I think the external will work but it could be a loose cord that connects to the monitor. Or a loose video card in the laptop if the laptop got shaken it could of happend.
Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop screen goes blank after 30 seconds
Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop screen goes blank after 30 seconds
I'm trying to fix a friend's computer. It's a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. I can't give more detailed specs because it's not in front of me. The problem is that after about 30 seconds after powering on, the screen goes dark. It happens no matter what - either a normal boot or a boot straight into BIOS. The screen goes completely dark but the power LED stays lit.
Obviously the problem isn't with the LCD/backlight, because the BIOS screen appears fine, although it doesn't stay on. I don't think the problem is with power either because we were running it off AC and the indicator light on the power supply stayed on. Plus the power LED stays lit and according to the BIOS, the battery is at 100%. It happens to consistently to be a loose wire or bad connection.
I have been checking out the different BIOS options, although it is hard when the screen keeps failing. I don't see anything that could cause this.
My theories, not that I am an expert at all, is it could be some kind of a screen saver or power management feature that keeps shutting down the monitor to save the screen or power. By the way, are screen savers even necessary on a laptop? Or perhaps the problem is with the monitor switching feature - we're going to try hooking it up to an external monitor to see what happens.
So what's going on, and how do I fix it?

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