Need help! Inspiron 9400 laptop black out

hey all thanks for checkin this out.

OK I by no means consider myself an IT specialist, but I do know my way around a PC.

Here is my problem.

Last night I was on it and everything was working just fine. I closed the lid and went into another room. Shortly after I went to get back on, opened the lid and nothing, just black. after a few seconds of nothing I held down the power button and powdered it down. When I tried to power it back on last night I was just a black screen, then the back light would come on for a few seconds, then back to dark black nothing. While this was going on with the screen there was minimal sound coming from the hard drive, not what the normal start up sounded like, but something. Now when I push the power button all that happens is the num lock light comes on and the cap lock and scroll lock blink and no sound from the hard drive or anything. I have no clue. My first guess last night was that something somehow can unplugged inside or something.


Please if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear it

thanks again for the time.
el marcel123

 

Something could have come unplugged. One idea is to try and wait till day and then take your laptop outside and see if you can see text on the screen.

 

Can you hook up another screen/monitor to check vid card. Also does the 'Black' screen show a white square in top left-hand corner ??

 

endevourit is possible the switch to shut down the monitor when the lid is closed is dirty/sticking or has malfunctioned, this could eb a small button or tab somewhere nere the monitor hinges or like some dells could be a magnet that is inside the case usually on the right hand side, which will require a complete teardown to access it.
Dell's support site offers manuals for all their products which may help in this