windows boot cd, or that linux live CD i've seen mentioned on hexus a few times to see if it boots any further..

other than that, one of the hardware bits isn't plugged in correctly or it's broken...

[Merlin4458]

how do i do that without seeing the screen? lol. Ive had vista on it for year an a half with no problems

[ChristopherW]

While I have a think about this, do you have a Care Pack? Might be worth getting one sooner rather than later (you can't claim on a Care Pack until at least a month after you get it if I remember correctly, but they're really useful if you want a speedy repair and replacement).

[Merlin4458]

carepack? Well the thing is, after speaking to HP online chat, they said i have to send it bk to the states and must provide a USA address, so im screwed.

[mightymouse]

hey did you by any chance dropped it? or maybe put it too hard on the desk? sometimes the ribbon become undone.

first of all most adapters now are universal 110-240V so that cant be the problem. second of all isnt hp suppose to have worldwide support? just call HP uk and tell them you are here for school and lives in the states. i am sure they will sort something out.

if all else fail then just look for a guide online to take the thing apart. does sound like a busted screen or the ribbon came undone. happened to me before but it was a crappy notebook.

what shop did you get it from? i know most companies in the states are very helpful when it comes to laptop troubles.

[Merlin4458]

i did drop it mightmouse, a bit drop :S, but it worked inconsistantly for a week after that.

Bought it from Bestbuy

Apparently they dont offer wroldwide HP support unless ubuy it :s

Where is this ribbon?

[Ben_]

Take it to a shop as they will know what they are doing, or make sure you have a clean place with a bench to take it apart. There will be screws, 30+ they will be very small.

Also usually this ribbon is VERY hard to get to unless you have tiny hands. It will probably involve taking the whole thing apart from the front to get to it.

It is very likely to be that if you have dropped it.

But this is a risk people will take in order to save a few quid..

[Merlin4458]

thanks Ben, but it wasnt a few quid if it was even possible to do so. All i remember saying to me was that i had to sent it bk to US HP in order to get it fixed under warrenty

[mightymouse]

ahhhh grey imports, they used to call that cuz its always cheaper to get it from the states and you would have to purchase their "special" warranty. You should have bought bestbuys' warranty cuz its really good but cost a bomb. too late now live and learn.

anyway yes the only way would be to carefully document all the screws and open your laptop up. it is usually under the keyboard so if you are lucky there are some models where they keyboard comes out really easily. i am suspecting that the ribbon came undone or loose cuz if the screen is blown sometimes you still see something like the backlight.

just google your laptop model with dissect. if you are lucky someone has dissected their's.

by the way chances are that they will only be willing to send it back to a US address and the combined shipping back to you might be higher than you paying hp here to fix it.

[Ben_]

To be fair, what you cant do is go wrong to a degree. Its just fiddly.

Its all nuts and bolts, it goes back the way it came apart.

I have been into mine many times when thing shave stopped working, fans ect.

[mightymouse]

me too, i had thinkpads, 2xfujitsus, toshibas, macbook,.... the list goes on but then i usually only take them apart when the warranty is done so that's the only difference

[Ben_]

This warranty is as good as done by the sounds of it.