Laptop Problems - Help needed

[Kobold-Bard]

I realise I need to put this on a computer forum, but I thought if I put it here as well you never know, I might get lucky and someone will have had a similar problem.

My girlfriend's laptop (Maxdata Eco 4511IW) started playing up yesterday. The screen initially just went black, so she turned it off (held down the power button) and left it for about 6 hours. When she turned it back on it was almost like the brightness had been turned down, we could breifly see something, but it faded to black quickly. It does this every time we turn it on, but it's barely visible now, and it still fades before she can type her password in.

We have no idea whether or not the computer is running while he screen is black, if it is then the speakers are being affected too.

I turn to you oh knowledgeable forumites, because we are only just getting over our latest money crisis and there is no way in hell we can afford to replace it.

Thanks in advance
K-B

[raitalin]

Is it plugged in when you turn it on? Could be the battery otherwise.

Does the power light go off when the screen goes black? You should be able to tell if the computers running even when the screen's black via the fan working or the HD spinning or something. Eventually the computer will get warmer if its just the screen not working, methinks.

Here's my initial assesment of the bad news however: its a hardware (power source and/or monitor most likely) problem and repairing hardware problems is rarely economical on all but the highest-end laptops.

[Whoracle]

Could be the graphics inverter board that's shot, although that shouldn't affect your speakers.

First step of action would be to place your lappys hard disk in either a 2.5" adapterframe and into some desktop machine or into someone elses laptop. If the disk is OK, then you'll have to look for further information...

[Zeb The Troll]

I would say the first step would be to try and hook up some sort of external monitor to see if it's running correctly or just dying on you. I'm not familiar with this specific laptop but most have some sort of video input where a regular monitor can be plugged in and display the same thing as what's on the main screen by default.

Honestly, to me it sounds like you've got flaky power. It could either be a bad power supply or just a wonky power outlet that's not making a solid connection when you're plugged in to it.

[Erloas]

What it sounds like to me is that the ribbon cable going from the computer to the monitor is going bad. It is a thin cable that runs through the hinge area on the screen and is constantly being bent back and forth. Its also possible for them to get pinched by some parts of the hinge.

You should be able to use an external monitor and be fine, if nothing else it will give you a point to troubleshoot from. If you can open or close the lid a little bit and the problem goes away in some positions and gets worse in others then it is probably the cable.

If that is the problem and it needs to be fixed it really just comes down to either taking it someplace or trying to fix it yourself. I have repaired a few of these cables before, when I worked in a shop that made and repaired cables. Some cable designs are a lot easier to repair then others.

[valadil]

The faint image makes it sound like the backlight is dying. Plug it into another monitor and see what happens. If the backlight is dead you'll have to replace the screen. It is possible to replace just the backlight, but I've never attempted that so I can't comment on how difficult it is.

[Lord Seth]

Is it still under warranty? If so, getting it fixed will probably be free.

It probably isn't if you're asking, but I figured I should ask just in case. If you're not sure you can probably look it up online.

Incidentally, tip to everyone: Get extended warranties for laptops! Extended warranties are often a rip-off, but with laptops they're completely worth it.

[Kobold-Bard]

Working on getting an external monitor to test it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I don't think it's the power supply, we've had the charger less than 2 months, and everything seems to be working fine (it still says it's charging).

And no it's not under warranty unfortunately, it came free from uni because she was a disabled student and therefore despite it's age it's a lot better than anything we can afford right now.

[Kroy]

My computer is also acting up. It's a acer desktop running microsoft vista home premium. Model: Aspire 1201. The circuit breaker accidentally was switched for a moment. When I try to turn it on, it goes through a 20 minute startup auto repair. It that pops up telling to reboot and fix error 0x490. Reboots repeat this process.

Any advice? I would make my own thread, but this forum could probably do without to many tech support threads

[valadil]

Kroy, have you been able to get into safe mode?

I hate to say it, but if you lost power there's a decent chance some of your hardware is fried. When I was moving into my sophomore year dorm I had a room with strangely placed outlets and had to plug my computer in to a socket that was controlled by a light switch. I knew I'd accidentally hit the light switch at some point during the year, so I taped it in place and wrote myself a note not to use it. Not 30 seconds later my mom comes into the room, rips the tape off, and flicks the switch up and down repeatedly to test it. Apparently the tape and note made her think there was something wrong with power in my room. Killed my power supply, CPU, and motherboard. At least the parents got me a laptop to make up for it.

[Zeb The Troll]

Kroy - also, if you still have the system disks that came with it, you may be able to boot from the OS disc and perform a repair that way. I'm not sure how well this works in Vista (I've avoided it like the plague) but it's been a feature of Windows distro's since NT 4 so I'd expect it to remain so.

[Kroy]

It's the OS. I have to buy a new disk from Acer to fix it, since they didn't send it to me. :smallfrown: Oh well, It was only $20.