Lapton problems... help needed!!!

[KevinViolin]

recently the screen on my laptop has stopped working. could it be caused by by a small crack at the bottom close to where the screen opens? the power comes on but the screen does not come on.

also, very important, i have some very important files, and information on the laptop. is there any way that i can somehow access these files and edit things on the computer, like maybe hooking it up to some other device?

PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[Spikke]

Hook it up to another monitor if it has external vga or dvi connectors. Or you could take out the hard drive and put it in something else to extract the info you need from it.

 

[Onus]

What Spikke said. Get an external USB case for 2.5" drives; maybe $25.

 

[nazaretian]

I guess I can say my specialty is laptops. Can you give us some information on your laptop. Mine is a Dell E1505. I had screen problems Around February. First my laptop's screen started to develop dead black pixels, so I sent it into Dell to have it replaced and I got it back about a week later. All was fine for about 20 minutes until my screen went black. My backlight died. I could see my screen under the darkness that consumed my screen. If you point a flashlight at your screen or go outside into the sunlight, you might be able to see your screen and backup everything to a CD/DVD, external HD, or a USB Flashdrive. If not, I would do what Spikkesuggested and hook it up to an external display. Every laptop that I have seen has some sort of Video Output, (usually a VGA cable that you plug into a normal computer monitor), but some have an S-Video out that connects to a television, or a DVI output that connects to most of the newer monitors. My laptop has the S-Video and the VGA. Also, if you cannot get it to connect to the monitor, most laptops have the Fn key (Function) and then they usually have a CRT/LCD key. For me it's Fn+F8(CRT/LCD). Hopefully this helps.

 

[liquidx]

absolute worst case scenario, do as suggested above, pull the HDD and stick it in a external case to use on another computer. Would be wise to backup your really important files on a flash drive or something. One thing I actually like about my new Dell 1520, it has 3 GB online backup that came for free for one year. That's enough to backup my docs and pics...

 

[KevinViolin]

okay, the model is acer apire 3613WLCi


i tried to shine a flashlight into it and that didn't work. i also tried hooking two different moniters up to it and nothing was showing up on the screen (the moniter screen), was there something else i was supposed to do to make it show up on the moniter other than just hooking it up?

also, a little more info. when this happened, i was surfing the internet and the screen completely froze, so i had to "force" shut it down. when i started it back up, it just never came back on. also, i was running low on "virtual memory." i had a little more or a little less than 100 MB. but, i hadn't downloaded or used up anymore memory. so, did it crash? but would it have crashed on 100 MB of memory left?

 

[KevinViolin]

any other input???

...............

 

[nazaretian]

So your screen doesn't come on at all when you first power up your laptop (bios screen)? If it does, try to run in safemode. Can you hear any sounds from your laptop like windows booting up or something? To get an external monitor working, you usually have some type of key combination on your keyboard to enable it.

 

[KevinViolin]

no, the screen does not come on at all. it makes noises when i either plug in or unplug the AC adapter (power cord).

how can i find the keyboard combination to enable the external moniter?

 

[nazaretian]

no, the screen does not come on at all. it makes noises when i either plug in or unplug the AC adapter (power cord).

how can i find the keyboard combination to enable the external moniter?

Look on the keyboard . There should be something that looks screen related. On mine as stated before it's "CRT/LCD" in bluish purple text on my F8 key. Your's may be something like a monitor. You'll have to wait until Windows boots up (you never did tell me if the machine is actually booting up Does your hard drive light flash and does Windows make its startup sound?) It also sounds like your video card may be fried since when you turned off your computer, the screen was still on, but it just froze. I'd call Acer to see if they can help you.

 

[BillLake]

Seem like you might have a hung system. This can sometimes happen when you just turn it off after it hangs. look for a reset or you can remove all power sources from it by unplugging it and removing the battery. If you do not have a reset button then try that but you also might have to leave it for some time for the BIOS battery to drain. If this does not help try to see if all you lights indicated anything abnormal, does power come on and stay on, does the disk light indicate activity, does the battery light indicated normal battery use, so does it show fully charged or maybe solid green then change when you drain it some and plug back in. Many system show these lights blinking when they have a system failure so please notice that. Hopefully these items will help you isolate your problems.