Blank screen I had my t61 on a docking station at work and used a different monitor. Now I can't see anything on my laptop monitor. I know it works because the windows logo is displayed at startup but then the screen turns black

It will be drivers. I had endless problems with a toshiba dynadock which took days trying to sort out. Once Toshiba released the windows 8.1 driver it worked a treat. You will need to use different drivers for each docking station.

A docking station is an extension or addition of ports for a laptop computer. Once the portable computer is docked, you can access the docking station's ports, such as PS/2 or USB 2.0 ports, through your computer. Some docking stations have monitors that you can connect your computer to, placing your video on an external screen so you can turn off your computer's monitor and conserve some of your computer's energy. All Dell docking stations will have the same general troubleshooting steps.

Plug your laptop's power adapter into the docking station and dock your laptop onto/into the docking station. If there is no power going to your laptop from the docking station but it works when the power adapter is plugged into the wall, the docking station is bad and needs to be replaced. Plug your power adapter into the docking station and dock your laptop onto/into the docking station. If power goes on but your computer doesn't recognizes accessories such as a USB mouse--plugged into the docking station, try a different port on the station. If it works in a different port, the previous USB port is burned out. Plug your power adapter into the docking station and dock your laptop onto/into the docking station. If power is going through the docking station but no accessories are being recognized, you might have a corrupted docking profile. Undock the computer and dock it again once it has fully started up to reset the docking profile. Plug your power adapter into the docking station and dock your laptop onto/into the docking station. If you have an external monitor and it is not working, completely close the lid on the laptop so the image will move to the external monitor. Plug your power adapter into the docking station and dock your laptop onto/into the docking station. If power is going through the docking station but no accessories are being recognized and resetting the docking profile fails, update all drivers through Dell's support website and then re-dock the computer. Some of the software that runs the hardware may have become corrupted. Hope this helps

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Sounds like the docking station needs to be cleaned.

no laptop stated ok W7 OS, nice to know.
hopeless?
nor external model screen stated
try a different external screen

any shop can fix it, ask them
no need to ship anything
get it checked out by a technician
we can test all 3 parts and tell you whats worn i minutes.
i can not understand your post
try to be more clear
does local LT screen work ok
does using a known directly connected screen (VGA)
on the LT you must turn on external screen using the fn hot key
the the external works,. do so, now
if both internal and external fail the LT is bad, guess, bad GPU chip
if only external fails, try a known working external screen
if that works your external is bad.
the docking is last, and if only it fails, then ITS BAD.

Hi wilhejl,

I see that you are experiencing a video issue with you back light on this case,
you mentioned when docked on your docking station you see the video on you monitor but when undocked you get a black LCD screen and see shadows of what is on the LCD screen.

this is a back light issue that you are experiencing.

We can try and check some settings regarding this concern and se if there is anything we can do to correct what you are experiencing with your laptop

As soon as you turn your Laptop on keep on tapping F1 to will bring you to the BIOS screen if the BIOS shows up on you LCD screen without going black then most probably yo may need to change some settings in windows regarding the the LCD and power options.

• Try docking back into your docking station and inside windows go to power options, and set your system power options to balanced.
• On your Desktop right click anywhere on an open space to get the menu list click on personalize then click on display then click on advance settings, look for screen refresh rate change it to 59Hrtz then undock from your docking station and try booting into windows without using the docking station to check if the video will show on the LCD again on this issue.

I hope that this can help regarding your case,

Have a nice day.

no
but may as you know that the anttena for wi fi in the laptops located in the side of monitor so it is polarization issue sure when you open the laptop screen it will be different when you close it to put it inside the docking station>>>to solve this you can change the direction of your router anttena


wish that will be helpfull
shadi

STEP: Toggle the Video Mode with the <Fn> and <F8> Keys
Additional Information
Press the <Fn> and <F8> keys to toggle the display mode between the video modes (LCD Only, Monitor Only, and Both).
STEP: Determine if an external monitor is being used.
Additional Information
Determine if an external monitor is connected to the docking station.
STEP: Determine if the video problem occurs outside of the docking station.
Additional Information
View the LCD panel on the system to determine if the same video issue occurs while the system is outside of the docking station.
STEP: Remove Any Docking Stations or Port Replicators From the Computer
STEP: Unplug All Accessories From the Laptop Computer
Additional Information
Unplug any accessories from the laptop computer, such as PCMCIA cards, external mice, external keyboards, external serial or parallel port devices, external monitors, external USB peripherals and port replicators.

Do you have an external monitor for use when the laptop is on the docking station? If so, does your laptops screen come on when it's not docked?

If you're using an external monitor while the laptop is docked, make sure that the screen selection is for external monitors, by pressing/hold the FN key and then press the F8 key to cycle through the choices between LCD, Monitor/LCD or Monitor only.

Windows Vista supports mirror mode only; XP supports extended mode and mirror mode. Visit dynadock.com for updated Windows XP and Vista software driver support.

Correct the resoulution is not the same. Also you are using 2 monitors and using the system to power these great displays. Just dont hook up a docking station. The picture gets really bad..