Black screen, won't boot?

Hi all. So, I recently purchased a laptop off of Ebay (IBM Thinkpad 390) that was listed as "windows will not boot". I decided to buy it since it was cheap and I was hoping to fix it up. I got it for $5.50 plus $10 shipping, so I thought it was worth trying to fix it up since I got it for so cheap.

Here's the problem with it, when I turn it on all I get is a black screen. I hear it turn on okay, there's no beeping or anything (unless I need to hook up speakers to hear any possible beeping?). I tried hooking it up to a monitor to see if it was just a problem with the laptop's screen. It showed no signal with the monitor and still gave me a black screen.

So, I'm assuming this is some sort of hardware failure then? Should I open it up and see if anything's wrong with it on the inside? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

If it's soldered onto the motherboard, then could I just replace the motherboard and see if the laptop works then? Is it hard to put in a new motherboard, like will I need any special tools, such as soldering tools? I've added parts to computers before such as a new CD drive and RAM, but I've never messed with a motherboard. I was browsing online and saw a motherboard for $10 is why I'm asking.

Or is there is anything else I can do that doesn't require me replacing the motherboard?

 

Two things you might try:

1) Are you hitting Fn + one of the F# keys to tell it to use the external monitor? One of the F keys should have a picture of two monitors. So Fn + that key would toggle between the external and the built in screen.

2) Remove all the RAM and see if you get a beep when trying to start. If you get a beep that should tell you the motherboard is at least trying to start. No beep could mean a bad motherboard or simply no speaker.

 

Looks like it might be Fn + F7. Try hitting that combination several times to see if you find any LCD screen activity.