Gateway P-6831FX displaying only to TV (HDMI) when booted

I am having the toughest problem with my laptop.

I just installed Vista, everything worked great until the 8800M GTS driver is installed. Now as soon as Vista loads (after the bar loading screen) the laptop screen goes black (it switches to HDMI or VGA output, displaying to TV/monitor). I can't seem to get it to display to laptop screen. Any suggestions? Fn+4 doesn't display to laptop.

 

Have you tried unplugging the HDMI cable to see if the laptop screen comes back?

 

I plugged in the HDMI cable because it was black when nothing was plugged in, that's how I found out it was displaying to HDMI, and then the same to VGA.

 

Just installed a different version of Vista (Ultimate rather than Premium), and the same results. Is it possible I have a bad video card, or does someone have any other ideas? I've upgraded the bios to the newest revision, and the newest video drivers as well.

 

It really does look like you have a hardware problem, but if you really think it is related to your vista drivers, you could try using/making a ubuntu live cd and trying a different OS. You can get ubuntu free. It doesn't take a long time to install. Check in the Linux forum for more info.

 

good idea, I'll try that today. I did upgrade the screen to a 17" WUXGA, LP171WU1 A1, that might be the problem. It displays 1920x1200 in safe mode no problem, but I'm wondering if there is a confliction between it and the 8800M GTS drivers.

 

This happened to me with my NINE day old P-7811FX...it was past the 14 day best burn return day though...since I didn't start using it immediately...so I had to send it back to Gateway...the only difference is that I was switching user in Vista...and the screen went white then it would not come back on...I could only hear songs, and could see output to VGA...didn't try the HDMI port.

 

try setting a lower resolution in safe mode and see what happens, might be signal out of range ? refresh rate ? something is not right...

 

If it is the same problem I had that wont work...I tried everything...and no go...Gateway tech support said it is either a lcd problem or a gpu problem...possible RMA...something along those lines...so I better get mine soon...it should get to their repair unit in the next couple of days.

 

It was the screen. I tried Ubuntu and it worked until Ubuntu installed the drivers for the graphics card, then I got a black screen just like Windows. I guess that screen was conflicting w/ the 8800M or something. I re-installed the original WXGA+ screen and the laptop displays just fine.

 

new screen? hmm, did the cord plug in all the way to the motherboard? that sometimes can be a pain.

as for conflicting with the graphics card, with nividia you can go in and change the screen resolution through the nividia menu (right click) then try to match the resolution between the nividia window and windows personalize interface, if either one doesnt go up to the 1900 resolution, you might have to update the drivers to recognize the new screen rez since the initial programming wasnt set up for the higher level.

one last guess is some how the computer got setup to only display on external output devices,unfortunatly im not sure how to change this back to default

 

I changed the resolution when it was displaying to my tv through HDMI. I hit Fn+4 and the screen flashes, but continued displaying to the tv. I tried 2 different nvidia drivers (the 1 that came with the laptop's restore cd, and the newest 1 from gateway's website). Lastly, I never disconnected the cable going to the motherboard, just to the screen end. It was plugged all the way in when installed. That's why the only culprit left was the screen.

 

Oh ok, lucky you. Mine just went dead without changing anything on the system at all.