[SOLVED] Blank laptop screen on start up

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Dell Inspiron 7559 running Windows 10. Completely stock. Just recently the screen stopped working, sometimes. On boot up, keyboard and system lights come on, but no display. Hold power button to shut down, turn it back on and sometimes it will work, most times it wont. Hooked up with a HDMI to the TV and everything works fine system-wise, just laptop screen doesn't work.

Steps taken:
Installed system updates including BIOS and drivers
Pulled battery and held down power button.
Removed and re-installed RAM module (only 1 installed)

Again, once in a while it will work, making me think its fixed, only to fail to come on the next time.
Not sure where to go from here.
 
"Hooked up with a HDMI to the TV and everything works fine system-wise "
So when you hook in external (the times you get black screen on internal) you get normal working picture on it?
Is the screen black from the boot or only in operating system, meaning you get dell logo etc then it goes black?

Problem lcd cable probably, when you move the internal screen cover up and down do you sometimes get picture?
 

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Yes, when I hook it to the TV, everything is normal on the TV.
Nothing comes on the laptop screen, it stays dead black, no logo or back light.

Now that you mention moving the screen, I noticed a few days before this happened, I pushed the screen open passed normal sitting level (but not to its limit) and the screen flashed off for a second then came right back.
Do you think the cable maybe came loose? More likely on the screen side or the board side? Is it a process to change it if it went bad?

Thanks
 
Its either the cable Or lcd itself. it also might of just disconnected from either the motherboard side connector Or lcd side.

Guide 1:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBgXV2RLdIo


1. Remove powr cable then follow this guide until 20seconds mark, just remove the battery connector first. Skip until 1min25sec when he removes the LCD cable from the motherboard, this is the cable we are talking about, just unplug it carefully and then plug it back (if it looks fine and not broken anyway) , check that cable is mounted correctly and not been pressed by anything. Keep the battery connector unplugged and put backplate back in , then continue with below guide.

Guide 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1XFFi0jq_Q

2 . You can reconnect the cable on the LCD side and check if it looks fine following guide on this video,
Just do everything slow and be careful with the connector, just take connector off and put it back, check that its fully connected then reassembly the lcd panel and front bazel back in.

After that just open backplate once again and connect battery connector. After that reassembly the backplate, disconnect external monitor connector, and try to boot up.

If it doesnt work, disconenct power cable and then take off backplate, disconnect the battery connector and flip the laptop so screen is on the table and rest of the laptop is pointing upwards. Now connect power cable and boot the PC, try to very carefully move the LCD cable inside the motherboard (dont touch near connector on the motherboard) just to verify if there is problem inside the LCD cable, you might get picture on different position or strange colors, flashing etc. Just move it very slowly so you dont short the connectors on lcd or motherboards end. Then just plug off the power cable, and connect battery connector, reassembly backplate.If you got picture or flashing or something like strange colors something might be pressing on the LCD cable on its way to the LCD, or the cable itself is bad and you need to replace it , if you only got black screen during this procedure then replace the LCD, for that we need to know what resolution panel you have currently.
 

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Ok, I messed with it today. I disconnected both ends of the cable and reconnected them. No luck. Tried moving the cable with it powered up, still no life. Figured I needed a screen.

I left it be for a few hours, then took the screen back off to get the part numbers off the back. Didn't mess with the wires other than rotating the screen down to the keyboard (like in the above video). Got the numbers and put the screws back in, powered it up, screen works. Now that its on and working, I can fiddle with the wires on both ends and it doesn't effect the screen. If I tilt the whole screen open passed about 120 degrees, the screen shuts off (external stays on), then it comes back when I rotate it back to 90 and moving it up and down anywhere less than 120 doesn't affect it. I closed the screen, when I opened it, the external came back on, the laptop screen didn't and is off again.

I'm guessing since the screen comes on once in a while it shouldn't be a bad screen? Should I start with a cable and try that first? Is this what I want? (https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-I...0180672:g:cK0AAOSwevlaCyJJ&LH_ItemCondition=3)

Thanks for the help
 
Solution

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Did the screen diagnostic. Red Blue Green White all flashed in some order, twice, on laptop,but not external. Then powered up as normal, laptop screen didn't come on, external did.

I changed the lid option to "do nothing". No change, but the external does stay on when the lid is closed.

Its a Dell Inspiron 15 7559. I went through the Dell Update app/program and it says I am up to date on BIOS but it is 1.2.7
I went to the Dell Support website and it says I can download 1.3.1 and I did, ran it, the computer restarted and it still says i am running 1.2.7

Is the link I posted before the same cable? The link you sent wouldn't get here until June
 

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Ok, update. Since I ordered the cable, my screen has worked every time I started up the laptop while connected to the TV. Every single time. Once it was on, I could disconnect the HDMI and everything worked fine. However if I tried to start the laptop without the HDMI connected, it wouldn't. The battery light on the front would just blink 2 orange, 7 white. This was new. Plug the HDMI back in, it would boot fine and the screen worked.

I got the new cable and changed it yesterday and so far everything seems to be working. I've shut down and powered up a few different times and we seem to be good. Hopefully it continues.

I just don't understand why it would work/not work with any consistency.

Thanks for the help.
 
2 orange 7 white is LCD not detected. This might be many different issues, including dell not recodnizing the new lcd cable as genuine part, i had that with lenovo laptops would cause issues like this.

Most likely its something with the lcd connector , the cable or the lcd itself. Try holding D key when you boot the pc and run dell LCD test does it give all okay result?
 

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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The LED lights flashing was before I changed the cable. It was just something new that started happening in the mean time.

Since I replaced the cable, everything seems to be working at this time. Sorry for the confusion.
 

bm20

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Jan 21, 2019
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Yes, everything checks out.

You seem to be misunderstanding me. After I replaced the cable, everything is working as it should. All the other stuff was happening in the time between ordering and installing.

As of right now the problems seem to have been fixed with the new cable.
I appreciate the help.