M15x Black Screen o' Death!

Howdy,

So I've been snooping for the past few days looking over the amazing threads in here..... figure I'd finally post since I haven't found the golden gun/silver bullet/ultimate milkshake to resolve my issues.

I've got a M15x from 2010. Still a pretty decently little compy for what I need it to do. It's been sitting in a closet for the past year, so I decided to bring it out for use in an upcoming project I'm developing with some guys around my locale.


Issue - screen displays randomly, but most often than not, it's just a black screen. I noticed that it was an intermittent problem ( wouldn't show alienhead/post, but would finally eventually show login information when the OS finally loaded). I did notice when I logged in, if I put pressure on the right hand side (where you would rest your right palm as if typing) that the screen would go black.... then come back if I moved my palm/didn't press down ever so slightly. Like I said, this was a bit random, so occasionally (more on the rare bit) it would allow me to display post if I pressed F2 to get in.... and once the display "seemed to work" it would be fine for a while till a reboot, then BAM! back to this b.s. of sometimes working, sometimes not..... Sad face for frustration.

And after reloading the OS - well, now it's just being silly and not wanting to display on the laptop at all. So I dug around and found a display port -> hdmi and hooked the suckah up and wallah, I have display working just fine to my TV, but not my laptop.


So what say you geniuses of the Alienware?!?! What do you believe the culprit could be?

 

That is definitely a screen issue, you just have to figure out where it comes from. Just open your laptop and check/replug all your screen connectors. The best case scenario would be an issue with one of them.

 

Well I took apart my laptop yesterday evening (didn't have much time) - got the keyboard off and inspected the connection there, reseated it after hitting it with some canned air. Took a quick check on the GPU, everything is fine there (just did some housecleaning w/ canned air there as well).... Got everything put back together.. BAM! Video..... then it started flickering... then it quit again........ oh and now the backspace/enter keys aren't working, so I figure I didn't reseat the keyboard ribbon cable correctly. Damn these big hands!

Now you're saying screen connector(S). Is there more than just that one that is behind the keyboard that handles display data?

 

Theres only one which carries the display information, that one is usually the big one then you have the wifi antenna cables which are separate. Could be a faulty GPU, faulty screen or break in the cable which connects the screen to the motherboard.

 

I'm thinking about a faulty screen cable, you could try that 1st. Then try replacing the monitor. If it works fine on external then it's just the monitor.