Troubleshooting a laptop display

One of your customers has called with a problem related to the laptop’s LCD display. Although the laptop’s display had been working normally yesterday, when starting the laptop this morning the LCD display remained blank. What’s the best option for troubleshooting the LCD display?

A) Upgrade the BIOS to the latest version

B) Reinstall the operating system from the original installation media

C) Reboot the laptop until the LCD display begins to operate normally

D) Power down the laptop, connect an external monitor, and power on the laptop

The answer: D) Power down the laptop, connect an external monitor, and power on the laptop

When a laptop screen goes out, it would be good to know if the problem was related to the video components or the LCD screen. For a quick check, you can plug in a monitor to see if an image appears.

The incorrect answers:

A) Upgrade the BIOS to the latest version
Upgrading the BIOS won’t fix this problem, especially since we know the laptop was working without a problem the day before.

B) Reinstall the operating system from the original installation media
Before you change anything with the operating system (which was working fine yesterday), it’s a better idea to complete your hardware troubleshooting.

C) Reboot the laptop until the LCD display begins to operate normally
Since this problem occurred during startup, rebooting the computer would be a bit redundant.

Want to know more? Watch “Diagnosing and Troubleshooting Laptops and Portable Devices.” When your portable device starts having problems, where do you start the troubleshooting process. Unlike traditional desktop personal computers, laptops and portable devices have additional steps for diagnosing troubles. In this video module, we’ll troubleshoot the boot process, video settings, stylus and digitizer issues, keypad problems, and antenna wires.