Laptop

Seems that 1 something could have been knocked lose or 2 there is a break in the back of the screen that you can't see..It will have to be serviced either way....When it fell is the only way of knowing how much the prob could involve...hard fall from high or small fall from very low..crash to bump makes the diff of what the prob can be in all laptops...

I have a Compaq Armada 110 PIII that had a dark screen. Fiddling with the cover closed button would sometimes bring it back. If I turned it on and waited for a while, it would flicker on and stay. Finally I got so fed up with it I downloaded the (free on HP's site) repair manual for the 110. I took of the button/indicator cover (no screws, just pry it up) and below the cover button was a big hole, and a black rectangular switch. The switch had a plunger on it, but it was stuck down. I tried to pull the button up, but it just came completely off the board. Since it is a switch, and it is make to function, I reassembled the laptop, and voila! BACKLIGHT IS FINE, RIGHT FROM CMOS! So what if I don't have that button functioning - I don't have it MALfunctioning anymore!

There is another solution. Only if you cant afford to repair it. If you have a spare monitor laying about plug it in to the laptop believe me youll still get some more glorious hours from that laptop until you might drop the monitor WOOPS....

Most likely the backlight is not working. Replacing backlight could solve the problem.

When your laptop screen is black but you can faintly see whats on the screen your backlight is not working.

It could not be working for a couple of reasons.

The power inverter could have come unplugged. This supplies the higher voltage necessary to power the screen.

The switch could be stuck. This is the switch that tells the laptop the lid is closed. I have seen on many models where the rubberized plunger that shuts off the LCD becomes jammed and it perfectly mimics a faulty inverter.

For a drop I would say check the lid switch first then the inverter.

Hack

the backlite of LCD displays are cold cathode flourescent lamp. I've open quite a lot of notebooks and LCD displays and here is what I can share:
1. The lamp itself is flexible (not glass).Only the LCD is glass.
2. the backlight is powered from an inverter with only 2 wires via a connector.
3. The HV inverter for the backligh tsupply have a small transformer with ferrite core.

The possiblities of damages are:

The connector supplxing power to the backlight turned loose, or
the inverter transformer was detached from the PCB or the core is broken.

At least you can still use the notebook with external monitor in case the display is not fixed.

backlight is dead. Remove the screen pannel, open it and replace the small tube you will find after making it pieces completely.