laptop troubleshooting need help please :)

[MrBojangles]

Hi fellow gerbils i'm going to rack your brains for some help with a laptop problem.My roommate fell while carrying there laptop earlier today.They supposedly did not drop or hit it when they fell. Just kinda held it to there chest then landed on there back.Non the less it no longer seems to be working properly and i get bombarded with pleas to fix it as soon as i walk in the door from work. The problem unfortunately is beyond my normal scope of simple solutions.What's happening is the screen no longer comes on when you turn the laptop on.All key board light's come on. the small blue led connected to the base of the monitor comes on.The laptop can be hooked up to a normal monitor and runs and operates perfectly normal.Only the laptop screen stays blank.It does not come on by itself at any time during post or boot up, but here's the weird part. If i push in the lid button in the top left corner.The screen flashes on for a split second after i release.I can even get a sorta strobe light flickering picture by rapidly pressing it.During this the image is perfectly clear, no color or pixel distortions, and is just as bright as it always is..... any ideals???


P.S. the laptop is a hp dv8380us specs are the same as in the link below except this one has 3gb of ram and a 7600gt gpu running windows 7 32bit
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... ct=3192912

[ludi]

Does the unit cycle between the various internal/external screen modes if you press the keyboard FUNCTION sequence?

[MrBojangles]

Yeah it does but the laptop screen still remains blank unless i tap the lid button.The external monitor will go on and off or into extended mode if i press them though.

[Starfalcon]

It is very possible that the screen connector from the onboard video has come loose. The shock from the landing may have been enough to almost pull it out of its slot. Have you opened up the screen to see if all the connections are fully seated yet?

[ludi]

It is very possible that the screen connector from the onboard video has come loose. The shock from the landing may have been enough to almost pull it out of its slot. Have you opened up the screen to see if all the connections are fully seated yet?

Good call on the forensics, but I would start with checking the screen connector in the base, mainly because it's usually a lot easier to get at and less risky to the screen. On some models, the plastic bezel above the keyboard simply unclips, and then you can see it. On others, some screws penetrate from underneath and lock that bezel in place, so those have to be removed first. Either way, the lower screen connect is usually underneath, not too far from one of the hinges.

[Starfalcon]

Well my thoughts that it was inside the screen itself was because he said he can get the screen to flicker by pushing on the lid. If the loose connection was in the body of the laptop that would not have any effect.

[MrBojangles]

Well my thoughts that it was inside the screen itself was because he said he can get the screen to flicker by pushing on the lid. If the loose connection was in the body of the laptop that would not have any effect.

Not the lid itself the "lid button" (sorry don't know the technical term) in the corner.The one that tells the system when the lids down for power/action preferences.If i press it in the screen flickers for or a split second on release or in other words when it thinks i just raise up the lid.

[ludi]

Well my thoughts that it was inside the screen itself was because he said he can get the screen to flicker by pushing on the lid. If the loose connection was in the body of the laptop that would not have any effect.

Not the lid itself the "lid button" (sorry don't know the technical term) in the corner.The one that tells the system when the lids down for power/action preferences.If i press it in the screen flickers for or a split second on release or in other words when it thinks i just raise up the lid.

I followed you on that part, but still agree with Starfalcon that the screen connector is a good place to start -- albeit start with the one in the base. Sometimes a plug that is coming loose, but is still making a partial (resistive) connection, can exhibit odd behaviors of this sort. Adding to what I said earlier, I'm playing with a balky Toshiba this week and the screen connector is actually under the keyboard. Same disassembly process described above, but then once the bezel comes up, a couple more screws are exposed and the keyboard tray is released. Just got to be careful with it because it usually has a ribbon cable going back to a compression connector.

Since it works fine with an external monitor, might also tinker with the docking and power management settings -- maybe the unit thinks it's docked or otherwise being instructed to kill the display, when it's not.