Black Screen

busiscoming2

Help needed please.

My Acer 5552 (windows 7) laptop was working fine. I have gone to use it again and although the power light and fan are working nothing else is.
I have tried taking the battery out, disconnecting it from the mains and holding the power button for 30 secs to discharge static. I've plugged it into a HDMI cable to the TV where the TV is just saying 'no signal'.

I found a youtube video showing to download Acer files from their website onto a memory stick to 'repair' it, but as I am not at all PC clever in that way, I don't want to do more harm than good.

Any suggestions?

bmewsd

hi, always a difficult one so my tuppence worth.

if you shut down completely and then power the system up what if anything comes up on the screen?

you want to see how far in the boot process you get... if you get something then you know the screen isn't faulty... if there's nothing whatsoever (not boot messages or welcome to acer etc (if that's indeed what you normally get)) then you know there's a real problem.

you then need to see if there's a function key you can get to (if you see anything) that will allow you to run some tests. If it's a new machine or within warranty, get on the phone to acer if you can.

pop as much detail back on here and let's see if we can help

busiscoming2

Thanks,

No the screen shows nothing at all. I've tried pressing various keys but still nothing. It is dead.

When I close it to hibernate, it won't do it, the light stays on. I have to disconnect it from the power to stop it.

bmewsd

If it's showing nothing at all during the boot phase it's not sounding too hopeful. Typically, you have probably seen (but not noticed) all the normal stuff that pops up on screen during it's startup.

how old is the machine? still under warranty?

closed

holding down the power button for 6 seconds will stop it.

try external screen

busiscoming2

bmewsd wrote: »

If it's showing nothing at all during the boot phase it's not sounding too hopeful. Typically, you have probably seen (but not noticed) all the normal stuff that pops up on screen during it's startup.

how old is the machine? still under warranty?

It's a couple of years old and out of warranty.

macman

Connect up an external monitor to establish if there is any graphics output.

busiscoming2

macman wrote: »

Connect up an external monitor to establish if there is any graphics output.

I don't have a computer monitor, I have tried to connect via an HDMI cable to a TV. Is this the same thing?

bmewsd

busiscoming2 wrote: »

I don't have a computer monitor, I have tried to connect via an HDMI cable to a TV. Is this the same thing?

I think what the aim is to see if it's the screen that's the problem or the graphics card or indeed something else. If the hdmi output worked then it would most likely be the screen. if nothing works then it's most likely the graphics card. Which on laptops tends to be integrated and therefore nigh on impossible to fix (without a board replacement of some kind).

I suspect your laptop's gone kaput.

Wig

This isn't going to help you but my desktop does the same thing. It sometimes goes into blackscreen whilst in use.

Then when I restart it, it stays in blackscreen all the time.

I found that either repetedly pressing the reset button or repeatedly turning off at the wall for 2 minutes would eventually cause it to power up normally.

I think it might be related to the BIOS.

stecast

Try re-seating the memory,

If you have 2 sticks of RAM then remove one of them then test the laptop then do the same with the other stick.