hp pavilion problems

Hey guys, my roommate approached me yesterday with an old laptop computer of his. He explained to me that some time ago, the screen went black, and stopped functioning. He doesn't really want the computer anymore, but he told me I could play around with it, and use it if I wanted, or just rip it apart even. Well I would like to see if I could fix the problem in any way.

The first thing I did was open up the computer a little bit, enough to see the small cable that runs from the motherboard to the monitor. In a previous experience working with a Macbook laptop computer, which had the same problem as this HP Pavilion, the cable had a short in it. We solved the problem with the Macbook by buying a new wire/cable, and then the monitor worked great.

So I opened up the HP Pavilion, and found this same wire/cable, and I jiggled it around to see if any flickering or any signal would come from the monitor at all, but I got nothing. It is important to note that there is "light" coming from the screen, but it is just black, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, so then I wanted to simply try hooking up another monitor to the laptop's VGA port, which I did, but there is no output being received by the separate monitor. I assume this is simply because the computer is only outputting video to the default monitor, and does not recognize the need to output it to the separate monitor.

Is there any way I can force the computer to output the video to the second monitor attached to the VGA port, and not the default laptop screen? Remember I can't really see anything going on on the default screen, so I can't just fiddle around with options in the OS...

Or, does anyone have any idea on what maybe happened to the original screen and how to fix it?

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Originally Posted by DavidP

I assume this is simply because the computer is only outputting video to the default monitor, and does not recognize the need to output it to the separate monitor.

Is there any way I can force the computer to output the video to the second monitor attached to the VGA port, and not the default laptop screen? Remember I can't really see anything going on on the default screen, so I can't just fiddle around with options in the OS...

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Well, both my ancient Packard Bell, and my current IBM has a special FN button just for this, the F7 button has LCD/CRT written on it with blue text, so if i hold FN and click it, it will change back and forth between the laptop screen and the VGA port.

Perhaps your Pavillion has a similar one?

hm...that's interesting...

the HP Pavilion also has an FN button. I tried doing the same key combination that you used for your Packard Bell computers, and I got a reaction, but no success. The LCD monitor's backlight would turn on and off, but nothing would come onto the CRT.

Another interesting thing is that I rebooted the computer, and when I did so, on both monitors there were flickering green vertical lines, which had not occurred before.

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by the way, it is an HP Pavilion zv5000.

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to me it seems like the video card, or rather it is probably an onboard integrated video card, is probably malfunctioning, and hence the reason for no reaction by either monitor. What do you guys think?

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I would suspect that the video card is problematic. 80% likely it's the physical hardware at fault, 15% that the drivers went corrupt, 5% for other causes. Try reinstalling the driver and see what happens.

I would guess that it is 0% drivers. Even without specific drivers for a video card or monitor, the OS can still normally display basic graphical output. The screen would not go completely dark...besides...I can't really install new drivers without being able to see what I am doing. :)

But I do think there is a problem with the onboard vid card...

Still, corrupt drivers could still cause some problems. Can you run in safe mode or can't you see anything on the start up screen (such as the memory testing and connected devices). If you can't see this on the start up, then yes, it's 0% likely the drivers and 95% toward hardware. Do you have a spare video card that could use to see if it's the video card at fault?

nope it is a completely black screen, with nothing else.

and it is a laptop as well, so I don't have a spare video card that I can just stick in...granted, yes, you are able to purchase such things, it is much less common to have a spare video card lying around for a laptop computer than it is for a desktop computer. So when it comes to using a spare video card, we are out of luck, unless I went out and bought one, but I would rather not fork out that kind of money.

What KIND of HP Pavilion? 700 MHz, maybe? Those models were known for this exact problem. If it's really that old, I say part it out on eBay to offset the cost of something slightly newer. Not worth messing with. I have the same problem with my old Pavilion. Hardly bother booting it anymore.

I already said it is an HP Pavilion zv5000.

I cannot remember the exact processor speed, but I know it is over 1 Ghz.

HP Pavilion zv5000

2.4 gHz P4M

256MB SD-DDR RAM

30 GB IDE 4200 RPM

15 Inch XGA TFT LCD

ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 IGP


It's definetly not a driver problem, if there is no output to the screen during POST and before the OS is loaded, i think it's fairly safe to say, that the drivers are not the problem.

Sounds to me like a hardware problem, in which case your screwed, since changing Graphics card in a laptop isn't possible, and getting it repaired will probably not be worth it.