Screen goes black

I have a compaq presario v5000 laptop which we seldom have used. I want to use it on a regular basis, however after a short period of time the screen goes black. I have gone into the control panel/power options and it is not on hybernate. This happens even when I have it plugged into the electric outlet. HELP!

 

What OS? Your power settings probably has it set to "Turn screen off"

 

Does the screen come back on if you move the mouse or press a key? Does the power light blink to indicate the system is in Stand-by? If it's not related to a power setting, you might try hooking up an external monitor to see if it goes black as well. If it doesn't, the problem could be with the LCD itself.

You can test your power settings to see which one is causing this. Try setting all of them to off except Turn off monitor and set that to one minute. Wait a minute without hitting any keys or moving the mouse. The screen should go dark. Try moving the mouse or hitting a key to turn it back on. If that works, try setting the Stand-by option to one minute, then wait and try the key press/mouse movement test again. Do that with all the power settings till you can determine if any of them are causing this issue.

 

My power schemes settings are this:
Power schemes--always on
Settings for plugged in and running on batteries:
Turn off moniter--never
Turn off hard disks--never
System standby--never
Hybernate is not enabled.

The only way I can get the screen to come back on is by almost closing the notebook. Sometimes I must do this many times for it to come back. Then the screen will continue to go black and the process continues.

I can't find any place to set the stand-by for 1 minute. The above settings are the only ones I find.

There is a light that blinks beside the power light. I'm not sure if it's the IDE light or the battery light.

 

if its blinking then it might be sleeping

 

So, how do I fix it?

 

maybe you should switch to turn off monitor in a certain amount of minutes and see if that works,then switch back. i know that i had to do this cause my screen wasnt turning off when i said to turn off.so i set it to turn off when closing the lid or after a longer period. it seemd to turn off after i switched back to when i wanted it to turn off in the first place.

i think that sounded right lol

 

Moving the lid up and down makes it come back on? That's quite odd. There is an option to have the system stand-by or hibernate when you close the lid, but I've never heard of closing the lid turning the screen back on. Except in cases where the wire that connects the LCD to the motherboard has gotten loose and is being crimped by the lid hinges. In that case constantly adjusting the lid sometimes uncrimps the wire and makes it work for a little longer. It doesn't quite make sense that it would shut off without you doing anything, but if you feel ambitious you might try checking the LCD connection inside the laptop to make sure the wire isn't being pinched by anything.

 

The notebook doesn't shut down completely. The screen just goes black. If you tilt the monitor and look at it just right, you can see the page you were working on.

I've never taken the computer apart. Any tips?

 

Sounds like you backlight may be out....

 

Sounds like the switch that determines whether the lid is opened or closed is getting stuck. There was an article posted recently about another HP notebook series with that problem and how to disable the switch. Find that.