Dell Laptop Won't Start. No display but all lights....

[BrettJamesLive]

I have an 18 month old Dell Inspiron 17R service code: 11278989361

Suddenly, it won't switch on properly. Allow me to explain.

Press the power button, and the power button lights up. The quickset buttons light up one at a time, then all come on, as normal, but the screen stays totally black. No backlight, nothing.

So far, I have tried:

Removed/replaced RAM - with RAM removed when I switch the laptop on I get the 'beep' errors to tell me there is a RAM issue.

Tried the above with/without battery in.

Removed HDD.

COnnected external display and tried changing output source etc.

To no avail. Nothing seems to work. I am confused that the motherboard is reporting the RAM issue, so it can't be the board, can it? Again, I get NO display at all, no BIOS/splash screen etc.


Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

If neither the built-in display or external display is working, it's possible the default, integrated Intel HD graphics chip is faulty.

That same chip is used for both laptop screen & external monitor, which is why I think the default graphics chip is faulty.

If I'm right, it will mean a new APU (the Intel graphics chip is on the APU), or even a new motherboard if the APU is soldered to it as is often the case with laptop processors.

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"I am confused that the motherboard is reporting the RAM issue"

Why confused? It's normal for beeps to occur when there's no RAM installed.