Ask Dr. LJ: Uh-oh.
Posting this from Julia's computer.
So yesterday afternoon the screen of my laptop (Inspiron 1721) suddenly went black. No odd noises, no minor glitches leading up to it. It just suddenly blinked out. I powered off and back on, and it won't start. I've turned it on and off several times, waiting for various intervals in between. The power light's on, and there's... the usual sounds it makes when it starts, for the most part, but the hard drive light stays off and the screen stays black - except for one random time when the Dell startup screen came and went as usual before the screen went back to black.
It's been randomly BSoDing maybe once or twice a week for as long as I can remember (at least as far back as January), but I'd been writing that off as just a thing PCs did.
Things Google has led me to believe I should try: Battery's relatively healthy and fully charged, if the gauge lights are any indication. AC adapter looks good. Reseating the memory hasn't had an effect. Pressing Fn as I turn it on is supposed to launch diagnostics - it causes Caps and Num Lock lights to blink and Scroll Lock to shine steadily, but I can't find anywhere that lists what, if anything, that might mean.
Does anyone have any advice?
So yesterday afternoon the screen of my laptop (Inspiron 1721) suddenly went black. No odd noises, no minor glitches leading up to it. It just suddenly blinked out. I powered off and back on, and it won't start. I've turned it on and off several times, waiting for various intervals in between. The power light's on, and there's... the usual sounds it makes when it starts, for the most part, but the hard drive light stays off and the screen stays black - except for one random time when the Dell startup screen came and went as usual before the screen went back to black.
It's been randomly BSoDing maybe once or twice a week for as long as I can remember (at least as far back as January), but I'd been writing that off as just a thing PCs did.
Things Google has led me to believe I should try: Battery's relatively healthy and fully charged, if the gauge lights are any indication. AC adapter looks good. Reseating the memory hasn't had an effect. Pressing Fn as I turn it on is supposed to launch diagnostics - it causes Caps and Num Lock lights to blink and Scroll Lock to shine steadily, but I can't find anywhere that lists what, if anything, that might mean.
Does anyone have any advice?