Toshiba P205 laptop

[iscreamsunday]

This toshiba P205 laptop is running Vista 32. It has run for over 2 years, and recently the screen started to fail (or so it appeared). The screen will be grey, no cursor or anything, but the backlight works. I can plug into VGA monitor and operate the computer. I checked the screen connections and wiring, all good. It was an intermittent problem for about a month, and then it completely failed. I did a complete system recovery, and my screen was back. Worked fine for a couple days, and then on a reboot, it went grey again, and won't come back up. VGA output still works fine. Has anyone heard of something like this? The screen will not display anything, even the BIOS splash won't display, although I can change boot priority via F12 as it boots. I don't want to go through another day+ of recovery if I don't need to (2 years of updates takes some time). I don't know if this is something Toshiba will fix if I send it in, especially since the laptop is from 11/2007. Any help is appreciated.

 

[eddiebelfast]

What happens if you insert a bootable cd in the optical drive? i.e. a Linux live Cd etc!
or maybe an older Windows setup/install disc?

 

[iscreamsunday]

So far I cannot get it to display when booted from UBCD or Knoppix. I need an external monitor to verify my settings are correct (I am running blind). I will have to take it to the office this week to finish this test, thanks for the help so far.

 

[iscreamsunday]

well, I cannot get it to boot from knoppix or ubcd (or hdclone for that matter). I guess the graphics card is bad. I believe the screen is ok. Have already bought her a new PC, so I'll decide if I want to send this in to Toshiba.

 

[GKahn]

it's not the graphics card since your VGA works just perfectly.

I would suggest to open your machine and to check the wiring from your video card to your screen. sometimes it comes loose.

Hope this helps!

-GKahn