Computer screen very dark... any advice?

[littletune]

I was just wondering if anyone would know something about this... I have a very old laptop, I think it's from like 2003... (it was my mum's and then I got it and my friend and me were treating it more like a toy, so I don't even know how it still works)... I haven't been using it that much since I got a new laptop (about year and a half to 2 years ago)... and it has been turned off for at least half a year, but yesterday I turned it on and the screen is soooo very dark that it's really difficult to see anything. I mean I have to be really close and even then it hurts my eyes when I'm trying to see what I'm doing.

Would anyone know what happened? And if there's something I can do? Or if it's even possible to repair something like that (on such an old computer). Would it be possible to connect it to another screen?
I really don't want to lose that laptop... I still have some things on it that i don't have on this new one and in some ways I still kinda like Windows xp (on the old laptop) better that Windows 7 (that I have on the new one), specially the movie maker (on Windows xp).

Well thank you for reading and I would really appreciate any advice.

[Bob]

Sounds like the backlight went out. There's a narrow light bulb in the screen that lights everything up.  It would be very dim, but things would still be slightly visible on the screen if you look up close.

You could swap out the entire screen, replace the backlight, or use an external monitor instead of the screen.  Or get a new laptop.

I think Movie Maker is still available for Windows 7.  It's in the Live Essentials download.  Still free.  Yep...
https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials


Or check the function buttons and see if the screen brightness is turned all the way down.

[quantum]

You could start by connecting an external display to it.  Borrow one from a desktop computer.  Many TV's now can be used as a monitor.

Try opening and closing the lid several times.  There is usually a button or sensor that detects when the lid is down so the laptop can turn off the display.  

Try a reset. Search for the right procedure for your manufacturer.  An example:
https://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-521899-my-laptop-screen-goes-black-when-its-on

What make is your laptop?

[littletune]

Wow thank you so much Bob and Quantum!  I wasn't expecting such quick answers!!

Sounds like the backlight went out. There's a narrow light bulb in the screen that lights everything up.  It would be very dim, but things would still be slightly visible on the screen if you look up close.

You could swap out the entire screen, replace the backlight, or use an external monitor instead of the screen.  Or get a new laptop.

I think Movie Maker is still available for Windows 7.  It's in the Live Essentials download.  Still free.  Yep...
https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/essentials


Or check the function buttons and see if the screen brightness is turned all the way down.

Oh, I thought that it had to be some kind of light in the screen! So it's not possible to just replace that light bulb in the screen?
I already have a new laptop, it's just that I have lots of things (not just documents, but also programes) on that old laptop and I also really like it. 
Yes there is a Movie maker for Windows 7 and I have it but I just like the Movie Maker for Windows XP better in almost every way, I like how you can put one part of a video over the other (just a little bit or really a lot), I like how it has separate rows for video, audio and music (and you can just take another video and put it into the music row and it becomes just audio), I like how you can make pictures out of the video and I just like the whole look in general. The Movie Maker for Windows 7 seems kind of easier and simpler, but you can't do that much with it (except it has more special effects), unless there are things I haven't figured out yet. 

You could start by connecting an external display to it.  Borrow one from a desktop computer.  Many TV's now can be used as a monitor.

Try opening and closing the lid several times.  There is usually a button or sensor that detects when the lid is down so the laptop can turn off the display. 

Try a reset. Search for the right procedure for your manufacturer.  An example:
https://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-521899-my-laptop-screen-goes-black-when-its-on

What make is your laptop?

So it's possible to connect every laptop to an external display?
I will try that with opening and closing, I wanted to try it now, but there were some updates and now it turned off. So I'll see what happens when I turn it on again.
Well the laptop is IBM (do I have to know some more details?) it says on it IBM ThinkPad. 

Thank you both so much for answering!   

[Bob]

It's possible to replace the backlight.  It's just going to be a pain to replace it -- ie Replacing vs. cost.

If you only use it for Windows Movie Maker, I'd do the external monitor thing.  And keep it off the internet.  XP is out of date.  If it's not online and still does what you want, it's fine.

[emill]

hhmmnnn.......

It can be the laptop screen or the video card.

I would suggest you first check any adjustments available in the keyboard for brightness and contrast.  Try putting the brightness to full.

Occasionally there is a graphics card icon in the toolbar which you can access.  Click on it and check the brightness levels.

There might also be a VGA connector in your laptop where you can use to connect to another screen or external screen. Try this and if it turns out okay, your laptop screen is kaput!!  Or if still no image then there might be a video card problem.

You can try  updating or reinstalling the video card drivers by accessing the device manager. Or reinstalling the video card program itself.

Frankly if you feel the above suggestions are too complicated ... try to get some help from someone with intermediate knowledge of laptops.  Consider this a learning experience! good luck !!

[littletune]

Thank you Bob and Emill for your comments!   
I had my laptop completely turned off for a few days now and the screen is still very dark, so that didn't work. I'll have to try other things.

It's possible to replace the backlight.  It's just going to be a pain to replace it -- ie Replacing vs. cost.

If you only use it for Windows Movie Maker, I'd do the external monitor thing.  And keep it off the internet.  XP is out of date.  If it's not online and still does what you want, it's fine.

So you can connect any laptop to an external monitor? Do I connect it with a scart connector (or cable)? I see something in the back that looks like the scart thing could go there.

hhmmnnn.......

It can be the laptop screen or the video card.

I would suggest you first check any adjustments available in the keyboard for brightness and contrast.  Try putting the brightness to full.

Occasionally there is a graphics card icon in the toolbar which you can access.  Click on it and check the brightness levels.

There might also be a VGA connector in your laptop where you can use to connect to another screen or external screen. Try this and if it turns out okay, your laptop screen is kaput!!  Or if still no image then there might be a video card problem.

You can try  updating or reinstalling the video card drivers by accessing the device manager. Or reinstalling the video card program itself.

Frankly if you feel the above suggestions are too complicated ... try to get some help from someone with intermediate knowledge of laptops.  Consider this a learning experience! good luck !!

Thank you Emill!  Yes I was trying to find where I could adjust brightness on the keyboard and on the computer settings... but couldn't find anything... and I'm sure it has to be somewhere! 
Wow you know a lot about computers!! (My dad doesn't even know how to turn the computer on  ) I will try that with an external screen, I think I see where that connector could be...

We could call a computer guy but last year he already said that that laptop was so old that it's not worth repairing (and there wasn't anything really wrong with it yet, just a few keys missing -my bird likes to work on the computer too whenever he gets a chance!      and it's not working very fast of course with all the things on it, but the computer guy who was repairing our computers before just cleaned the computer and deleted some things and it would get much faster again and have a lot more free space on it, but the new coputer guy didn't really do anything like that).
Well I will sure try everything I can.

Thank you again for your advice!!!   

[Bob]

If it's the backlight, you'll still be able to see something on the screen but it will be very dim.


Connecting to an external monitor won't hurt either way.

There's probably a vga port on the laptop...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/SVGA_port.jpg

Just get an external monitor (people throw out or give away their smaller monitors now, at least around me).  The monitor needs a power cable and a vga cable.  Plug the monitor into the laptop.

The laptop might spit out the image right away.  Or you might have to hit F5 or F8 or function F5 or function F8, something like that, to get it to spit the image out the monitor.  If you look up the laptop model and "specs" you can probably find the manual for the laptop online.  That will tell you what key will do that.  Otherwise, there might be something in the settings, but that's going to be hard to see.


Microsoft isn't supporting XP anymore though.  I wouldn't put it online.  You could put something like Ubuntu on it and it might still be useful.  If you want the XP Windows Movie Maker though that wouldn't work.  I suppose for movie editing, another idea would be to step up to a different movie editing program.  Someone on here will know of one, maybe even something free.


If you do get the old laptop working again, it probably wouldn't hurt to save copies/backups of anything important while you've got the chance.  Old laptop... screen dies... What's going to die on it next? 

[Bob]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART
https://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/SCART-connector


Hm.  I've never heard of those.  We don't use that in the USA.  It looks like you might be able to connect it to a TV (or VCR) though with that.

A lot of laptops have a VGA port so they can connect to a computer projector.

[littletune]

yes that's true, I shoud save everything that I have on it!!! I should have done it a long time ago I guess!! I think I just thought that laptop would live forever!  It just seemed to be working great and nothing ever went wrong no matter what we did with it no matter how many things we downloaded no matter what kind of weird programs we installed from the internet... it was just doing great! 
Yes I can see something on the screen it's just very difficult (it's especially difficult to see the mouse arrow).
It's ok I don't need to put it on the internet, I would just like to work on it.
Really? You don't have that SCART thing? not even for TV and VCR? Oh so you use that VGA thing for everything? Well I'll see what works best. If it won't work then I'll ask some more questions.  thanks! 

[Bob]

For my home stuff, I have RCA connectors.


There's no SCART I've ever seen. 

And there's HDMI.


VCR's disappeared about five years ago.  I still have mine and never minded them.  Everything switched to Netflix and online, etc.  The last I knew a few years ago, you could only get a VCP -- player, not recorder.  I gave up and don't record anything anymore.

[littletune]

Yes I know those colorful ones.  we have them too for some things.
We still have VCRs too (I have one, my mum has one, my dad has one  ) but my dad's VCR gets broken a lot so he wanted to buy a new one, but they told him it wasn't possible to buy them anymore (at least not in a normal store, they said he might get it in a specialized store or buy a used one. 

[Bob]

Yep, same here.  Stuck when the VCR breaks.  And digital recorders are really expensive.  No luck. 

[quantum]

IBM ThinkPad's are great laptops.  Especially the ones that were truly made by IBM, and not the newest Lenovo models.  There are people that hunt for these old laptops because of certain features like the keyboard.  They were also known for their build quality: as you have seen they can take a beating and just keep going. 

Your ThinkPad is worth saving IMO.  Even if you just use it as a word processor, the keyboards were legendary among the entire laptop industry.  Throw Linux on it if you want a modern OS.  Something like Puppy Linux would be lightweight. 

Most of the laptops here in Canada have VGA as a standard video port.  It is an older standard, but still widely used because many business/schools/hotels/etc have projectors or monitors that use this standard.  It won't hurt to try connecting a monitor to the VGA port.  Locate the monitor function key combination and just keep pressing it until you see an image.  It might even have a picture of a little monitor on the key.  Eg: Fn + F7 or similar.

Display brightness also has a key combination.  It might be something like Fn + Home, or Fn + End. 

If you can locate your model we may be able to give you more specific info.  See here if any numbers look familiar.  Scroll to the 2003 section.
https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_History

[littletune]

Thank you Quantum for your answer and that link!  There's so many of the laptops! I'll really have to look very closely to see which one would be the one I have because I'm not completely sure... well from the ones from 2003 I think only one looks like mine (X31), but I'm not completely sure that my laptop is from 2003, I mean it could be from 2002 as well I guess    I will try to figure it out for sure! (this is like those games where you have to find similarities or differences in two pictures!  )

Yes I really want to keep my ThinkPad too!!! Thank you for all your advice!!!