I was just given a Compaq Presario laptop which has no video. When it is powered on it sounds like it's booting but the screen remains totally blank. There is, however, a video port for an external monitor connection. My question is: are there any keystrokes which switches the BIOS from internal display to external display, since I get no video from this external port either? Or is this just a waste of time? In fact, does anyone have any other suggestions on how to approach this problem? Thanx.

See if the maint book is at HP to start. They do have factory key strokes to light the lamp but not normally to enable video at lcd. Most laptops default to internal and don't even have a bios option for external. To be sure look at bios settings. See also the keyboard. There are contrast and brightness controls normally somewhere. Both may or may not work by design. Try both to lighten. You can get repair parts but see the cost of new systems. Not much more than the overpriced repair parts you find on auction sites. Not worth the time to hope you order the correct part even. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

jefro - thanx for your response. Problem turned out to be a bad motherboard.