Help?

[alilacia]

A question for my esteemed flist. The screen on my brother's new laptop has suddenly decided darken to the point where text is almost unreadable. It is still working, because when you tip it back enough and shine a light over it you can just about read what's on there, but increasing the brightness using the keyboard isn't making a bit of

Comments

[silvan_lady]

Tricky one. It sounds like a hardware error i.e. the screen itself or possibly the graphics driver software has gone wrong. It doesn't sound like he's inadvertantly switch on presentation mode because then the screen goes completely black and nothing is visible.

Experiment in the properties of the screen display maybe -(right click desktop to access) but make a note of where you are first. Alternatively plug it into an external monitor if possible and see what happens then.

Sorry am dashing out now or would text you. Will try and get back to you later but am in Oslo so... can't guarantee.

[alilacia]

Thank you very much for your suggestions Silv. When he gets back and can log me into the computer, I'll see about giving it a go. *hugs*

Have a lovely evening wherever you are dashing out too. :)

[settiai]

My (eight-month-old) laptop did the exact same thing back in January, just as I was heading back to school after winter break. It would light up for just a second when I restarted it, but then I'd have to use a flashlight to see anything.

With mine, it was a hardware problem. I had to send it to the manufacturer and let them work on it for two weeks.

(Oh, and mine's a HP with... *makes face* ...Vista.)

[alilacia]

This one is Vista too, which is taking some getting used to on my part after having used XP for years. I don't know what is up with just sticking with XP. I am slowly getting used to using Vista but I knew how to work that one and could actually find what I wanted.

Thank you for letting me know what happened with yours. Sounds like taking it to be fixed might be the only option.

[raphaha]

What a coincidence!
The same happened to my laptop yesterday only that my screen was completely black. :(
This morning it worked perfectly again. (It's a Fujitsu Amilo by the way.)

That was about the third time that something like that happened.

[silvan_lady]

If it was completely black that can happen if you accidently put it into "external monitor" mode? Or if it's decided to do it buy itself - computers are awkward like that!

To fix it, if that is the problem, find the 'FN' key usually at the bottom left and press with F4 or whatever key has the monitor symbol on it. The symbol varies from computer to computer but it's like a square with two vertical lines on either side of another square inside. (I'm sorry if you knew all that already but I know a good few people who never find out what the monitor function does so I thought it was worth mentioning ) You just keep pressing it until the display comes back - two or three times no more.

[raphaha]

Uhm, I don't even know what "external monitor" mode is. So definitely not that! ;)

I didn't know about the 'FN' key either. Thank you for the hint.
I'm sure my monitor will play tricks to me sooner or later again so this will come pretty handy.

*huggles*

[alilacia]

How strange that yours happened roughly the same time as this one conked out. So glad to hear that yours is working again though!