Fade to Black

inspiron 1100, xp sp3. have a lot of heat / "freeze up" problems, but i've become used to what they are. tonight, however, something new took me by surprise. for about an hour my screen was shifting between two brightnesses...like what happens to a light bulb when there's some power surge or brownout. but this was happening back and forth steady for a long period. and ONLY to the laptop.

finally it crashed. now, despite all the "freeze ups" i've gotten used to, this pc has rarely CRASHED on me.

worse yet, the first 2-3 times i rebooted, i got a superdim version of the screen -- slightly better than a black screensaver (that is, i could see traces of my icons and folders), but still too dark to even find the cursor. i thot my screen was FRIED.

finally, 4th reboot, everything was fine. knock on silicon.

is this yet another "heat" problem, signs the screen is about to go dead once and for all, or some munged "setting" somewhere. i should note that even those 2-3 boots with a dark screen started out with vibrant colours for the boot process (splash screen, etc) and THEN went dark on me. that's why it feels like the hardware is ok, but some weird SETTING was saying "black out the screen now" at the end of reboot.

ideas?

btw, i just updated and ran all the mal/vir/spy stuff 2 days ago, fwiw.

 

i should note that i "went black" about 2 mins after typing the above. basically, with every reboot, i've got betw 2 and 12 mins before this occurs. honestly, it feels like a screensaver kicking in (just to be safe, i disabled all those "screensaver", "hibernate" etc. options for now), particularly as nothing but the screen seems affected. i tried playing some audio files, and they kept going for hours after the screen went dark. ditto downloading stuff from the internet -- as long as i could set them in motion, there was no real effect on anything but the visual.

i tried the pre-boot diagnostics, and while it seemed to be "passing" everything -- including some graphics tests -- it went dark before getting to the end! so i'm not 100% sure.

today i tried rolling back the video driver. it warned me that there was no rollback point, but i figured there was still a default in XP itself, so i "removed" driver and rebooted. whereupon it announced it had found new hardware ("VGA adaptor") and asked ME to provide disk/location/etc for driver! what the...?! i have no such disk; XP came preloaded.

anyway, things are going well so far (about 40 mins now) so maybe this was enuf for a breather? but how do i get that DRIVER back in place, or even update it? i noticed before removal that it was dated 2005! seems mightly OLD to me -- don't drivers autoupdate like everything else??

(NB: i have never once flashed/updated BIOS...long since warned it was beyond me...izzat a prereq for updating sumpin as basic as display driver?)

in the meantime i'm pinned into a tiny window a la safe mode. full screen ("1024x720" or summat) is not on offer where i usually find it.

 

This would be a Dell driver that you need to download from their site.
Forgot to add enter your service tag number while searching and you should be good to go!

 

service tag? pc is 3 yrs old from a used pc place. is dell really gonna charge for a DRIVER?!

even so...i am never quite clear on WHICH driver to get or WHAT to do with it. unlike a freestanding PROGRAM downloaded from cnet or tucows or w/e, these things which are PART and PARCEL of windows usually take care of themselves.

i thought that by connecting to the windows autoupdate site it might notice i'm missing a driver (and which one), but, oddly enough, i couldn't use that site with my TINY WINDOW! (i really similar probs w actual safe mode a few years ago). ugh. like a tv repairman who won't deal with BROKEN TVS....

spoke too soon with that "so far", btw. yes, i did get an hour or more out of it this time, but it finally toggled over to black. not sure if the expanded time (usually 2-12 mins, as i said) was due to the smaller window or what. can't be due to the PC having "rested", coz even after being SHUT DOWN for 18 hrs or so, the first attempt of the day only lasted 6 or 7 mins.

 

The Dell service tag allows us to track down your exact PC specifications and find out exactly what's in the machine and find the best/latest drivers.

As a general rule, updating any driver via Windows/Microsoft Update will only get a driver that can make Windows looks good, it's often NOT the best driver for your hardware in general usage with non-MSFT software.

That said, it sounds you have a hardware problem - backlight issues, perhaps?

 

yes, it's definitely a "backlight" issue, and worse yet, i am no longer getting 2-12 mins of "up" time; more like 2-12 SECS now. ugh.

the only reason i can do ANYTHING anymore (like typing this here) is b/c i've positioned a strong light about 3 inches from the screen. w/o that, i can't see DIDDLY.

if it's purely HARDWARE, tho, why is it consistently displaying full colours the first couple of secs of various checkpoiints? winxp splashscreen, for example -- haven't ONCE seen that darkened out. ditto "windows is starting up / welcome" splashes -- in both cases they start OUT lit up, and THEN fade to unlit.

likewise, i've noticed that if i tweak certain display settings ("hardware acceleration" for ex), i get a second or two of fresh light. consistently -- hasn't failed ONCE yet to light up the screen. is that consistent with a HARDWARE problem? even if it were some capacitor/timeout problem, what's so magical about a new DISPLAY SETTING, or worse yet, a SPLASH SCREEN?

btw, i managed to solve my "tiny screen" issue. boy, did THAT ever backfire. everything from autoupdate to my dialers (netzero/juno) to XP REINSTALL ITSELF balked at working in the smaller screen. and while i thought a new driver might be the solution, i suddenly had no way of getting ONLINE to get one, or of even starting from scratch with a fresh xp install.

aniwe, SOMEHOW i finally got the bigger screen back today, got online, and got autoupdate to work. wherein it offered me..."VGA Driver" or "Graphics Adaptor" or sumsuch. DLed and installed just fine, but i'm still in the same boat with a dark screen also got "update driver" buttons to work (yesterday they wouldn't) so tried updating both the graphics adaptor and the monitor itself. says i already have the best/most recent available, so i guess i've done about all i can do here now, huh?

is this the end of the road? a shop will charge me at least 80 or 90 bucks to fiddle with the backlight; i don't think it's worth it for this old junkheap. esp given that new ones are only like $250 these days.

 

Hmm, I have my old Dell laptop here, must be 7 years old and it's almost certainly the same problem as yours, I can't afford to buy parts and don't have the confidence (or pressure) to fix it. As a backup PC, connected to an external monitor, it works as well as it ever did.

You may find the right parts and be able to fix it for a relatively few dollars, it depends on how well you diagnose and prepare yourself, laptops often have great tear-down/rebuild manuals available.

 

i don't have the confidence to fix anything internally, altho, if i can see the screen long enuf to perform one final BACKUP, maybe then i'll give it a try. just gonna pitch it aniwes.

in the meantime, i HAVE considered trying to connect an external monitor. how complicated is that? would let me put off that $249 purchase a bit longer (monitors returnable; laptops not!).

if i can just PLUG it IN, that sounds like a great temp fix. alas, but if it involves INSTALLING anything or much tweaking of various SETTINGS, i prolly can't handle it. rly rly a chore right now even finding the apps i already KNOW....lotta guesswork a la "4th icon from the left"...."6 lines down"... "about an inch up from the clock"... etc etc

oh, and btw, which PORT does it run off of? i seem to recall "s-port" or "s-cable" or maybe "s-ready" when i bought this PC, but my only manual is a PDF....which i can't quite READ atm.....

 

ok, i actually DID manage to read that PDF (by cut/pasting to a whiter background!), and the connection is way simpler than i had thought. just one lone cable like how you connect a vcr?! is that for real? and i don't even need a foofy monitor -- just the spare tv that i have kicking around in the other room?!

boy, this is a godsend. i figured that with a normal tv, there needed to be some sort of "emulator" or "modulator" or sumpin that sst in the middle. just a direct CABLE?!

one question, btw: it says i'll have to check off a "tv" icon in a certain sub-sub-subtab of diplay properties. i got that far, but there's no such icon. will it magically appear when i plug in an s-cable? it's hard for me to see how an old-fashioned analog device like that can trigger plug-n-play recognition.

more importantly, does the tv act as a COPY of what's on the default screen? is there any risk that checking that box will result in the tv ONLY receiving the images, i.e., my laptop screen going BLANK? if i mung this up, is there any chance that i end up with NEITHER ONE displaying the signal?! (in which case i don't know how i cud even UNDO it!)

the fact that one needs to ENABLE the out-signal (that check box) worries me. if it's just a COPY, and not going to SUPPLANT the original going to the laptop screen, why would it ever be DISabled? the jack should ALWAYS carry the signal, same as video-out on a VCR, no?

 

sorry for the serial posting. i found the very cables i needed in a drawer, so i went ahead and hooked up the TV. i am happy to report that neither laptop nor TV blew up, nor did the laptop screen go blank on me. otoh, i still don't have that "tv" icon, at least where i think it's supposed to be.

since i can barely SEE half of what i'm reading, i may have overlooked something. here, cut/pasted from the manual (PDF):

Enabling the Display Settings for a Television

1 Click the Start button and click Control Panel.
2 Click Appearance and Themes and click Display.
3 Click the Settings tab and click Advanced.
4 Click the Intel Graphics tab and click Graphics Properties
5 Click the TV icon and click Apply.
6 Click Yes to keep the new settings and click OK

-----
under "Graphics Properties" i have 3 sub-tabs: "color", "hot keys", and "information". nothing with any tv icon, and frankly, since the "color" tab is the default, it doesn't even look like the place where there WOULD be one. am i off by a level somewhere? is this the same place you (satrow) find such a setting? (are you also XP btw?)

btw, when i booted the PC, i saw SOMETHING flash on the TV screen. so it looks like it's RECEPTIVE to getting a signal (i.e., it has the "tv" vs. "video" vs. "cable" settings done right).

 

If you're using a standard VGA cable to hook up to the TV, treat it as a normal external monitor - not a TV.

On most laptops, there's an Fn +F# (1-12) combination that cycles through 3 settings , internal display, dual display and external display. You need to study your keyboard to find a symbol (that might look like a tiny TV) printed in the same colour as the Fn key. Alternatively, you could enter the BIOS at boot time, where the screen should still be usable, and direct the output to the external display from there - if your BIOS has that setting.

My old Dell uses Fn+F8.

If you've connected via the S-cable, right-click the empty Desktop in Windows to call up the Intel graphics commands directly, you are then at #4 in your list (if you can see it well enough).

 

whew, made it through all the posts...

I'm still thinking that you're gonna need the proper graphics drivers in order to use the s-video out function. I'm guessing the windows one won't cut it. therefore, we'll still need that service tag # (should be on a sticker on the bottom somewhere) to find the driver.

 

@ tsg, we're pretty sure it's an Intel graphics chip (post #10) so that should be an easy install if needed.

 

external monitor OR tv...i don't see a setting for EITHER!

my BIOS interrupt gives me choice of where to BOOT from (HDD, external, etc), but i don't see anything about monitor/display there either. it MIGHT be, as smokinggun says that my drivers are insufficient, but seeing as the default manual gives the very specific "Intel Extreme Graphics" tab under which to find this setting, it seems as if it SHOULD be sufficient.

i don't see a "TV" icon anywhere on my keyboard. hotkey-wise, ^-alt-F12 gets me to that "Graphics Properties" subtag, i.e. the "color" setting. So maybe that's the equiv of your FN-F8, since that's where i'm SUPPOSED to be seeing the TV setting (my own FN-F8 is labeled CRT/LCD, btw...which also seems display related, but i'm not exactly sure how w/o another 3 hours squinting at the manual...)

smoking gun: u mean "serial number"? "service tag", in my experience, was a short-term number for accessing tech support. which expired after 6 months or so on my other PCs; on this one, i never even got one (again: bought USED).

btw, why do you keep saying "we need...". are you dell-related somehow? i'm happy to give it, but i don't quite understand the request.

 

The Fn+F8 you see labelled as CRT/LCD is an archaic hangover, it currently means whatever you have connected to the ext. VGA display output (usually on the rear, blue D shaped socket, 15 pins) or the onboard screen. Once the machine has booted to Windows, cycle the Fn+F8 and see if you get a display up on the ext. TV/monitor.