When you hit the on button you only see on screen is black. what's wrong with my laptop?

if you have any external devices plugged in such as mice or hard drive or usb unplug them and then try to reboot. check online for the brand name of your computer for "safe Mode" typically its hitting the F buttons or the delete button and going into safe mode then if it will save the file you really need. then try to reboot

Try to hook up an external lcd & see if you get video, if you don't then you might have a bad video chip on the system board.

This problem can happen after using the disc clean up tool which can disable the hibernation file. Try the following:

Click start>all programs>accessories. Right click command prompt and click run as administrator. Type: 'powercfg -h on' (without speech marks) in command window and hit enter. That should enable the hibernation file and hopefully solve your problem.

Sounds like either the video cable has come loose or you have graphics or video card issue, to find out connect an external monitor to the VGA port on the side or back of the inspiron hit the function and the f7 button together. If your laptops image appears on the your screen it is a screen issue. I would take it o a pro. for opening a laptop can be an issue if you don't know what your doing.

While it is turning on, look at the bottom of the Gateway image. It should say on the side what you can press for "Boot Options". Turn it off and back on again and hit that button (usually F11 or F12) repeatedly. When the menu shows up, select "Hard Drive" from the list. If "Hard Drive" isn't listed or doesn't work, there may be something wrong with your hard drive or it may be as simple as it slid out of its connector. You can try flipping your laptop over, unscrewing the compartment that has a symbol that looks like a cylinder, sliding the hard drive out, and back in.

There area few things that may be wrong.

1. The display setting might be off. You can try hitting the FN key and one of the F# keys at the top. With Dells, they are usually F6 or F7. It will look like a small monitor is on it. You may need to hit it several times, depending on your laptop.

2. Your display (LCD screen) might have experienced a black-light problem. This you would have to call up Dell for support. I hope you are still under warranty for this. Otherwise, it will be very expensive to replace. Don't worry your documents are safe, the display and files are two separate things.

3. Your motherboard has crashed and might be having some issues. For this, call Dell technical support for warranty information.

I suggest you don't go to the worst case-scenario first. Try going from steps 1-2-3... not 3-2-1.

Please Rate.

Thanks.

You have a m/board power chipset failure - new m/board required

I've seen this problem a few times with laptops my family/co-workers have. If it's like their problem, you should be able to plug in an external monitor and see on the screen. If that works, it's either your LCD screen or your LCD backlight inverter...One of the ways to tell whether it's one or the other is try to shine a bright light directly at the screen. If you can see anything on the screen, it means it's the backlight inverter. If it's still completely black, it's your lcd screen. Both can be replaced fairly easily, just be sure to look really well, because if you purchase the (more expensive) LCD screen, replace it, and still have the problem, you'll need to do the backlight inverter anyway. You can typically find instructions for replacing them online somewhere.

When plugging in the external monitor, wait for a while to see if it will boot to your desktop, then if there's nothing on the screen look at your keyboard. There should be a button on there to swap projection modes (usually have to hit fn+f5). Try hitting that a few times just to be sure. If you still can't see anything on the monitor, it doesn't mean it's not necessarily a software issue. Download/burn a live CD (any linux version will work) and try booting from that to rule out any possible software issues.

On laptops there is a key sequence that you can switch between monitor states, it's possible you have it in Laptop screen only. Look for the "Fn" key and then hit the Monitor button (it has a picture of a monitor) usually this is somewhere around F5 or F8.

• TAKE OUT YOUR LAPTOP BATTERY
• REMOVE YOUR AC ADAPTOR CORD, that's the wall power, remove it.
• NOW HOLD DOWN THE POWER BUTTON FOR 30 SECONDS

That will drain any static electricity that has built up on your laptop system board and many times fixes the problem of a black screen. After the 30 seconds re-connect your laptop to the wall power and hit the power button normally and see if the laptop comes back up.Else replace your battery.