Help! Laptop broke...

[DAL208]

Hello, wonder if could help. My Dell inspiron 6400 seems to have gone funny. The screen doesnt work right. When i turn laptop on, i can hear windows start normally and everything seems to be fine except absolutely nothing cmes on the screen. The screen is on, because you can see the backlight...and you can adjust the backlight's brightness as normal. I dont think it is just windows as absolutely nothing comes on screen...no dos, no 'dell' symbol as usual that comes up before windows starts.
Anybody any idea if this is an easy problem to fix? Is it a known problem with Dell's?
Any help greatly appreciated.

p.s its literally about a week past its warantee (typical) so would it be still cheaper to send back to dell or get somehwere else to fix?

[srobarts]

The screen on a laptop is connected by a ribbon cable, it is not uncommon for some of the wires in the ribbon to break but not all. That could give you the symptoms you describe. Try to move the screen to see if it makes some connection. I had one go a few years back and only half the screen would work!
Since you are only a week out of warranty I would try Dell and see if they will help. Manufacturers don't want a reputation that their products only last the warranty period and so will sometimes offer help for those just out of warranty.
If not lucky if it is the ribbon cable it should not be too expensive to repair.
Good luck

[Lancelot37]

If all else fails you dropped it didn't you? House insurance.

[HandyAndy]

A spare Toshiba laptop that the kids use has a similar problem.

Shutdown, mains off, and if I remove the outer plastic surround (trim) of the screen, disconnect the two cables attached to the inverter (small pcb usually at the bottom of the screen) and reconnect them, the screen comes back to life on booting. Might be worth a try if the screen itself isn't u/s.