IT/Tech 2nrs need some help. laptop problem

[aidan]

Hey 2nrs,

I got a rather strange problem occuring with my latop as of yesterday. It was working well up till the night before.

Problem: My screen isn't coming on when windows starts up. It show the splash page and POST screen and the windows loading screen, but after the screen just cuts off and goes black.
However, it works perfectly in safe mode.

I tried the following so far:
- Reinstall display adapter driver
- Format hard drive and reinstall windows and drivers

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 5050.

Anyone has any ideas?

[skylinechild]

you said it just cuts off....does the screen go blank or the whole laptop cuts itself off....

have you tried connecting an external monitor to it and then powering it on?

does the screen give you any anomalies when you see the loading bar for windows - distorted colors or oversized graphics etc?

[uncle sam]

check yuh RAM sticks or display adapter could be overheating

you said it just cuts off....does the screen go blank or the whole laptop cuts itself off....

good question.. if it cutting off it could be cpu overheating


try disabling the Automatic Restart on System Failure while in safe mode

[aidan]

Oh sorry, i wasn't too clear on that. The screen alone cuts off, cause I hear the vista start up sound.
No problems with what shows before the blank screen, looks perfectly normal.

I just connected an external monitor with the same results. Working in safe mode only. I don't think it's overheating, since it's not feeling any warmer and my laptop is always on a table with a cooling pad.

[skylinechild]

you said you reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows and drivers....

when you were doing this did it give any problems...???

when you first installed windows - without any applications or drivers - did it work?

did u try just installing windows and ONLY the display driver...??

was the driver recently changed/ updated.??

[aidan]

you said you reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows and drivers....

when you were doing this did it give any problems...??? -Nope i used acer e-recovery which brings the system back to factory state

when you first installed windows - without any applications or drivers - did it work? --yep it did last night until i shut down my pc

did u try just installing windows and ONLY the display driver...?? -no i did not try this, don't have a win vista cd

was the driver recently changed/ updated.??- nope driver was not updated until i did it to see if it was the problem

THanks for the help btw!

[uncle sam]

sounds like a video adapter problem.

Still try

clean and resit your RAM sticks

system restore to last night or re install again.. if it works

drop display resolution try 800x600 and see if it'll stay...

[wagonrunner]

how about F8 and boot into VGA mode?

[kevinsonny]

idk if this might help but check and see if the battery clip is locked , my laptop does cut off after (post) if the battery clip is in the unlock position, (lenovo)

[ACT DA FOOL]

Screen Resolution too high for adapter / screen.

[benko]

boot into diagnostics and test hardware, after you reseat ram, check temp, etc, boot with linux live distro and verify if you can function normally, if it works out install linux

[wagonrunner]

with the exception of act da fool, anyone bothered to read / comprehend that it boots ok in safe mode?

[TK!]

os ?
xp, win7?

[DevilZ]

man usin vista thas de prob right there

[skylinechild]

lets start off on what it's not.

It's not your RAM cause it boots up...
Its not the screen cause it works in safe mode
It's not a temperature issue cause it doesnt turn itself off....

what's your desktop resolution...???
try decreasing your screen resolution to the lowest and see if it works.....if it does, try increasing in SMALL increments till you can re create the problem...

lastly why on gods green earth are you using VISTA....??? XP or win 7......

[toyota2nr]

Sounds like your VGA resolution could be too high or your VGA driver needs to change. Install windows xp or windows 7. Try a new driver on that and see.

[aidan]

Thanks for all the input guys. tried everything so far.
I think its the screen or display adpater dying. The laptop screen totally refuses to come on now, but the VGA out works, however the laptop screen randomly comes on for 10sec-2mins and cuts off back during use. Normal mode isnt working at all only safe mode, and even here the ext monitor im using starts to go black every once in a while. Seeing that the times when the screen does come on it is perfect, i am thinking it can be the cable or display adapter?

Got 5 yrs without a problem though.
And to those who want to know, I using vista cause that's what it came with, never used this system for anything other than work, music, videos etc, so it never bothered me.

So... should I get it repaired or just buy a new system?

[S_2NR]

backup.
clean install with windows 7.
see if problems persist.
vista is very problematic.

[aidan]

^^I'm gonna try that now. In the process of downloading drivers

[streetbeastINC.]

buy new...dont wste effrot to repair..

[nareshseep]

[TK!]

^^ what mario said

oh, hear wah.. it really sounds like the video card going bad.
if a factory doh wuk, is a hardware problem. hardly likely is ram etc.

you can try reseating the cooling pipes that sit on to of the CPU and video card. reapply some paste, and clean the fans and fins.

i recently opened a laptop with a video problem and it had a 1/2 wad of dust clogging the fins.

[skylinechild]

^^^ what TK said....
open up..clean out....new thermal paste......

use artic silver 5 and cleaning solution....use cleaning solution first to remove all old grease & purify and apply new grease !!!!

[aspsounds]

If the splash screen come up and it only shuts down following this it means that there is a problem with a driver...In safe mode only the non important drivers are used.
The problem can be any new programs/hardware which were installed...can be as simple as a P&P mouse.
Go into system restore and go back to one of the system checkpoint..

[MonsterPower]

what if its the backlight of the screen ?

o/o take a flashlight to the screen with the lights off and see if the screen is showing anyting

[Scoobert Bauce]

Hey 2nrs,

I got a rather strange problem occuring with my latop as of yesterday. It was working well up till the night before.

Problem: My screen isn't coming on when windows starts up. It show the splash page and POST screen and the windows loading screen, but after the screen just cuts off and goes black.
However, it works perfectly in safe mode.

I tried the following so far:
- Reinstall display adapter driver
- Format hard drive and reinstall windows and drivers

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 5050.

Anyone has any ideas?

My opinion:

1) its an Acer

2) it could be your ram. I'm assuming it loads normally, goes to the startup screen and then blanks off in continuous loop? run a diagnostic on your ram by pressing f12 when it starts up

3) Its an Acer.

4) Acer's are kinda notorious for overheating cuz the cooling vents for most models are at the bottom (Why? I dont know) so try using it with a fan and see what happens

[aidan]

Hey 2nrs,

I got a rather strange problem occuring with my latop as of yesterday. It was working well up till the night before.

Problem: My screen isn't coming on when windows starts up. It show the splash page and POST screen and the windows loading screen, but after the screen just cuts off and goes black.
However, it works perfectly in safe mode.

I tried the following so far:
- Reinstall display adapter driver
- Format hard drive and reinstall windows and drivers

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 5050.

Anyone has any ideas?

My opinion:

1) its an Acer

2) it could be your ram. I'm assuming it loads normally, goes to the startup screen and then blanks off in continuous loop? run a diagnostic on your ram by pressing f12 when it starts up

3) Its an Acer.

4) Acer's are kinda notorious for overheating cuz the cooling vents for most models are at the bottom (Why? I dont know) so try using it with a fan and see what happens

Ram is fine, used some brand new sticks today as well to troubleshoot. I had this laptop for almost 6 years now with use everyday, without any overheating problems or anything, so I don't think acer and unreliability should be implied as related.

Took apart the system today and cleaned it, didn't find much dust. Problem has to be the graphics processor, as the screen is working perfectly in another system. I just don't understand how the VGA out is working but the screen isnt. It isnt the cable since i plugged it directly into another acer laptop and it worked perfectly.

Thanks for all the input and help guys.

[nareshseep]

Ok ah go be serious now, if the vga out is working fine then definitely its the lcd screen thats bad, replace the lcd screen and you should be good to go, had a client with the same issue, lcd was bad, got one of amazon, replaced and was good to go.

It could be that you set the display as secondary and the attached monitor as primary, this happened with me with ATI drivers, their dual display modes sucks goat balls. But you also said you reverted to factory... hmm

Download an ubuntu live cd, boot with that and see if you can get to the desktop.
www.ubuntu.com

edit
did you try a next screen on it?
also what is the model of the laptop?

[DJ Q]

Ok ah go be serious now, if the vga out is working fine then definitely its the lcd screen thats bad, replace the lcd screen and you should be good to go, had a client with the same issue, lcd was bad, got one of amazon, replaced and was good to go.

It could be that you set the display as secondary and the attached monitor as primary, this happened with me with ATI drivers, their dual display modes sucks goat balls. But you also said you reverted to factory... hmm

Download an ubuntu live cd, boot with that and see if you can get to the desktop.
http://www.ubuntu.com

edit
did you try a next screen on it?
also what is the model of the laptop?

Wouldn't settings revert if the additional monitor was disconnected?

[wagonrunner]

It could be that you set the display as secondary and the attached monitor as primary, this happened with me with ATI drivers, their dual display modes sucks goat balls. But you also said you reverted to factory... hmm

Download an ubuntu live cd, boot with that and see if you can get to the desktop.
http://www.ubuntu.com

edit
did you try a next screen on it?
also what is the model of the laptop?

Wouldn't settings revert if the additional monitor was disconnected?

not always. seen it many times, especially with ATI mobility radeon, and intel chipsets.