No display on my monitor

Hi there. My laptop was in sleep mode and when I hit the power button to revive it I heard the drive booting up but after 5 mins. there still was no display. It appears that the monitor is on, it's not completely black but no visible display. I hooked up another monitor and re-booted and Win XP booted up fine, but the laptop monitor still shows nothing. I went to the toshiba support site and re-installed the driver, re-booted and still nothing. The OS is Win XP and the model is Satellite M35X-S111. I'm a novice with technical issues and any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you look at your laptop display very closely, and at the right angle, do you see a very, very dark and faint picture? If so, this usually indicates an inverter or back light issue. Both can be repaired by you if you have the time, tools, and the cojones to tear into your LCD. Most people (myself included) aren't real comfortable with opening up the LCD frame and assembly and swapping out parts. Most of your smaller independent PC stores should be able to give you an exact diagnosis, and repair it for $200 max. I do NOT suggest going to a big box store (like BestBuy). They will probably say that the entire LCD needs replacement, and that is easily a $350 (likely more than that) repair. It's much easier to replace the entire LCD, but much more costly also. So, this is not a problem that can be fixed with any drivers or downloads. There is a small chance that somehow the display has been either 'disabled' or put into it's own sleep mode, or the bright and contrast have been turned down or off; but this is unlikely. Back light and inverter failure is a pretty common laptop problem, especially when coming out of hibernation... I've seen hibernation cause all kinds of problems, and I generally recommend that it not be used. If the PC is not going to be used for awhile, it's best to just power down. This applies to all PCs, laptops and desktops alike.

 

Thanks very much DLB, I really appreciate the quick reply and advice. I've been trying to figure this out since 10:30 this morning and now I can shut down and will ask a local computer tech. who has helped me in the past with reasonable rates. At least I can suggest to him what advice you gave me, muchas gracias!!!