faint X screen

[Rick Stevens]

Tapas Ranjan wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Jan 2005, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
> 
>>Tapas Ranjan wrote:
>>
>>>Hi :
>>>	Though it is not a linux problem, but I thought to post it. Just 
>>>two hours ago, my laptop screen got fainted. I can hardly see anything 
>>>on the X. Somehow I manage to reboot it and found the same thing in 
>>>Windows partition as well. The screen has almost no light in it even 
>>>though there is plug-power.
>>>	My first thought why this happened is probably because I watched 
>>>DVD continously for few hours which broke some of the hardware inside.:(
>>>Any suggestion.
>>
>>It happens.  Sounds like the backlight on your screen pooped out and
>>what you can see is only with the aid of reflected light.  There's not
>>much you can do beyond doing a complete reset of the BIOS.  If the
> 
> 
> How to do a reset of BIOS ? I have no idea. Few months ago I did a BIOS
> upgrade for this comp via DELL site.

When you boot your machine and enter the BIOS setup (usually by hitting
the DEL key), there may be an option to reset the machine.  If there is,
try it.  If not, you may be able to do a hard reset, but for laptops
that usually means a trip to the repair shop (they have to open the
machine and install a jumper, then remove it).

>>backlight did die, then getting it repaired can cost a lot of money
>>if the machine isn't under warranty.  It's often cheaper to chuck the
>>machine and get a new one.  I had one once that would cost $500 US to
>>repair, but a replacement machine was $1200.  I went with the new
>>machine (was faster and had more RAM, to boot).
> 
> 
> Yes, I think it has valid warranty period. You've written somethng 
> about RAM, do you think it also can caused by RAM. I had a 640 RAM
> in this comp. Can watching DVDs hamper your screen light ? Hope to get
> a reply.

No, RAM would have nothing to do with this.  It's either part of the
driver hardware or the backlight that broke.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
- grasshopotomaus: A creature that can leap to tremendous heights... -
-                                                ...once.            -
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