Inspiron 8000 - Monitor Won't Stay On

I've had an Inspiron 8000 for a number of years and I have a new problem that I can't figure out.

The monitor goes dark and I can't get it to stay on.

A local person looked at it and told me it was because the battery was no good anymore (won't hold a charge) and the settings in the bios were such that if the battery was dead, the monitor would shut off.

When I say "shuts off" I mean it goes so dark that you can barely discern what is on the monitor. It seems to go 95% dark. You certainly can not read anything on the screen or see where the mouse pointer is. All you can see is the desktop very slightly - not enough to do anything.

Hitting Fn and F8 will turn it back on for about 20 seconds, and then it goes dark again.

I've checked all of the Windows XP settings for screensaver and hibernation and all of that stuff is off. I've checked and rechecked those settings. The computer should never turn the monitor off or go into hibernation.

Anyway, this guy that looked at it for me told me that he changed the settings in the bios so it would not do that anymore and he recommended that I purchase a new battery.

Unfortunately, whatever he changed did nothing to help, and also, I did buy a brand new battery but that also has not helped the situation.

I tried to go into the bios to poke around but the screen goes dark so quickly that I can't see any settings and when in the bios the Fn + F8 does not seem to work to get the monitor back on for the brief time.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

I hate to ask, but can you try plugging it into an external monitor? It sounds like the LCD backlight on the notebook is starting to die.

 

Well, I don't have an external monitor. I only have two computers, this one and an XPS M2010.

Nothing else to try?

 

Your LCD backlight is probably burning out. There is also the inverter and the cable between the inverter and the backlight that could be causing problems.

I just inherited my wifes 8000, it has been retired and replaced with a 1520. It occasionally has a somewhat similar problem, but not nearly as severe. I have researched the issue and it seems the inverter and cable are easily and cheaply replaceable. Replacing the backlight is somewhat more difficult, but still a reasonable job. Here are links to some useful guides

Fixing my Dell Inspiron 8000 Backlight

Replacing an LCD or Laptop CCFL backlight tube/lamp/bulb.

Replacing the backlight lamp of ThinkPad T23

LCD Screen Repair

Because the problem with my 8000 seems to be related to flex in the body and hinge, I suspect the cable is my primary problem. As long as the laptop isn't moved, the display can remain perfectly normal, at lest for now....

But I'm going to purchase a replacement cable and inverter. The price and availability of parts is quite reasonable.

 

I have a similar problem with my 7 y.o 8000. I've had various screen problems over the years, they come and go. At present when the lcd screen is working it looks fine, the problem being that half of the time I open the laptop and turn it on, the screen comes up blank...if I manipulate the screen back and forth it may or may not come on but is very sensitive and if I move it slightly or even just touch it, it may go blank. I have removed the top part of the case with the buttons on it so that I can actually remove the entire screen assembly from its seating, then replace it, sometimes successfully. It can continue working fine for hours.

At the same time, I've had a problem with the mouse pointer wandering to one corner or another of the screen no matter where I try to put it it just rapidly goes to the edge. I've taken apart the screen a couple of times finding that when I replace it in the case it works fine for awhile. At other times, even when screen is working and mouse is not wandering, I find that when I use Excel, the mouse acts erratically while in the midst of an excel spreadsheet. if I place the mouse in a cell and then try to move around the sheet it selects all the cells and otherwise I can not get mouse controls to work. Sometimes, if I then remove or wiggle the screen, the mouse problems resolve and it works fine, no wandering, no erratic behavior in excel.

Thanks for any attention.

Richard