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laptop serious video problem
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop M105-S3084 running Windows XP which today
started giving me scary video problems that I do not know how to figure out. When I boot up the laptop, the screen shows the initial BIOS bootup screen (with "click F2 to setup .... etc." at the bottom). This stays on for 1 second and the screen goes dark. The disc drive light goes on but nothing appears on the screen. I have a BIOS password, so when I guess that request has appeared and enter it and press enter and notice that the bootup into XP continues (because the drive light goes back on) but this is done blindly because nothing appears on the screen after the first second I mentioned. I tried rebooting numerous times with the same result. Clicking on F2, F12, F8 have no effect. Same behavior. Then suddenly it booted up normally with everything visible on the screen. I assumed the laptop system was just confused and now all is well. But when I rebooted it later, same problem occurred. Again repeated attempts at rebooting all had the same result of the BIOS screen appearing for 1 second followed by a blank screen. This time I thought this was it and nothing would work. After about 30-40 attempts at rebooting suddenly it booted normally and this is when I am writing this. I have full backups at home but I am now on a trip writing from a hotel and will not be home till after New Year. So data loss is not a problem but I do not know what would be causing this weird video problem. Can you help? After this successful bootup I ran the Toshiba "PC Diagnostic Tool" and everything passed. I checked XP's Device Manager screen and there are no yellow warnings anywhere. Don't know where else to look. The video is integrated to the motherboard on this laptop. Could a failing cmos battery do this? Jeff |
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laptop serious video problem
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laptop serious video problem
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#5
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laptop serious video problem
"Paul" wrote in message ...
wrote: I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop M105-S3084 running Windows XP which today started giving me scary video problems that I do not know how to figure out. When I boot up the laptop, the screen shows the initial BIOS bootup screen (with "click F2 to setup .... etc." at the bottom). This stays on for 1 second and the screen goes dark. The disc drive light goes on but nothing appears on the screen. I have a BIOS password, so when I guess that request has appeared and enter it and press enter and notice that the bootup into XP continues (because the drive light goes back on) but this is done blindly because nothing appears on the screen after the first second I mentioned. I tried rebooting numerous times with the same result. Clicking on F2, F12, F8 have no effect. Same behavior. Then suddenly it booted up normally with everything visible on the screen. I assumed the laptop system was just confused and now all is well. But when I rebooted it later, same problem occurred. Again repeated attempts at rebooting all had the same result of the BIOS screen appearing for 1 second followed by a blank screen. This time I thought this was it and nothing would work. After about 30-40 attempts at rebooting suddenly it booted normally and this is when I am writing this. I have full backups at home but I am now on a trip writing from a hotel and will not be home till after New Year. So data loss is not a problem but I do not know what would be causing this weird video problem. Can you help? After this successful bootup I ran the Toshiba "PC Diagnostic Tool" and everything passed. I checked XP's Device Manager screen and there are no yellow warnings anywhere. Don't know where else to look. The video is integrated to the motherboard on this laptop. Could a failing cmos battery do this? Jeff There are a few reasons for a screen to "disappear". 1) Backlight problem. Many LCD screens use CCFL lamps. This is a fluorescent tube running at 700-1000 VAC. An "inverter" circuit, on a rectangular assembly behind the panel, provides the voltage. The inverter provides a higher voltage ("ignite") to start up the CCFL tube. That gives light for the first second or two. The voltage supplied slowly drops ("burn") as the tube heats up a bit. When there is a disagreement between the inverter and the CCFL tube, it is most likely to show up at the "burn" point. That means you get light for two seconds, and then the light goes out. The inverter can't sustain the "burn" output, and chooses to turn off in defense. Sometimes the problem is a bad connection, but it could just as easily be a bad inverter. They're pretty cheaply built (but not cheap to replace). 2) Screen resolution choice. An LCD screen, while being multisync, may have limits to which it'll respond. If I set the resolution to 2560x1600, for example, the chip receiving the high res signal may say "out of range". That can be a reason for blanking the screen. It could be, that when the Windows desktop appears, the resolution setting in the hardware, is returned to a sane setting. 3) Display channel. The GPU is split into a couple display channels. It could be, that your laptop is confused, and somehow thinks that another video output (such as the VGA connector on the back), is the current "primary" screen. Maybe that happens during the BIOS POST sequence. Later, when Windows is running, it makes the proper decision that the LCD screen is the "primary". You may have confused the laptop recently, by plugging a monitor into the VGA port. Or something along those lines. Think back to what you've plugged in recently, and see if a second monitor was used recently. 4) Laptops have FN function keys, that can be used for reconfiguring video. Typical "fun" things to do with the function keys, are to rotate the screen 90 degrees. Perhaps your model has some FN function that is buggering up normal displaying. HTH, Paul Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate the help. Screen resolution and Fn setup are all correct. I suspect the problem in my case might be the on/off switch in the lid hinge. When I get it working, the screen stays on as long as I do not change the angle of the hinge. In this laptop model the on and off switch is not visible and is probably within the hinges and I have to discover how one gets to it. A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Thanks again. Jeff |
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laptop serious video problem
snipped
snip A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Why wouldn't you discover that *before* buying a laptop with Windows 7 by looking on the web pages/FAQs for the various applications you have installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the laptop you might get could come with Windows XP installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the new laptop could run Windows XP (has device drivers supplied by the manufacturer for Windows XP) before you buy it? -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html |
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laptop serious video problem
snipped
snip A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Why wouldn't you discover that *before* buying a laptop with Windows 7 by looking on the web pages/FAQs for the various applications you have installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the laptop you might get could come with Windows XP installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the new laptop could run Windows XP (has device drivers supplied by the manufacturer for Windows XP) before you buy it? -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html |
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laptop serious video problem
"Shenan Stanley" wrote in message ... snipped snip A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Why wouldn't you discover that *before* buying a laptop with Windows 7 by looking on the web pages/FAQs for the various applications you have installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the laptop you might get could come with Windows XP installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the new laptop could run Windows XP (has device drivers supplied by the manufacturer for Windows XP) before you buy it? -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP Good questions. Because with my laptop on the blink I would need to buy a laptop in a hurry and not have time to do a full investigation or look for the ideal laptop on the web. Few laptops bought in stores come with XP (I think) and it is hard for me to go for long without a PC...... |
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laptop serious video problem
"Shenan Stanley" wrote in message ... snipped snip A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Why wouldn't you discover that *before* buying a laptop with Windows 7 by looking on the web pages/FAQs for the various applications you have installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the laptop you might get could come with Windows XP installed? Why wouldn't you find out if the new laptop could run Windows XP (has device drivers supplied by the manufacturer for Windows XP) before you buy it? -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP Good questions. Because with my laptop on the blink I would need to buy a laptop in a hurry and not have time to do a full investigation or look for the ideal laptop on the web. Few laptops bought in stores come with XP (I think) and it is hard for me to go for long without a PC...... |
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laptop serious video problem
wrote:
Good questions. Because with my laptop on the blink I would need to buy a laptop in a hurry and not have time to do a full investigation or look for the ideal laptop on the web. Few laptops bought in stores come with XP (I think) and it is hard for me to go for long without a PC...... You've posted three messages here in 20 hours - it would probably take an hour worth of "Visit software vendors web page, see if Windows 7 is supported by the version of the software you use" and 30 minutes of research online to see if some of the laptops you would spend money on would accept Windows XP (for example - Dell, HP, Lenovo could be checked just by going to the download pages for the laptop you are looking at to see if they provide Windows XP drivers.) Just saying - you have an obvious opening now to do research. You're posting, you know you may have a problem but things are still working. Not researching now, not making sure your backups stay current, etc would be an unwise move. -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html |
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laptop serious video problem
wrote:
Good questions. Because with my laptop on the blink I would need to buy a laptop in a hurry and not have time to do a full investigation or look for the ideal laptop on the web. Few laptops bought in stores come with XP (I think) and it is hard for me to go for long without a PC...... You've posted three messages here in 20 hours - it would probably take an hour worth of "Visit software vendors web page, see if Windows 7 is supported by the version of the software you use" and 30 minutes of research online to see if some of the laptops you would spend money on would accept Windows XP (for example - Dell, HP, Lenovo could be checked just by going to the download pages for the laptop you are looking at to see if they provide Windows XP drivers.) Just saying - you have an obvious opening now to do research. You're posting, you know you may have a problem but things are still working. Not researching now, not making sure your backups stay current, etc would be an unwise move. -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html |
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laptop serious video problem
wrote in message ... "Paul" wrote in message ... wrote: snip Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate the help. Screen resolution and Fn setup are all correct. I suspect the problem in my case might be the on/off switch in the lid hinge. When I get it working, the screen stays on as long as I do not change the angle of the hinge. In this laptop model the on and off switch is not visible and is probably within the hinges and I have to discover how one gets to it. A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Thanks again. Jeff I don't know how old yours is, or more importantly, how many times that lid has been opened and closed, but it's possible that the problem is not in the power switch, but in the cable that goes from the motherboard to the LCD screen. The wires inside will become work-hardened over time and will crack. Tracing the one down that's making intermittent contact would be a real treat, though. -- SC Tom |
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laptop serious video problem
wrote in message ... "Paul" wrote in message ... wrote: snip Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate the help. Screen resolution and Fn setup are all correct. I suspect the problem in my case might be the on/off switch in the lid hinge. When I get it working, the screen stays on as long as I do not change the angle of the hinge. In this laptop model the on and off switch is not visible and is probably within the hinges and I have to discover how one gets to it. A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Thanks again. Jeff I don't know how old yours is, or more importantly, how many times that lid has been opened and closed, but it's possible that the problem is not in the power switch, but in the cable that goes from the motherboard to the LCD screen. The wires inside will become work-hardened over time and will crack. Tracing the one down that's making intermittent contact would be a real treat, though. -- SC Tom |
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laptop serious video problem
"SC Tom" wrote in message ... wrote in message ... "Paul" wrote in message ... wrote: snip Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate the help. Screen resolution and Fn setup are all correct. I suspect the problem in my case might be the on/off switch in the lid hinge. When I get it working, the screen stays on as long as I do not change the angle of the hinge. In this laptop model the on and off switch is not visible and is probably within the hinges and I have to discover how one gets to it. A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Thanks again. Jeff I don't know how old yours is, or more importantly, how many times that lid has been opened and closed, but it's possible that the problem is not in the power switch, but in the cable that goes from the motherboard to the LCD screen. The wires inside will become work-hardened over time and will crack. Tracing the one down that's making intermittent contact would be a real treat, though. -- SC Tom Thanks. I think I'm in for a new laptop with all the pleasures and agonies that implies ...... Jeff |
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laptop serious video problem
"SC Tom" wrote in message ... wrote in message ... "Paul" wrote in message ... wrote: snip Thank you very much Paul. I appreciate the help. Screen resolution and Fn setup are all correct. I suspect the problem in my case might be the on/off switch in the lid hinge. When I get it working, the screen stays on as long as I do not change the angle of the hinge. In this laptop model the on and off switch is not visible and is probably within the hinges and I have to discover how one gets to it. A long time XP user, I hate the idea of getting a new laptop with Windows 7 and discovering that many of my favorite programs do not work on 7. Argh!! Thanks again. Jeff I don't know how old yours is, or more importantly, how many times that lid has been opened and closed, but it's possible that the problem is not in the power switch, but in the cable that goes from the motherboard to the LCD screen. The wires inside will become work-hardened over time and will crack. Tracing the one down that's making intermittent contact would be a real treat, though. -- SC Tom Thanks. I think I'm in for a new laptop with all the pleasures and agonies that implies ...... Jeff |
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