Shoutbox

If you reboot, does the backlight come back on? Maybe it burnt out.

When you turn on your computer, at the point where the bios screen appears (or before?), does it have any light?

My thinkpad is rather antiquated, and the backlight often takes ages to start up [or just doesn't]. There's a little button that the screen hits when you fold it- tapping it puts the laptop to sleep, and tapping it again usually fixes the light.

Failing that, your screen might just be dead. If rebooting doesn't turn your screen back on, you might not be able to get it working again I would think

There may be a way to do it, see I've heard that some laptop backlights can be controlled through ACPI or dedicated hardware registers, but exactly how you're going to access them I'm not sure. The Linux thinkpad driver* works in this way and can control these signals through /proc. Still, it's not something I've messed about with. And even if you do manage to restart it through some such method, if you've already tried rebooting and that kills the light, you're going to have a great time sending ACPI signals every time your laptop starts.

Is it still under warranty?

* Note that the driver gives the proc interface- the ACPI behaviour of the Fn buttons is enabled even without any drivers installed, the main point of the drivers is masking this behaviour or controlling them through scripts. I imagine it's a similar story for other laptop brands.

Hmph,ACPI sounds confusing to me,. but could the backlight have anything to do with me experimenting with S-video ea lier today? And When I tried to create a network bridge, (this was out of s-video mode and the backlight was on) my laptop  just shut off unexpectedly and when I turned it Back on, there was no backlight. And Nope the backlight never turns on, I have a flashlight with me and when i shine it i can see WINDOWS loading screen. So it never turns on at any point.

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Originally posted by Steven
Hmph,ACPI sounds confusing to me,. but could the backlight have anything to do with me experimenting with S-video ea lier today? And When I tried to create a network bridge, (this was out of s-video mode and the backlight was on) my laptop  just shut off unexpectedly and when I turned it Back on, there was no backlight.

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I don't see how. If you can still see silhouettes on the screen when you look at it right, then as far as the laptop is concerned the screen is on. If your laptop suddenly turned off, maybe there's a short or something. Either way, it's not looking like there is an easy fix for this. I'd say even the ACPI method won't work- it looks like that screen is gone.

Crap. Well I probably am getting a FREE laptop from the school and it will  be  a DELL, hopefully an insporon or whatever there spelled. Im getting one in late september because of my messy handwriting. 8 years to late though.

Your inverter or your backlight are either fucked  (lcd itself isn't as you can see what's on it)or have some loose connection, like it used to happen to me,  try closing it fast/hard and opening it back again, maybe the cable is only a tiny bit loose

How old is the laptop? If it's still under warranty they will probably fix for free.

Warrenty is not an option I wish, Im thinking it was a setting i might of touched by accident. I dont see how it would just go dead like that..

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Originally posted by Steven
Warrenty is not an option I wish, Im thinking it was a setting i might of touched by accident. I dont see how it would just go dead like that..

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the same way light bulbs burn out?