Toshiba Satellite Laptop problem

[gillenr]

My laptop screen just started to go blackscreen. All open apps stay on. If I shut the lid & immediately open it, the screen is OK for a short time - seconds.
Help please!

[JustRalph]

is the batter fully charged?

It may be trying to shut down or go into sleep mode and when you re-open the lid it is waking up again..........then it tries to shut down again.


Also, pull the battery all the way out..........re-insert and try booting it up cold again


also make sure you don't have the power settings, set to shut down the monitor...............after like a minute or something

you can also hook it to an external monitor if the above does not work........then you may see something totally different

[gillenr]

Running on AC. Checked power settings for batt & changed monitor off to never.
Battery charged & took it out - still NG.

[ddog]

what mod exactly do you have?

if you move the screen back and forth a tiny bit does the thing blink ??

[gillenr]

Satellite A85-S107

Never saw any blinking & now it isn't lit long enough.

[DJofSD]

I've seen this type of behavior before two times. Both times it was a problem with the LCD. Either the LCD screen itself or a part of the circuitry that powers the LCD. Have it check by a technican.

[JustRalph]

check out this thread

http://www.motherboardpoint.com/toshiba-satellite-a85-display-issue-t183035.html

[JustRalph]

lots of similar problems on the Toshiba.com support site..........many have to do with sleep mode and the lid being either closed or open and the laptop doing the opposite of what it supposed to do.......across a broad range of models

[DJofSD]

Isn't that a typical problem with model broad's -- not sleeping when they're supposed to and vice versa?

[Jeff P]

Here's a link to a review and a solution to a similar problem I was experiencing with a Toshiba laptop back in 2007:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A34AWEMKBNZNRV/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview

Hopefully that helps,


-jp

.

[gillenr]

It is now permanently unlit, so into the shop it goes.

[DJofSD]

I was hopeful Jeff's experience and solution was going to be the ticket. Sorry to hear it is looking more like a H/W problem.

PC's -- can't live with them and can't live with them (or without).

[Red Knave]

It is now permanently unlit, so into the shop it goes.I actually sold a similar Satellite on eBay and the new owner had that happen to him after the first day. I wound up paying for the fix (about $250 if memory serves). It may be more prudent to buy a new one.

[DJofSD]

Any update as to what was the actual problem with the laptop display?

[gillenr]

It is the back-light bulb - $25 part, $200 labor. Since the laptop cost $400 4 years ago, I'm going to try to repair it myself & then toss it & replace it!

[DJofSD]

Thanks for the update.

If the attempt at self repair is just to salvage data, etc., see if you can connect an external monitor to it to perform those dumps/back ups. I'd think that would save you some time, money and frustration especially if you're going to trash it.

Another possible route to grabbing data off the hard drive is to find out if the hard drive can be mounted to another PC. It would in part depend upon the type of connector is used on the hard drive out of the laptop.

I had a situation where my very old ZDS laptop finally died -- the LCD was already dead and I was using an external monitor -- but then that external monitor would not work either. There were "devices" available that would allow me to connect that old, obsolete WD HDD to a desk top PC to retrieve the data but no one had them in stock! I ended up spending $100 to get a different model ZDS laptop that I could swap the drives. That allowed me to uninstall some S/W and to dump the data files. Then both got tossed. (And I got a new laptop and now have a back up server so the problem with having the data copied is only limited by how often I connect the laptop to my LAN.)

If you have access to a data retrieval business, they might be able to dump the contents of the HDD for a fee.

Good luck.

[gillenr]

Thanks DJofSD, but I just used it for email & surfing when on vacation, & anything important I saved elsewhere. If I can't repair it, KABLOOIE!