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    Inspiron 1501 Static Noise/Blank Screen

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by livereatinj, Dec 11, 2009.

  1. livereatinj

    livereatinj Newbie

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    My wife's 1501 just started doing this. It's an all standard hardware system running Vista:

    It boots up, but the screen flickers as a static noise comes through the speakers. Within 10-15 seconds, the static noise happens again and the screen goes completely blank. If I ctrl-alt-del, I can get the display to come back up for a few seconds, but then the whole process repeats itself. Sometimes the display works for several minutes, but eventually blanks out with the static noise.

    The software is apparently running...just no display. Anybody dealt with this one? Thanks! JJ
     
    livereatinj, Dec 11, 2009
    #1
  2. Fragilexx

    Fragilexx Get'cha head in the game

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    Do you have an external monitor, or can you borrow one? See if the problem persists then.

    That way you should be able to tell if the issue is with the monitor specifically or the graphics solution.
     
    Fragilexx, Dec 11, 2009
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  3. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    Yeah, I'd second testing on an external display. Yours sounds like it might just be a bad backlight, rather than a dead GPU or something...
     
    Commander Wolf, Dec 12, 2009
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  4. OneCool

    OneCool I AM NUMBER 67

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    Id try booting into safe mode and see if it lets you get to your desktop.
     
    OneCool, Dec 12, 2009
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  5. livereatinj

    livereatinj Newbie

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    I tried rebooting in safe mode, but the problem persists in safe made too.
    Plugged into an external monitor, everything works fine.

    Backlight? Video card?

    What do I do next?

    Thanks!
     
    livereatinj, Dec 14, 2009
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  6. Fragilexx

    Fragilexx Get'cha head in the game

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    I suspect this is your backlight then - though it's possibly the inverter board.

    I'm going to hazard a guess that this is outside of it's warranty?

    I'd suggest replacing the inverter board first, seeing that it's probably the cheapest component and relatively easy to replace. The backlight is a lot harder, and with some models it is not available on it's own but instead only with the display - which is a lot more expensive.

    Scour eBay for an inverter for your machine is what I would recommend.
     
    Fragilexx, Dec 14, 2009
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