Hi I am fairly good with computers but i dont know how to fix this problem. My advent 7113 laptop turns on the power light comes on and they the fan starts but am not sure if the harddisk boots. Then the monitor comes on and just keeps flashing white to black at about a 4 sec rate. Do you have any ideas why this happens?

It sounds like Either the onboard video card or the LCD controller has gone bad. To verify which one connect a monitor to the VGA adapter on the back of the Laptop. You may also have to hit a key combination to swap displays (Usually <Fn> + <F5> but may be different the keys usually have an offset that indicates its function.

If the Monitor displays the same black and white anomaly then the vid card went bad, if it displays a normal screen your LCD controller is faulty.

Either problem would likely need service from an experienced technician

Hope this helps
Dave