No Picture/Video on my Laptop.

[madder]

Ok, so for a few weeks, my laptop would load up and the screen would be split in three. First third would be normal, second third would be black and final third would be white. Three thick stripes down my screen. Normal/Black/White.

I was told that my video cable was probably loose. So, I opened up the laptop, and right enough, the video cable wasn't just loose, but the plug which connects to the back of the LCD was badly worn and withered away. I figured that it HAS to be the video cable.

Bought a replacement on ebay. Had been 'Tested' and was apparently working. Fitted it, and got nothing from the LCD at all. Zilch. Nada.

So I figured that perhaps the LCD died during the process of removing it to replace the cable?
SO onto ebay I went and bought an LCD. The seller agreed that I could return it if it didn't solve the problem. So, 72 euros later, the LCD arrives. I fitted it and nada. Still no picture, still no video?

Any ideas? Could I have fitted the cable the 'wrong' way or something, or is it likely that the cable is actually faulty after all? Or has anyone got any other suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[madder]

Ok, so a few more things have been tried. Connected to a TV using a VGA cable. Still no picture. Replaced the RAM. Didn't solve the problem. I have also tried the power draining idea. Remove battery and power cable, hold the power button down for 2 minutes, then refit all and power up. No difference. I have tried to load BIOS. I have heard the BIOS beep, and so I am confident that BIOS loads, but still with no picture on screen. That seems to be everything tried? What else is there?

 

[AronSearle]

Sounds like a dead GPU and so motherboard.

 

[madder]

Thanks for the reply. So if it's the GPU, I need a new motherboard? Wow. That's a real shame because everything else is working just fine. I mean windows loads up fine?

 

[jockscott]

If there's nothing on the screen, you can't really know that windows is loading fine,,,,,, Can you?

 

[madder]

If there's nothing on the screen, you can't really know that windows is loading fine,,,,,, Can you?

Well actually, I can hear the windows 'chime' after it loads up. That's how I know. Sound.

 

[AB9]

There's no mention of the make and model but generally

When using an external display some laptops need you to select the display there its a key combination you press to do so it generally goes through the options in sequence so you have to press it more than once. The keys used vary between makes and it may only work when logged into windows.
There is also a battery inside the laptop that holds the bios settings however removing that will likely stop it booting until the settings have been reentered which if it doesn't fix the display issue could be difficult\impossible. on some its easily accessible others a complete strip down.
Some older laptops don't know if any recently have done so had their graphics on a separate card if that is the case with yours it might need reseating.

If you connect your old cable and lcd does the original fault reappear ?

 

[madder]

It's a Toshiba Satellite Pro Terca R850-143 It does have dedicated graphics but I think it's a video chip on the motherboard? I'm not 100% sure though. The LCD won't work in any form, the old video cable was badly frayed around the plug to the LCD, as is the socket on the LCD itself, but I have tried a new cable and a new LCD and it didn't solve the problem. Also, I did press Fn + F5 to try to get the projector going but it didn't work at all, and since I have no idea what the computer does when I press those buttons, I cannot tell if it is even trying to work.

 

[AronSearle]

If it has an actual removable graphics card, remove it and the motherboard will default to the on-board one.

The problem with these faults is you can only reliably diagnose them by removing and/or replacing things until you find the culprit.

 

[madder]

The Graphics are AMD Radeon HD 6450M. I know they are dedicated graphics but I don't know if they're part of the board or removable? Anyone know for sure before I go and open the thing up? This computer runs with an Intel Core i5 2410M Processor.

 

[AronSearle]

I'm not certain.

Googling seems to indicate it connects via a PCIex16 slot and so separate, I would say open it up because whatever it is, you will have to do that.

Remember you can run the computer parts outside of their case, so you don't have to dismantle it in-between changing each suspected component.

 

[madder]

Ok. That's good news, I guess.

 

[madder]

Well, here is my motherboard. Looks like it's a video chip and so much more complicated, right? Think I need to bite the bullet here. Bew Motherboard or a new laptop. Thanks guys. Thoughts would still be appreciated.