Laptop blanked out and won't start again

My son's HP laptop with Vista that is about 1 1/2 years old went blank today.

He said the screen went black. So he shut it down. Now it won't restart. The screen stays black. Some dashboard lights come on. The buttons on the dashboard for playing DVDs and such sound strange. They usually have a nice sound. Then the laptop shuts down again.

He tried it without the battery, same thing.

What should we try?

 

Well, if it is under warranty, contact HP. Doing much more may void your warranty. If it is not covered, we can go a bit farther with it.

 

There are two different levels of the screen being "off"

1. The Backlight is out
2. No video is being sent to the screen

If the backlight is out, that means the screen still works and pointing a flashlight at it will reveal what is supposed to be on the screen. If this is the case, either the CFL burned out (doubtful) or the inverter failed (more likely)

If the backlight is on, meaning that the screen, although black, is still lit up in the background, but no video is showing on it: you are more likely looking at failed onboard video, or in most cases, a failed motherboard. (Not usually too cost friendly).

A good way to test if it's a video card / motherboard or something with the display (LCD panel, Inverter, CFL) is to plug in an external monitor to the laptop and power it on. If you see something on the external monitor when you power the computer on, the problem is likely an inverter or bad lcd screen. If not, you're more than likely going to be looking at a new video card (or motherboard in many cases)

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the responses.

Why would it shut down now after it is being powered up. And the buttons have a bad sound when pressed? Still the video?

 

He says there is no fan noise only the click of the CD drive and then it turns off.

 

Possibly a motherboard - cannot really tell for sure. I would definitely say that this symptom will require further investigation from a technician

 

Most likely your motherboard.
I would recommend calling a technical support person since we cannot see it happening here.

 

Thanks. We are going to take it to a repair shop. Probably Fry's in Austin.