Greetings. My laptop screen started going black quite frequently while the computer is on. It doesn't black out 100% because I can still very barely make out the contents of the computer if I squint just right. The only way to fix this problem has been to turn the computer off (power button) and back on again. Sometimes even that doesn't help the screen and I have to try restarting again until the screen works. Right now the screen is fine, but I'm sure this thing will happen again. I don't otherwise have any problems with the LCD display. It works great when it does. This started happening more frequently, almost every day now, and there is no noise or any kind of warning when the screen blacks out. Any help? Thanks a lot!

Do you get the same problem if you hook it to a external computer monitor?Does it happen if you press on a certain place on the Laptop?

It sounds like your backlight might be going out.

Yep, I'd say the backlight too. This might be helpful if you're any good with electronics, but it's probably not worth the risk.

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus/Barracuda 60GB HDD
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE 256MB
16x DVD-ROM
42x CD-RW
16x External DVD RW

Sorry, wrong link. That link links to the right link.

This is what I was trying to copy.

AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus/Barracuda 60GB HDD
Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE 256MB
16x DVD-ROM
42x CD-RW
16x External DVD RW

Thank you!! Those were all excellent pointers. Yes. It may very well be the backlight, but the problem *might* have been caused, not by hardware wearout, by some type of malware. I ran a scan of this machine at http://www.trendmicro.com/hc_intro/default.asp and it cleaned viruses with even my up to-date McAfee never detected (very strange!) All I know is that the screen blackout problem hasn't re-occured for two days now-which is a good sign. I'll see what happens next...

Kamal

I'm having a similar problem with a gateway m505b2 laptop, this problem only happens when the computer is sitting in a certain position and can be resolved by putting light pressure on one side of the laptop, or propping it up to put pressure on that side. I was wondering what the deal is??
Is there something loose inside that I can tighten to remedy this? Or is it the monitor pooping out on me?

Hi I have same problem with 2 years old sony vaio. I tried to use external monitors and that external monitor also flickered and blacked out. One tech said its monitor other says it video card. Anyone has any opinion on problem and estimated price for repair ?

Thanks in advance

My problem hasn't come back since I did a major tune-up on my computer (virus, trojan and spyware scans, registry repairs, defrags, disk clean up) a week ago. Assuming that this is what helped fix the problem, my problem probably was a software, rather than a hardware, problem. I'll wait another two weeks before I can say that with more certaintly. But based on my experience, I'd strongly recommend a major check-up on your system before you decide to take the computer apart. Get back to us to tell us what happened.

Kamal