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[SOLVED] Laptop's display works randomly, external screen always

5K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  BCCOMP 
#1 ·
Hi,

I have this problem which drives me mad for some time already. Hope you know more than I. (And sorry for my imperfect English.)

I was using my laptop Lenovo T61 (1440x900) with an external monitor Dell 2209WA (1680x1050) and everything worked just fine - all the combination of primary/secondary screen, only external, only laptop's monitor, both the same picture, or a wide screen over the two monitors.

Suddenly, this problem appeared. Laptop's monitor does not show any picture in 90% of cases. Sometimes it works fine, but just occasionally. Usually it shows neither the first bios splash after turning on, nor Windows 7 running afterward. On the other hand, external monitor works always - sometimes omitting the splash screen but always showing Windows running.

I read a lot already. Back light seems ok, inverter too - as I said, the monitor is working sometimes. And even when it is not, I can seen it is on. I tried BIOS update, without success. Then in BIOS, I checked the display options and could see that it is set to External VGA, so I changed it to Thinkpad LCD, restarted but the External VGA is there again.

In Windows, I installed the newest drivers for Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M, installed the driver for laptop's display, without success. On FN+F7, it is switching, but only from "only external" to "only external" - I can see it switching but nothing changes. Screen settings in Windows is correctly detecting the external screen, but for the laptop's screen most options are disabled. Before installing drivers it said it was a non-pnp monitor. Now it says it is a "mobile PC display".

Hope I wrote everything necessary. Please help.

Martin
 
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#3 ·
Re: Laptop's display works randomly, external screen always

Thanks for the answer. I used the torch, but there is nothing. I can see the backlight shining a lot, certainly enough to backlight the display. But the screen is set to show only black color. I am not a hardware professional but I suppose the screen is ok. It is just receiving a wrong signal or no signal at all.

Btw I forgot to tell you that I reinstalled Vista with W7, hoping it will solve the problem. And it worked, only for a few restarts, unfortunately. Now it is as it was before.
 
#7 ·
Re: Laptop's display works randomly, external screen always

Thanks, I doubted the result, but tried that. And again, for the first turn on, it worked, then it did not.
And these partial successes are what puzzles me. It tells me: it is not hardware. But the rest, that I reinstalled windows vista with 7, and flashed bios, rules out the software cause.

It seems one part of the hardware - nvidia chip, display electronics or something else - is somehow sensitive to the software changes (which causes the short successes).

Let me know please, if you have some idea. At least, I would like to understand.

Thankfully, there is still some warranty remaining so I will have to have it repaired (and wait for it). Then I will report what was the cause.
 
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