LapTop Screen Black/Blank

[Country Joe-PG-]

I posted this problem with my wifes laptop in the old forums
and unfortunately no one had experienced this and/or tried to fix it.
We now have many more team mates so I thought I'd try again.

Being the lazy guy that I am I just went out and bought a new Net Book
which she loves more than she did her laptop so I'm golden.
I also took it to a computer repair shop (once again, because I'm lazy) and quickly realized they are
nothing more than parts changers and wanted 450 dollars for a new screen.
I ran from there immediately.......................................

The problem is that the screen is black/blank.
I shine a flash light into the screen and I can see the desk top.
I've hooked it up to an external monitor and I can use the computer
desk top just fine.
I have checked the lid switch to make sure it's not stuck too.

I had some extra time today so I booted it up after it being down for
several months and updated everything.
The screen was still blank so I used the external monitor to move around
Windows to perform Win updates and AV updates.

When I rebooted after installing Win updates the screen came back to
life.

Anyone ever experienced this and what if anything did you do?
I've looked around the internet and found several solutions ranging
from replacing the back light bulb ($9) to replacing the whole screen ($350 or less).

She obviously will never use the laptop again so this is more of a hobby
project for me and I thought I'd ask before I tear into it just to see if
anyone has some advice.

Thanks,
CJ

Dell Inspiron 5160
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
512 MB RAM
Win XP Home Edition Svc Pk 3

[Windstalker-PG-]

sounds like some hardware conflict happen? When you updated windows, it may have gotten rid of it.

[viiper]

It's definitely software related if it came back to life after running updates. Do you know if you updated and video drivers in the process? I'm curious to know..

[huntor]

Quick question before you mark it as a software problem. Do you see the post boot screen before it gets to windows? If you do then it is a software problem. If you can't even see a post boot on the laptop then it is hardware and it just happened to start working correctly at the time.

I have had laptops do some odd things specially with network cards. There are times where it will fail and not work at all then turn around and start working just fine. Same with hard drives and what not as well. The bad part about laptops is the fact they are proprietary and you can only buy from companies that support them for one year and poof. No more support and they don't fix bios issues.

[Country Joe-PG-]

It's black from the start and just worked that one day when I did a restart after updating Windows and AV. Hasn't worked (lighted) since.

Looking through some trouble shooting guides, because I can hook up an external monitor and it works fine, it leans toward hardware.

After some research and in taking in all of the advice I'm going with replacing the back light and inverter (I think it's called).
Approx 30-40 dollars on e bay.

Buck told me he had a similar problem and that's what he did. Worked fine afterwards.

[huntor]

Yeah it does sound like that is the problem. That is why I asked that question above. It is really a simple way to figure out if it is hardware or software. If the display problem happens even before the boot it is 100% hardware issue. If it only happens when windows starts to boot up it can be 50/50 depending on what is going on with hardware or your software.

[Country Joe-PG-]

Thanks for the advice all.

CJ