Display doesn't work. Boots fine and runs fun on external monitor

Hey guys,

Running 920xm, 8gb ram, 970m and 240w psu with right angled adapter here. Been running fine for many months until today when my screen was black after I decided to restart in windows... Nothing weird was happening prior to it or anything like that. A simple restart.

I tried to turn off and on via the power button and didn't work. I took the battery out and reset the cmos. Didn't work. I could tell that the laptop was booting into windows fine due to the login sound and everything.

When I hooked her up to an external monitor via vga, everything looked good. I decided to see if uninstalling then reinstalling the graphics driver would help, but it didn't.

I took her apart and reseated the display cable. No help.

My next step is to take CPU, GPU, and ram out then reseat everything. Unfortunately, I'm on a deployment so no thermal paste or alcohol swabs. I put an order in, but I just wanted to ask if anyone had this issue before and had it resolved? I really don't want to try a new display or anything and it's going to suck to wait a few weeks to get a thermal paste out here.

 

This looks like a failure with the screen. Either the cable or the screen itself. Perhaps you need a new display cable?

Troubleshooting can be expensive I learnt this myself at the moment....

 

Yea. It just really bugs me because it was working fine until I restart the computer. I'm really hoping it's something to do with the software more than hardware.

Ordered ic diamond and will take her apart for some cleaning. Hopefully that would fix it.

 

Similar thing happened to me and it turned out the video card was bad. Screen would display all white on mine though, not black, and video out worked to an external display. So this could be a bad screen, bad screen cable, or bad video card.

 

Yea, I tried fiddling with the display cable more but still no resolution.

I was able to game via Steam in-home streaming with a surface pro2 for 4 hours straight. I monitored the temps and gpu runs without issues. This baffles me.

I guess it's time to use the laptop with a monitor lol

 

Sounds more like an LCD failure. Need to find someone who also has a laptop with an eDP. Is it even a standardised connector?

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

 

I'm not sure and no way for me to test it out here on the desert lol. I found a post from a guy who had a similar issue and fixed it by taking her apart, cleaning it, and reseating it again. Didn't see any signs of the screen failing, but maybe it's the crappy power I get out here.

Ordered some thermal paste and waiting on the display port to HDMI as well...

 

Maybe the backlight is dead on the display. Have you tried holding up the display to a light source? If you see a faint image, then it's your backlight in which case the entire screen assembly will need to be replaced because I think the LED driver is on the display assembly board and not a separate unit.

EDIT: Could be a bad motherboard too according to this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/m15x-no-backlight.748535/

 

ZNot seeing any image so I don't think it's the backlight. Perhaps it's the motherboard... laptop still runs like a champ and I'm gaming with it no problem with steam in home streaming. I'm hoping that taking her apart to clean, repaste, and reseat will fix it somehow. If not, I'll just use it as a desktop lol

 

Well, an update. I finally got my thermal paste after 10 days. Cleaned everything and reseated the cpu and gpu. Same issue. I also received DP -> HDMI adapter... tried it initially on a samsung monitor and it didn't work. VGA to VGA works fine though. Will try the DP -> HDMI on the 19" Gaems Vangaurd. If it doesn't work, then I'll try to do a clean windows install with newest drivers.

 

I encountered this same problem today, was using it from 11 p.m last night to 6 a.m this morning, after 1 hour since I turned it off and carried it around in my backpack like usual, I came home and plugged in the PSU, turned it on and this kind of problem occured. I've tried reseating the display cable, power drain trick, remove and reinstall the CMOS battery, reseating GPU, RAM and of course, none has solved the problem, just like what sizzflair encountered.

If it's a LCD problem then I can say that I've been ****ed up if it's a LCD cable or GPU problem then I'm lucky since I've already ordered a FirePro M6000 to replace my GTX 460M and the LCD cable is fairly cheap enough for me to buy

 

hi, have you got any update on this, sizzflair?

 

Do you use Windows 10 or EVGA software? Download Moninfo and create EDID backup from all entries (monitors and registry). Paste hex values to online edid checker and it will tell you if checksum is correct.
Ask t456 for help if you can't do this and if he is so kind.

 

well, I've been using windows 10 since Sept 2015 without any problem and I don't use any EVGA app, just MSI Afterburner. Anyway, I'll try what you're recommended Hope it will work

 

update: 03/13/2016 no longer black screen without backlight but this white screen, still able to boot into windows

 

This is exactly what my DOA 5850m was doing. My guess would be a problem with your video card. Try an external display via VGA. My 5850 would still display to an external display but not to the native display for some reason. Replaced it with another card and all was fine. Good thing you have another card on the way.

 

e-Display via VGA still fine. And M6000 is underway Thank you, kosti

 

You're not gonna miss the 460m GTX once you get the m6000 up and running

 

yeah, hope it will perform as it should, though

 

Update: replaced gtx 460m with quadro k3000m and now it goes black screen without backlight

 

And works through HDMI?

 

I haven't got lcd to check yet, will check vga out tomorrow since I don't have any external LCD

 

hi kosti, do you have any solutions? I've replaced GPU with Quadro K3000M and now it turns into black screen without backlight, not the white one.

 

Do you know if the Quadro has a Dell vbios flashed to it. Maybe it has an incompatible vbios and needs to be flashed to a Dell one. Otherwise, try doing a power drain:

- Remove AC adapter
- Remove Battery
- Hold down power button for 20-30 seconds

You may also want to re-seat your video card and your RAM. Basically just remove them and re-insert them. Hope this helps.

 

I bought K3000M pulled from Precision M6700 and the seller has tested with his AW and it worked. I've tried reseating RAMs, remove CMOS battery, clear BIOS, will reseating the card and do the power drain trick, I'll update after a couple of minute.

 

done the power drain trick and nothing happened guess I have to reseat the GPU

 

Don't know what else to suggest. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

I have nothing to add until this question be answered.

 

done reseating the card, still black. tomorrow I'll try external display and I'll update as soon as possible.

 

Are you getting any flashing lights in the scroll/numb/caps lock region along with the black screen?

 

no, I didn't see any flashing lights and the machine just boot into windows normally

 

hmmm, and the Fans just keep running at full speed :s

 

Probably something to do with the vbios on that card. Not sure though. Maybe try to do a blind flash to another vbios? I am not aware of anyone using that card on the M15X.

 

do you have any reference links for doing blind flash vbios of quadro cards?

 

You need the right vbios file for that card first. Then you need to boot into DOS and use nvflash without being able to look at the screen. The only vbios I found for that card is for HP cards so it probably won't work on a Dell card.

Wait until you can hook it up to an external monitor and see if that works.

 

This one might work - https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/138878/138878.html

BTW, had same problem ones when changed Dell Mobility HD 5850 to Clevo 6970M, full disassemble and CMOS battery disconnecting helped. Upgrading Clevo 6970M to Dell 6990M was as easy as upgrading to Dell's K4000M.

 

okay, I'll try external LCD and report back here. hope some miracles appear in the morning when I wake up (UTC +7 here)

 

I've disassembled everything, even the ldvs cable and then reassembled but it didn't work. I have to go to the computer store in order to test vga out because I don't have any external monitor

 

UPDATE:
Finally, I found the problem. It turned out the LVDS cable connection to the LCD has been loosen so I just need to re-plug it to the LCD and everything's done. Hope this will help someone else encounter this problem.

 

Glad, that you fix it.
So, maybe M6000 was not DOA too?

P.S. K3000M benchmarking time ^_^

 

nope, M6000 dead before I got my hand on it GTX 460M is not dead though. It's time for K3000M benchmarking

 

Great news!!! Looking forward to benchmarks.

 

Benchmark results posted here: M15x GPU Thread: General Discussion on Upgrades, GPU Troubleshooting & Repairs

 

Just cable replace and all be fine, procedure nor so difficult and parts will cost you I believe about 15$

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

Oh wow, I didn't know someone else had a similar issue. Haven't checked this forum post since. I'm still getting black screen and have been playing on an external 720p tv for now. Where is this connection located? Is it this cable you're talking about when you take apart the LCD (attached) or are you talking about the cable that hooks up to the motherboard (I checked this and fiddled with it 3 times). I'll go ahead and take apart the LCD tonight. VGA to VGA & display port to HDMI all works fine. Computer runs like a champ on the games I play.

Further development on my laptop... it no longer runs on battery and have to be plugged in to work. Battery life shows up fine when you press the button and it charges fine also. Not sure if it's the motherboard, but oh well.. it's still running. Planning on switching over to Clevo 870dm if it somehow dies on me.

 

The LVDS cable is actually labeled LVDS on the motherboard side. That's the only cable that connects to the LCD panel. The other cable assemblies coming from the monitor assembly are the webcam and wireless antenna cables. It's this one:



Check your battery wear level using HWmonitor or HWinfo. It's probably time to replace it. The battery's LED meter shows you the charge level, but not the wear level (or how long it will last).