If you're having problems seeing the display on an LCD monitor
or the display is very, very dim,
you might be having a problem with the backlight.
There's a light behind every LCD display
that is shining through.
And if there's a problem with that backlight,
we won't be able to see the image that's on the screen.
If the backlight is completely out,
you still might be able to make out some
of the images on the screen.
It helps to look very closely or to use a flashlight
to try to see any images that might be on that LCD display.
If you're not getting any backlight
and you're using the older fluorescent style lights,
you may have to replace these inverters to get
those fluorescent lights working again.
If you're getting a completely black screen
and you're not sure if the issue is related to the video card
or if it's related to the LCD display,
you might want to try connecting an external monitor.
If the external monitor is showing the information
from your laptop, then the issue is probably not
with your graphics subsystem.
If that's the case, we may have a bad LCD display
inside of the laptop, and that might need to be replaced.
Our laptops take a lot of abuse.
We re them from place to place.
We're constantly opening the display and closing them again.
And because of that, we may find that some of the connectors
may become damaged or loose.
If the video's flickering on your laptop,
you might have a connector problem.
This may require that you replace a bad video cable
or replace the bad video hardware that's
connecting that LCD display to the motherboard of the laptop.
It's very easy for debris to get underneath the keyboard
of a laptop.
And if you're having keys that are sticking,
you may need to clean out that keyboard.
You do have to be very careful on most laptops.
Those key caps are very fragile.
So be very careful if you're planning to clean out
any part of those keys.
Another problem that you might see
would be related to the mouse pad.
If you're not touching any part of the laptop
and yet you see the mouse slowly moving across the screen,
then you have what we call a ghost cursor or pointer drift.
And this is caused when there are issues with the mouse
pad itself causing the cursor to bounce around the screen
or to move without you providing any input.
Another issue you might find is when
you're typing on your laptop and you find the mouse moving
around because your palm happens to have pressed the mouse pad.
One way to solve both of these problems
is to update the mouse pad drivers.
The drivers can constantly check for any type of drifting
of the mouse and can recalibrate the mouse pad
so that does not occur.
The newer drivers may also be able to differentiate
between you using your fingers to move the mouse around
with the mouse pad and you inadvertently hitting the mouse
pad with your hand while you're typing.
One of the challenges you have with a laptop
is there's a limited amount of space on that keyboard.
So there's not usually an independent set of numbers
that you can use on the side.
In those cases, the laptop may have a certain grouping
of keys that are doubling both as letters and numbers.
And if you inadvertently turn on the Num Lock,
you may find that instead of typing letters,
you're suddenly typing numbers.
If you look closely at this keyboard,
you'll see there is a Num Lock key at the upper right.
You'll also notice there are a number of keys
that have a letter and a smaller number that
is listed here in a blue color.
With the Num Lock selected, whenever
you press those particular keys, you'll
have a number that appears instead of the letter.
You can choose to type these numbers
by holding down the Function key and pressing the number.
Or you can press Num Lock and then
you don't have to hold down that Function key.
But you have to remember to press the Num Lock again
to turn it off so that you can go back to typing letters.
There are many different antennas
inside of your computer.
And they're usually running around the top of your LCD
display, since that tends to be the highest point whenever
you're using your laptop.
You may see a number of different antenna wires inside
of your computer.
You might see Wi-Fi main, Wi-Fi auxiliary, Bluetooth,
and others.
When you're working inside of your laptop,
it's very easy to accidentally disconnect one or more
of those antenna wires.
So if you're working inside of your laptop,
even on something that may not be related
to any of these antennas, make sure you check those connectors
before closing up your laptop.
If you do close everything up and there's a missing antenna
wire, you'll see that there's no signal available on Bluetooth
or no signal available on your Wi-Fi.
And you'll have to go back into your laptop to reconnect
all of those antenna wires.
Here's a close-up of those very small antenna
connectors on this Wi-Fi card.
And you can see here are the antenna wires waiting to be
installed onto that adapter.
We rely on the batteries inside of our laptops
to provide us with the mobility that we need when we're away
from a power source.
But if you're finding that the batteries are not
holding the charge that they once did,
that's because those batteries do lose capacity over time,
and you will eventually need to replace those batteries.
If the batteries aren't charging at all,
it could be that the battery is having a problem.
But it could also be that the charging hardware
inside of your laptop could be the problem.
You may want to try charging that battery
in an identical laptop to see if the problem is related
to the battery or if it's related to the charging
subsystem in your laptop.
If you're connected to an external power
source with your laptop's power supply
and you're still getting no response from the laptop,
then you may want to grab a multimeter.
This will allow you to check the AC power on the outlet
to see if you're getting the proper amount of power.
And you can also check the DC power on the other side
to see if it's providing the laptop with the proper voltage
as well.
It might also be that the laptop is hung and needs to be reset.
In some laptops, there's no way to remove the batteries
inside of the laptop so usually you
would hold down the power button for a certain amount of time.
Or there might be a set of keystrokes on the laptop that
provides a hardware reset.
You should check the documentation of your laptop
to find out which you should use to be
able to reset that laptop.
If you're used to only using the internal LCD
display on your laptop, connecting
to an external display can sometimes be confusing.
There are usually function keys on the laptop that
can control how you're sending a video signal out
to that external display.
Usually it allows you to cycle through
different configurations.
You may have one configuration where you're only
displaying the video on the laptop and not
on the external display.
The other option may be that you're duplicating or mirroring
the image for both of those.
You could also have your laptop on one display
and you're extending that display
to the external monitor.
Or it could be that you're only displaying this information
on the external display.
One very common way to force the video signal
to go to the external display is to completely
power off the laptop, connect the external display, and then
power on the laptop.
The default for many laptops is to automatically use
the external display if it recognizes one
during the boot-up process.
On one of my laptops, I have control of the external display
with this F8 key.
And you can see the blue Function key
for the the CRT/LCD setting.
So I would hold down the Function key, press F8,
and I would be able to cycle through all
of those different settings for sending a video signal
to an external display.