Thread: laptop issues

right, i got me a laptop problem.

I was gaming around a friends, put the laptop in sleep, took it home, and now the screen doesn't work, and it doesn't work if i plug it into an external monitor.

i have tried -

taking out just about every componant too see if there is physical damage.
cleaning it.
booting without the graphics card (it doesn't)
shouting at it.
almost crying.

i know its not the drivers or anything else, because it still boots, and it boots windows, because i heard the startup sound, and manages to shut it down safely.

Temps seen normal, and it was working PERFECTLY about 10 minutes before i noticed it at normal temps, also, graphics card doesn't look like it has any defects on it, like burn marks or anything.

When plugging into 2nd monitor, windows 7 can detect it, and do what i did last with it, what was dual monitor, and it says no signal.

The model is an acer aspire 5920g, with an intel t5450, not overclocked, a nvidia 8600m gs not overclocked, 2gb of not overclocked ddr2 667Mhz ram

anyone know what is going up?

There is supposedly a way to restore the thing to factory settings, which you should try on the basis of having somehow set it to do something unexpected with the video output..

That model laptop is known for getting too hot to use in your lap, and heat damage isn't necessarily visible. (I once got a little Texas Instruments logo branded into my fingertip, to emphatically prove this.)

Look at the instructions for how to get into the BIOS setup, and do that as best you can even if you can't see what you're doing. Being in BIOS setup should bypass/temporarily undo any strangeness with the settings. If you can't see this, then you can pretty much assume permanent damage. It *might* be limited to the graphics processor, and while a replacement might solve the problem, it's still shop time.

Try pulling the battery and then rebooting the laptop. Sometimes when the battery get too hot, then it'll do weird things. A laptop should be used as a laptop is intended frequently, ie: running it until the battery is out of juice. If you are going to use it plugged in for extended periods, it is best to pull the battery out, and just run it on regular current.

Being that you just put it to sleep, and was packing it about. IF it was packed about in a bag, it probably over heated and shorted something out. IF you are going to transport a laptop, always shut it down. Putting it to sleep does nothing, other than make the laptop run at its lowest power settings. The problem is, it is still running, and inside a case or a bag where there is no air circulation is a bad thing.

As lame as this may sound you could also try downloading and burning a copy of Ubuntu or any other live disk and boot from it just to see if it's hardware or software. If all works you either have a corrupt install or a HD that is losing it.

Any chance that freakin little switch that sleeps the system is stuck down?