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hi all,

i'm new to the site. I'm a young computer technician and i specialize more in desktop computers rather than laptops but i've been getting many laptops this days.

I got here a dell inspiron 8000; problem is that when powering on screen gets beige...is not white or gray but beige....theres no image there rather than that color....if i plug in a monitor i can perfectly see dell logo and etc there...but nothing on the laptop screen....i've checked the connections in the video card which is an ATi one, and there's no scratches or cuts or anything visibly damaged. i took the screen out and everything is connected, just that a yellow tape that sticks the video data cable to the back of the screen is slightly removed....as i know from the owner, he took it to another tecnician before for other problem, this guy screwed it up more returning it with the screen this way....anyway, i was wondering, is this screen damaged for good taking the fact that cables look good and that i have video in the monitor output? or could there be a problem with the ATi card connector? (doesn't look in bad shape either).

Thanks for any comment.

sounds to me like the backlight has gone. Try looking at the screen under both bright and low light to see if you can see an image - if you can this would confirm the diagnosis.

Thanks for the comment AlbertLionheart,

when i power on that laptop you can see a light change; i power on and it illuminates bright and after maybe half a second illumination comes down a little bit...i can asociate this kind of change to that one that occurs when inverters are gone: you can see a fraction of a second of light but then it goes out...now what is curiuos is that beige color...is it normal that a screen gets beige when it has a bad backlight or inverter?

thanks in advance.

Beige is not normal. but then who knows what Dell are up to in the interests of cutting costs? The fact that you can run the external monitor OK shows that it is the screen that is the problem - you have to make that difficult decision to fix it or chuck it. In the UK that would cost £120 or so, in the us I guess about $250. That is a long way to a new laptop with better performance and at least a years warranty!