[SOLVED] Toshiba laptop black screen issue

[DonS]

I have recently been dealing with a Toshiba laptop that seems to randomly black screen (no cursor). You can turn the laptop off, then on, and it goes right to this black screen without cursor - no bios, no windows sounds, nothing.

It was initially purchased by the client from a pawn shop . When it was brought to me, it was because the WiFi was not working, plus some other software issues. It had an illegal copy of Windows 8 on it, but had a valid Win 7 key.

I noticed at one point when I rebooted it to start a fresh installation of Windows 7, that it did this black screen thing. I was able to pull it out of it, randomly, after a few reboot tries. I loaded Windows 7, loaded all updates, then noticed later in the day it reverted again to this black screen.

An Internet search shows this to be a fairly common (toshiba?) issue. Has anyone run across this behavior or have any suggestions as to what could be going on as well as a fix? It's crazy frustrating. Hoping it is not hardware (for the customers sake) but, suppose it could be.

 

[Markverhyden]

1. Have you tried a *nix distro?
2. Has the BIOS been updated?
3. Has all of the internal connectors been reseated?

What model? I might have the Service Manual as well as some utilities.

 

[DonS]

1. Have you tried a *nix distro? No, black screen, cant boot up.
2. Has the BIOS been updated? No. Cant boot up.
3. Has all of the internal connectors been reseated? No, not checked.

Model : L6550D-S5050

 

[katz]

Black screen...

Can you hear the laptop running? Shine a light on the screen to see if there is a faint image? Connect an external display? Need more to go on here...

 

[Romaniac]

This sounds like one of my posts Mark, remember that?
Though I don't know if his model has an inverter.

If yours has an inverter as well...read through here if you want... it may not be same case, especially since yours is random, but good troubleshooting steps.
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54726


In your case, whatever you test, you will just have to test for longer than just plug and observe (obvious, but just a reminder) since it's random.

Good luck!

 

[DonS]

My fault, I should have mentioned. No inverter on this unit. It is not a screen dark, or screen broken issue. I have attached an external monitor, same issue.

The laptop powers "on" but does not boot to bios, or windows. You can hear the fans spinning.. Its just dead space.

 

[glennd]

if the video was faulty, wouldn't you expect to here the bios beeping?

disconnect as much as you can: hdd, ram, wifi, dvd...

really it sounds like the motherboard is saying goodbye...

 

[Markverhyden]

1. Have you tried a *nix distro? No, black screen, cant boot up.
2. Has the BIOS been updated? No. Cant boot up.
3. Has all of the internal connectors been reseated? No, not checked.

Model : L6550D-S5050

I have part of the manual for the L650/655 and a utility ISO that goes with it. Are you sure it's a L6550D? That looks like a model from Latin America based on a Google search.

I misinterpreted you statements. I thought it was working periodically with black screen happening on occasion so you might be able to do 1 and 2. Did you try new RAM and reseating the processor?

 

[Markverhyden]

This sounds like one of my posts Mark, remember that?
Though I don't know if his model has an inverter.

If yours has an inverter as well...read through here if you want... it may not be same case, especially since yours is random, but good troubleshooting steps.
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54726


In your case, whatever you test, you will just have to test for longer than just plug and observe (obvious, but just a reminder) since it's random.

Good luck!

Yep. How you been? Sounds like the motherboard though, since he gets no video with an external monitor.

 

[NYJimbo]

Hoping it is not hardware (for the customers sake) but, suppose it could be.

Is there a reason you are not doing more diagnostics ?

Even markverhyden asks you "Has all of the internal connectors been reseated?" and you respond "No, not checked". Are you doing that or anything else ?

You wont get much help here unless you try to do something yourself. If you are not sure where to begin you might want to google on how to diagnose a dead laptop or something like that.

 

[NYJimbo]

Any thoughts?

It might be best to start your own thread. Your situation is very different from this one. Your machine does POST (you just don't see it) and boots every time, but you cannot see it on the internal laptop screen and when it gets to Windows nothing displays.

Why you see it in Ubuntu could be because the GPU or southbridge warms up enough to make proper contacts but is at a lower resolution or some other graphic mode than Windows is using after it boots up.

But I think this thread is the wrong place to diag this machine.

Just my 2 cents.....

 

[ers1121]

Ok Jimbo

 

[expertcomputing]

May be the problem with OS

hey there I have faced same problem that you have, when I was try to install the Win7, it run up to first 2 steps and then hang for hours. I tried twice but not working. When I have done installation with new OS compact disk it's work effectively

Hope you got some thing important.

 

[glennd]

i have seen so many dead Toshibas in the last few weeks, it's like there was some kind of solar flare that only effects one brand of laptop or maybe they built a time bomb onto the motherboards that randomly fries the electronics.

They must have sold them extra cheap about 4-5 years ago because everyone has them and they're all dropping dead. When I see a working Toshiba of that vintage I tell the customer to plan for a new laptop in the next few months cos this one's living on borrowed time

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I dealt with a desktop that acted like this, was a gaming system I was building. We were putting a nice new GTX 770 into it(about a year ago when this card was newer). Anyway this would keep happening. Turned out the new video card was bad. Took it back to microcenter and swapped it out, system was happy as a lark afterward. I'd check drivers, but your video chip may be flaky.

 

[DonS]

Sorry for lack of follow up, guys. I had my tonsils scheduled for removal on Tuesday and have been recovering since. Luckily my plan to do this close to the holiday season has worked well - it's been a super quiet week business wise.

As for the laptop, the more I have read since leads me to believe it is indeed a cpu/gpu motherboard issue. The laptop was purchased on the cheap for $100.00 and the customer has been very happy with my follow ups. Our plan is to simply part out the bad Toshiba and purchase a new, inexpensive laptop.

I have to agree on the Toshiba laptop issues though. Either bad hard drives or bad motherboards. Can hardly recommend this brand any more.

 

[expertcomputing]

Good softwar, I have used it

Best software I have ever used, the easy to use and maintain.

 

[citizensmith]

Best software I have ever used, the easy to use and maintain.

What software is that? Is that comment connected to this thraed?

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Get yourself a Chinese cheap bios programmer, get the bios chip removed, flash it, then resoldered it to the board.

If that doesn't work, try heating up the gpu a bit and see if it works afterwards (do not give it back to the customer like this, this just means the gpu requires replacement).

Failing that, the Toshibas have a common fault with nec tokin chips by the cpu. You can either replace them like for like or with small smc alternatives. These nec tokins cause the vcore to the cpu to be too low, hence no post.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Exactly!