Laptop screen cutting out

manbearpig · 31 Oct 2010 at 12:22

My laptop hasn't been working properly for about 6 months, and I haven't got around to having a look at it until now. Sorry I don't know much about laptops.

It turns on OK, but as it gets hotter (and it does get very hot) the screen flickers and then cuts out. I don't think this is a connection problem because it happens after about 5 minutes of turning it on every time.

Any ideas on why this is happening?

Thanks

Jamiman · 31 Oct 2010 at 12:57

perhaps something is expanding, and breaking the connection. I mean my graphics card in my old lappy melted, and it would boot, but under any sort of load it would instantly shut the laptop off (not even a BSOD!)

I would suggest taking all the housing off and then checking there isn't anything melted. Also, get some compressed air and blow out all the dust, that might help too

jon.bda · 31 Oct 2010 at 14:41

Have you tried it on an external screen to see if its just the display cutting off?.

manbearpig · 31 Oct 2010 at 16:45

jon.bda said:
Have you tried it on an external screen to see if its just the display cutting off?.

You just reminded me that I did try that before and the external screen worked ok, but the laptop was incredibly slow, even when just installing windows, it didnt actually complete the install. So i'm guessing its overheating as well as the screen problem. I don't really know what I can do about it though other than what has already been said.

Bubba · 31 Oct 2010 at 17:24

Is it just the backlight cutting out (Can you still see a faint image)?

Which laptop is it? Make and model.

manbearpig · 31 Oct 2010 at 22:35

Bubba said:
Is it just the backlight cutting out (Can you still see a faint image)?

Which laptop is it? Make and model.

Its a Dell Inspiron 6000

And it is the hole screen cutting out.

bees · 1 Nov 2010 at 09:39

did you try external screen?

edscdk · 1 Nov 2010 at 09:47

bees said:
did you try external screen?

^^^ this if it has the same issue its probably a duff nvidia chip

manbearpig · 1 Nov 2010 at 14:15

bees said:
did you try external screen?

manbearpig said:
I did try that before and the external screen worked ok, but the laptop was incredibly slow, even when just installing windows, it didnt actually complete the install. So I'm guessing its overheating as well as the screen problem. I don't really know what I can do about it though other than what has already been said.

Bubba · 1 Nov 2010 at 18:22

External monitor proves nothing, it could still be a faulty graphics chip, do you know which one your laptop uses?

manbearpig · 1 Nov 2010 at 20:13

How can an external monitor proves nothing? If the graphics card was dead then wouldn't there be no image at all?

The Graphics card is an ATI Radeon x1300

Bubba · 5 Nov 2010 at 21:06

It is possible for only part of the card to fail, so sometimes you will get an external display but no internal, seen it tons of times, also other times on some laptop you might have to switch with the function key or sometimes even in windows with supplied software.

Dappy · 7 Nov 2010 at 11:00

It's more likely to be the LCD inverter than the graphics card. If you had horizontal lines, graphic corruption then it would be the card.