RageKage214

One morning I turned on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite P200), and the screen remained black, but I noticed that the backlight came on, but no picture. At first I thought that it was not booting, but then I heard the Windows Vista sound so I tried logging in. I then heard the login accept sound. So I realize that my screen is broke. This was a suprise to me as the laptop worked fine the night before, and the only thing that had changed since then was that the computer had been shut off and closed. I called Toshiba and didn't recieve the help I was looking for so me and my brother opened the laptop up and checked the connections in the base of the laptop, and they were fine. We attempted to open the screen of the laptop, but it was near impossible to open it for some reason, and for fear of breaking the monitor's housing we stopped. I think that there might be a connection problem in that part of the laptop. However, once I put it back together, I tried starting it up again and it started off with the screen still black, but halfway through the bootup it came on and worked fine. I tried opening and closing it just to make sure it wouldn't go out on me again, and it seemed to be running fine again. So the next morning I power it up again, and the screen is black again. I finally was able to get it connected to a TV and use that as a monitor, and everything was running fine, except the monitor was still black. I read that I may have to tell my computer to turn on the monitor in BIOS, so I restarted my computer while still connected to the TV so I could see what I was doing, but when the computer bagan to boot the screen came on and everything was working fine again. That night, I left the computer on but put it asleep, which still turns the monitor off. In the morning it still worked, so that night I just left it on sleep again, and the next morning it still worked. I figured that sleep mode was keeping my computer In a functioning state, and that day I brought it to school as I usually do. Now while at school I opened it to bring it out of sleep, and wouldn't you know it, the screen Is off right now. I don't know what is wrong with it, or what to do about it, but obviously when its working it works fine so I don't believe the monitor is broken, but maybe something related to the monitor is broken.

Anyway, has anyone seen this problem, does anyone know what I could do? Sorry for such a long description, but I figured it was important to include as much info as possible.

Thanks,
Ragekage

RageKage214

I read something about maybe needing to replace the inverter? What does the inverter do, and does anyone think this might be a possible solution?

TriggerFinger

Can you still see your Desktop beyond the dark screen? If so, it could be the inverter or the backlight. See this for inverter definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_inverter

If screen is totally black, test with an external monitor as it could be your video card.

RageKage214

I can't see my screen beyond the darkness. It does work when I plug it into an external monitor. In fact, it came on again last night and I'm using it again right now, but I know that just like the other times that it wont last. The screen Isn't totally black though, i can see the back light come on, but no picture. It just sort of projects a black screen. Could this be a software issue?

TriggerFinger

AFAIK it is hardware... specifically the LCD assembly. On the other hand, you can check if is software... run linux live CD (knoppix or ubuntu), if it runs well there (not intermittent) then it is software related.

Another way is to boot into BIOS only (remove the HDD to be sure), if you experience the same intermittent no screen problem, then it is hardware.

RageKage214

Thanks, I will try these things out.