Dell Inspiron -grey Lcd Screen Issue

Hi,

Today my lcd screen on my dell E1505 turned totally grey. I see that there is light coming out of my screen as it's not a black screen. I can display everything clear on my external lcd monitor so I assume the issue is with my dell lcd screen and not my video card.

First, I changed my backlight + inverter, however, the screen just became a brighter grey lcd screen.

Next, I purchased a complete Dell Lcd monitor off of ebay and installed the whole monitor, however, the same grey screen.

Now, I am running out of ideas on how to fix this. I just bought a whole new monitor thinking it was going to fix it.
Any suggestions.......

 

What video card is it? I've seen GPU failures with these same symptoms, so I wouldn't totally rule it out. It's just rare, and more so outside of models directly affected by the Nvidia BGA fiasco.

 

I had an Inspiron 1501 with ATI graphics. Is that what your 1505 came with or Intel integrated graphics?

It's weird you have a clear display with an external monitor using the laptops GPU. Is this related only to Windows or do you have a grey screen during the boot cycle. Have you tried to wiggle the LCD connector on the motherboard for a loose connection?

 

I have a ATI Mobility Radeon X1300. If I can view my laptop display on my external monitor with no problems, I thought I could rule out the bad video card.

 

To Rodster:

I get a grey screen right when I turn on the power button. When windows start I can hear the audio but no display, (just the grey blank screen).

Other forums have suggested to run a safe mode by hitting the f8 key. I tried that and I get several beeps but no display, just a grey blank screen.

 

Yeah that's the same GPU in the Inspiron I had. They are rock solid but can't be ruled out completely until you do some tests.

I would find your diagnostics CD and boot off of that while using your external monitor. See if the GPU test passes. You could still have either a motherboard or LCD issue and DON'T rule out the AC adapter. If it's not putting out enough power you could have instability issues.

My suggestion would be as follows:

1) Try a different power source or run off of the battery if grey screen persists go to step #2
2) Hook up the EXT monitor
3) Boot into the BIOS and load default values, save and exit
4) Disconnect the EXT monitor and see if you get different results
5) If not, run diagnostics with the external monitor
6) If it passes check for a loose connector or bent pin on the LCD/motherboard connector

 

Thanks for the input Rodster. I found out that my video card was the culprit and replaced it with the better ATI X1400 256mb graphics card. I took a gamble in buying the graphics card and I am glad I made the right choice. Now I can play pneumbra on my old dell laptop.....lol

 

^^^ Good job !