Screen Dieing

[Greenday]

My screen keeps dieing on me. Right now, it's practically pitch black. I'm on my laptop. Like, it's not completely gone, If I strain my eyes REALLY hard I can see. Thank God I can type without looking. Any ideas on what the heck is going on?

[Broomjockey]

I believe laptops have a specific component designated to control screen brightness. I do not recall the name of this part, just a previous mention. You're likely going to need it replaced. Shouldn't be too much, assuming it's not an ancient beast or hypermodern laptop.

[LostMyMind]

Well, some laptops have automatic screen brightness adjustment for "room lighting" (like some monitors do now). It's possible that sensor is flaky. There should be some way for you to turn that off and set brightness/contrast so you can see again. Of course I'm assuming you already tried the cranking up the brightness/contrast settings. Otherwise I would guess the back lightning of the screen is fading.

A cheap temporary fix is to just plug a normal monitor in for now.

[Greenday]

I called Dell tech support and after going through some random things, we got to a brightness control screen and after setting everything to maximum brightness, I can see again. Hopefully, the screen stays on. Need to get that physics lab report done.

[lordlundar]

I believe laptops have a specific component designated to control screen brightness. I do not recall the name of this part, just a previous mention. You're likely going to need it replaced. Shouldn't be too much, assuming it's not an ancient beast or hypermodern laptop.

The backlight control panel you mean? That's about as close as I can peg it to being. Usually in that case, taking it in just gets the LCD panel replaced entirely for simplicity's sake.

[volatile]

Your back light is out. If you are able make out any graphics on the screen then it usually means the backlight failed on you. If it's completely pitch black, you can try taking a flashlight and put it close to the screen to see if you can make out anything. If you aren't comfortable with laptop repairs it would probably be easier to just replace the screen.

[Greenday]

Seems like a big possibility. I wondered if that was it and it seems logical. I don't care about repairs, I just kinda need my laptop to do certain work. It makes life SOOO much easier to have a laptop.

It had been working ever since I talked to tech support, and then it just crapped out on me again. Restarted it, it died after about a minute. Restarted it, it's working fine right now. Maybe it's just a lil bit loose?

[LostMyMind]

It's possible. When I took my old dead laptop apart. The screen's data/power was connected by a flimsy wire that disconnected quite easily. But I would doubt that's whats happening to you. More likely its probably the bulb on it's last leg. Much like the fluorescent bulbs do when they're on their last leg.

[Geek King]

Know anyone with a spare monitor you could hook up temporarily? You won't be mobile, but it could get you through the project until you have time/money to get the laptop repaired..

Check with school IT to see if they have some old CRT monitors taking up space in a closet they might loan you.