I'm stuck in the most funny yet frustrating situation. My laptop screen is broken so i have been currently using a monitor, and i had just updated my graphics card and now my laptop will not connect to the monitor. It keeps coming up with "no signal", on my monitor.
Is there anything i can do? I have closing my lid to laptop but it does not work.
Hey thanks for the reply, i want to be able to do that but the problem is the external monitor wont connect to the laptop and my laptop screen is broken
Sorry may sound like a silly question but is it possible to put the hard drive in another pc and delete the files?
Yes, you can remove the hard drive and put into another PC (desktop only) since you cannot put into another laptop as there is only room for 1 hard drive. Way around this if your 2nd computer is another laptop, and that's to buy this SATA-USB adapter for under $20 US here: Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter CB-ISATAU2 - Newegg.com
It would also be helpful if you could tell us the Make/Model of your laptop?
Try REMOVING the hard drive from the laptop and connecting it to another working laptop or desktop pc via the SATA-USB adapter I gave you a link to in my last post. The 2nd computer must have a working DISPLAY or MONITOR in order for you to access the laptop hard drive and do file backup or file deletion!!!
>>>I must be punchy or misunderstanding you. What is your specific reason for deleting the files on your Windows hard drive? Are you trying to"repair" it and get it working again? Cause that's not going to do it!
If you are going to throw that hard drive away and replace it with another one, and don't want your information floating around in a landfill or the melt-down barrell at the recycling place, that's a different story. In that case, you need to delete *ALL THE FILES*! However, that doesn't remove all your personal information; you need to use special software to do that called "drive-wiping" software; usually in Linux. If you don't know how to do this, I suggest you take it to your local licensed Computer Pro and pay him to wipe it for you. Chain stores will charge you from $30-$60 US or so to do this. Smaller independent stores or Independent Techs like me will sometimes do it for Free; you just have to ask them. I provide this as a Free service to my repeat Customers; new Customers I charge to do this. Again, you just have to call around and ask.:thumb:
Laptops have a FN +F_ key assignment to switch between the internal and external monitors, knowing the brand and model would be useful as they are not all the same but it may be FN + F5, have you tried that to switch to the external monitor?
Does the start up splash screen display on the external and then go blank as Windows starts up?
I was afraid of that, the "switch" is software and without the driver installed there is no software to switch. Nor can I tell you how to revert back to the previous driver without being able to see a screen.
You are stuck if the external monitor won't work; :facepalm: and the internal display also won't work *sounds like it needs a new Inverter/Backlight*. That's a $10 part on ebay. If you do replace the Inverter/Backlight [assuming it's not an LED screen which doesn't have these], you'll be back up and running again on the laptop. This repair is around $50-$70 US if you pay a Tech to do it; but many people here have found they can do this themselves. :wink:
Of course if you replace the Inverter/Backlight, and the screen still fails to work, your LCD panel is fried. Because of this, I'd recommend replacing the entire LCD panel assembly with Inverter/Backlight pre-installed. This will cost you more, but you'll get to a resolution faster.:wink: You can get these overnighted to you on ebay for around $100 US or less. They can be replaced 1-2 days by a professional. With a new LCD display assembly installed, if the display STILL fails to come up, your Motherboard GPU chip has failed and that's not repairable in most cases unless your specific laptop has a discrete GPU daughterboard-which I don't believe the dv series has. That means a Motherboard replacement; $175-$400 US; 2-3 times that outside of US. At that point, it's cheaper to replace the entire laptop as brand new full size Dell Inspiron laptops 15.6" are $159 this weekend. :frown:
A forum community dedicated to tech experts and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about articles, computer security, Mac, Microsoft, Linux, hardware, networking, gaming, reviews, accessories, and more!