Dell Inspiron 1300 display turns solid color

[SSchoeppey]

Hello,

I have a Dell Inspiron 1300. Sometimes the LCD turns a solid color. It is random and the color can be black, blue, red, or green. I have tried closing the lid, which turns off just the LCD and opening it but that does not work. It does this on battery or ac power. It does not seem to be related to heat or length of time the laptop has been on. I have the power switch set to shut down if pushed. I would do this and as soon as it reboots it's fine. I recently changed the power switch setting to go to hibernate. I have noticed that as it goes to the windows screen with the progress bar that it is hibernating that that I have video again. When it was shutting down before I never had video again until it restarted. I have downloaded the latest video driver from Dell to see if that would help but it has not. I don't think it is the inverter. I can hook up my monitor and switch it to my CRT and I have video again. I can switch it back to the LCD and it will work for a little while than go to a solid color again. I sort of suspect the video driver or hardware is crashing. Or perhaps a loose or poorly seated cable. On my laptop the video is built into the motherboard.

Any ideas?

[ski]

Either the built in video adapter is bad, the video cable is bad or loose, or the screen is bad.
If you know how to access the laptop's internals, then you can check for a loose video cable.
If that's ok, then replace the cable.
If no luck, then see if a repair shop can check/fix it for a reasonable price.
If not, then it may be time for a new laptop.

[SSchoeppey]

I hope it's not time for a new one, it is only 2 months out of warranty.

[SSchoeppey]

A few weeks ago to fix a problem with many of my add remove buttons missing caused by a bad yahoo uninstall I had to reformat my laptop. Of course I had to reinstall all the drivers also. The video driver did not install correctly the first time and I had to reinstall it. But in any event my screen has not changed to a solid color since. I have left it on over night and for various lengths of time and it has been rock solid. So if anyone else is having this problem a reformat might solve it for you. :)

[Sylvander]

Now that your software is running well, begin making image backups at key points as you move forward in time.
If at any moment you suspect that all may not be well with your software just restore the last good image [or any image you believe to be suitable].
N.B. An image matches the hardware setup on which it was made, so before you restore one you should know whether it matches your present hardware setup.
For that reason [and others] it is good to keep a written log of software/hardware changes, like...
Add/remove hardware.
Install/uninstall software.
Make image backup.
Restore image backup.
Significant configuration changes.

It's a good idea to move all data files off C: to make C: as small as possible.
Then if/when you restore an image of C: the data files are unaffected, so you don't lose any data by jumping back to an earlier time.

[jlreich]

A few weeks ago to fix a problem with many of my add remove buttons missing caused by a bad yahoo uninstall I had to reformat my laptop. Of course I had to reinstall all the drivers also. The video driver did not install correctly the first time and I had to reinstall it. But in any event my screen has not changed to a solid color since. I have left it on over night and for various lengths of time and it has been rock solid. So if anyone else is having this problem a reformat might solve it for you. :)
Thanks for posting back. I have seen this problem many times and it has almost always been the video cable coming loose at the motherboard, or just a bad cable. On a few occasions it was the onboard video going bad causing the motherboard to be replaced. I have even seen where an external monitor worked just fine, but the LCD has this problem and only a motherboard replacment fixed it.

Good to know there is another cause.

Although when it comes down to it, wiping the drive on a customers machine is usually a last resort option and usually the responsibility of the customer. So that usually means exhausting all hardware issues first leaving only a corrupted windows install as the possible culprit. ;)

[AaronK]

I registered on this site just to post this... I have an Inspiron B130 laptop and I have this same problem. The only difference is that my screen seems to favor purple. I've noticed that this only happens when I'm watching videos or playing games i.e. anything having to do with flash. It's not a problem with the monitor as I just bought a new external monitor today and it still turns a solid color after about 5 minutes of gaming or vid watching.

Putting the computer to sleep (by closing the lid) and bringing it back is the only thing that restores screen function for me as well... and I'm totally stumped as to why it does this.

[SSchoeppey]

Try reinstalling the video driver.

[Sylvander]

A quick way to check that it isn't a hardware problem, but is in fact [almost certainly] a problem with the Windows environment [drivers?]...

Load Knoppix [latest is version 5.1.1 at this time I believe] from a "live" CD.
If the problem doesn't exist in that software environment, then the Windows environment is the culprit.

Make a bootable Knoppix 5.1.1 live CD using this ISO file. (ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V5.1.1CD-2007-01-04-EN.iso)

The Knoppix download site. (http://iso.linuxquestions.org/knoppix/knoppix-5.1.1/)