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General discussion

Laptop has black screen, what are my options?

Sep 8, 2017 5:14PM PDT

My laptop got a black screen and was wondering if it is costly to repair or should I just forget it. I do have some information and programs that I would like to retrieve from it. I have 2 laptops, one was for pictures and the other was for information and records. I have it set up like this as pictures and picture programs usually take a lot of space. I also like keeping the 2 separated. The laptop seems to come on and run as all the lights light up and it sounds like it is running. I did try disconnecting all power for a couple of days and when I plugged it back in, the screen came on but it was short-lived. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. I should mention that I have an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC, SD-MS/Pro-MMC-XD. Thank you!

--Submitted by Edward D.

Discussion is locked

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You likely have a few options; possibly cheap.
Sep 8, 2017 6:32PM PDT

Depending on your preferences, you have a few options here. First, if the screen comes on normally and then goes black, you likely have a bad fluorescent backlight. The key there is the laptop is probably fine otherwise and it should be fairly easy to view it. Just buy or borrow a standard monitor and plug it into the laptop as an extra monitor. (If the laptop is older, it will likely have a 15-pin VGA connector for most monitors. If it's newer it probably has an HDMI connector that will work in most new flat-panel TVs.). Connect the ext monitor/TV and power on the laptop. If it doesn't work, look on the keyboard for a square or "monitor" type icon. It's usually on one of the F keys at the top and may work with the blue or orange FN key at the bottom. It's usually a toggle so pressing those keys should cycle through turning the ext monitor connection on/off. If you can't find it, Google the make/model of your laptop and "connect external monitor". If that works, then you'll have a working PC, just without the convenience of the built-in screen.

As for fixing the screen, options vary. You can take it to a repair center and depending on the model, you could pay $75-150 for labor plus the cost of the screen. If you're handy and not afraid, then you could potentially fix it yourself. In either case, Google the make/model of your laptop and replacement screen. Used to, they would be hundreds of dollars, but lately and depending on the brand, it could be fairly cheap.

Worst-case, if the problem is actually with the laptop, it sounds more like a mainboard/video problem which would probably require a more expensive, professional repair. The good side though is it doesn't sound like a hard drive issue. If you want/need to replace the laptop, you can buy an external hard drive connector on Amazon (usually for $10-$20), pull the hard drive from the bad laptop (often just 2 screws - usually indicated by a square or HD icon on the bottom of the laptop), connect it via USB and the adapter to your 2nd laptop, and copy the important contents to the other or new laptop.

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Re: you likely have a few options, possibly cheap.
Sep 16, 2017 4:29AM PDT

This is the best procedure to follow. Try the steps in order to see your screen from a TV or computer monitor. You definitely want to back up your data if you choose to repair or even replace.

LCD screens have been around for a long time since pocket calculators. Laptops provide the light source from a single light bar at the top of the screen behind the display. The light shines down behind the LCD display.

Today's laptops use LEDs. There the next evolution from LCD. Each LED is it's own light source, so there no more single light source shining across the back of the screen.

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Laptop black screen.
Sep 8, 2017 6:35PM PDT

Same problem on my HP laptop. Turns out the computer ALWAYS runs off the battery even if its plugged in to the wall outlet power supply. My battery was bad. Bought a new battery on ebay and it fired right up.

See if you can get a % battery reading before it dies. Less than 50% showed on mine all the time no matter how long it was plugged in. Hope that helps. I found the solution on this site somewhere from another user with the same problem so I wanted to try the battery change. It worked. My battery icon now always shows "100% Fully Charged"

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Shine a light on it
Sep 8, 2017 7:19PM PDT

Literally.

If the problem is the fluorescent backlight, you can quickly and easily test this by shining a bright light at the screen. A cell phone LED would probably work well. Move your light source around, and move your head around, to look at the screen at different angles. If you can see your icons on the screen, very dimly, around the glare of your light source, then it's the backlight, and not the entire screen. (On mine, I noticed it when I was next to a window and the sun streamed in.)

In some cases, the hardware issue will be a small circuit board, right behind the screen. You can find out by searching on your model. Chances are, someone else has had the same problem, and will post what part you need. I think the one for my laptop (this was years ago) was about $50-70. Getting the shell of the screen open didn't turn out to be all that difficult. Another search for my model and I was able to just follow the instructions.

Or, it could be the florescent tubes themselves. I've seen that happen on a standalone LCD monitor. That one also was not difficult or expensive.

OTOH, if you don't see a dim image of your desktop, then it's probably something more substantial. You'll prolly need to replace the entire screen.

Or, if it's convenient, use a monitor, like aswnc suggested.

Or, depending on how old the laptop is, consider getting a new one. Pull the drive from the old machine, and get a SATA-to-USB adapter to transfer your data to the new one.

Drake Christensen

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Could Be Several Issues
Sep 8, 2017 7:45PM PDT

Does any part of the screen come on when you apply power? One simple thing that can cause a problem is that the modern laptop can be set to use the laptop screen or an external monitor or both and there are usually key strokes that would switch between these modes. I would try borrowing a real vga-type monitor and hook it up to see what happens. Look up your model and see what keystrokes switch between display modes.
If you are having battery issues, try to determine if the display itself is going out or if the laptop is shutting down. Usually, low battery causes a complete shutdown and not leave any lights on by the keyboard. You can always remove the battery and just go with utility power to see if that changes anything.
Lastly (that I can think of at the moment), clean out the laptop. It could be that you have a blockage and therefore a HEAT issue which will cause a shutdown
While transferring data should not be a big issue, moving programs over can be. There should be some software that can do that. Just copying program folders does not constitute installing the software on the new machine (in most cases). It won't update the registry.

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I have seen this problem before
Sep 8, 2017 7:46PM PDT

It seems to be common among teenagers here for some reason. The cause is impossible to pinpoint without actually seeing and working on the computer. If you have a spare monitor or a TV that can accept the right hookups, then use that for now. It could be a simple problem, but it is unlikely to be very expensive. Once, my godson just had a loose connection at the motherboard. Unless this is an old computer, it would be worthwhile to have a computer shop look at it and try to diagnose it. The highest cost problem that is likely is that you need a new monitor, and you would be shocked at how inexpensive they can be. If you aren't getting gouged on the labor, it should not be too bad to get one.

In any event, make a backup (or two) of all your personal data. You should be doing this regularly anyway. Multiple copies are best.

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Re: black screen
Sep 9, 2017 2:41AM PDT

As pointed out above, repair can be cheap or expensive, depending on what's wrong. And if an external monitor still works (not unlikely), that might be a very good alternative for you for some time.

So let me mention other things:
1. Since all your data ("information") is still on the hard disk, it's easy to retrieve it by getting the hard disk out and putting it in an external enclosure. Then you can copy it on any other PC or laptop you like.
2. You can't retrieve programs. You have to reinstall them on another PC. If you paid for a license key, I assume you made a note of that and kept the installation program.
3. Do I understand correctly you have no backup of that information? That means you'll lose it if the hard disk fails or you get hit by ransomware. We recommend having 2 backups of everything you don't want to lose (on a USB stick, external hard disk, other PC or cloud).
4. Pictures don't really take a lot of space. You can put 500 pictures in one GB, so you can put 50,000 pictures in 100 GB, while the average new laptop nowadays comes with a 500 GB hard disk and a 500 GB SSD is a rather small amount more. Have a good look at the disk space used by all your data. If that's less than 300 GB, it easily fits on one laptop. And if that's the case, combining them would be an option also.

Post was last edited on September 9, 2017 2:42 AM PDT

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How comfortable are you with hardware maintenance?
Sep 9, 2017 6:50AM PDT

You have some good suggestions so far. It certainly sounds like your laptop is booting up, at least until it needs input from you. If there is data on it that you need and you don't have a backup for it (Lesson 1 !) then before you do anything else, get that data secured. If you have or can borrow an external screen, connect that ans use whatever function keys get the laptop booted up to the external screen. If successful, copy the data to an external hard drive. You might want to make an image copy of the system also.

If the laptop doesn't complete the boot with the external screen, then it's likely a deeper fault, possibly a blown motherboard, although you did say you got a brief flash on the internal monitor when you left it powered off, this seems unlikely. But anyway, if it didn't complete the boot, take the hard disk out, put it in a USB caddy and use your other machine to copy the data you want to save to a separate external disk.

What you do next depends on how comfortable you are working with electronics hardware. Laptops can be notoriously difficult to work on. You need to get hold of a hardware maintenance manual for your specific machine. I don't know if HP provide them online for download, other manufacturers, such a Lenovo, do but still assume a basic familiarity in working with hardware. It will, at least, give you an idea of what is involved and whether it looks like something you would be happy to attempt. If you do, make absolutely sure you document every step in the dismantling, so that when you come to reassemble it, you can refer to what goes where and which screws are which. Don't trust to memory.

Do try MightyDrakeC's suggestion of using a bright light to shine on the screen, it's a great idea to see if there are any images on the LCD, which would suggest problems with the backlight. It may or may not be possible to get the screen apart to access the backlight. If it's a compact fluorescent tube, it would be unusual for it to light up and then drop out again, as per your description, they are usually broken or not. It might be overheating but you would expect that to start every time from cold and then drop out, not just start sometimes and sometimes not.

If you can get to the connections on the motherboard for the screen, it is always worth reseating them, usually just a latched plug to pull off and click back firmly. Be careful not to break the latches if they are plastic.

Depending how old the machine is, you may or may not be able to source spares for it. If it's still in warranty, obviously, don't meddle with it, just use the warranty process. If it's out if warranty, you should be able to source spares, say a replacement screen, for up to about three years since it was last fitted as new, either to your or a later model. Older than that you may be struggling.

If you are not comfortable with any of this, your best bet would be to take it to a local repair agent (having first secured your data, as above). Where I live, one of our local guys will give a machine a cursory, non-dismantle inspection and offer an opinion for free. They then offer a full diagnosis for $80 Australian, offset against the repair if you choose to accept their quotation. Generally, their advice on anything 5 or more years old is to replace.

Your machine, your choice.

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Laptop has black screen.
Sep 9, 2017 6:51AM PDT

I would like to know which operating system you have on the machine. I have three different computers, all running Windows 10 and they all demonstrate a "black screen" problem, from time to time. Sometimes, I will find the computer with a black screen after some time of use. Other times, the computer will start up normally and then go to black screen during the process. Sometimes the computer will start up and go to the sign on screen and go to black screen after I log on. I do not know why this happens; and frankly, I don't know the solution. But, I do know a work around. Bring up Task Manager by pressing (Ctrl) (Shift) (Esc). Then click on (File) and select "Run New Task" then type "explorer.exe" into the run line and press (Enter). Obviously, without knowing more of your situation, I am taking a big shot in the dark. But, this particular black screen issue kicked my butt for a while before I figured it out. If the problem turns out to be the actual screen, I replaced the screen on my laptop a year or so ago for about $70. I viewed a few videos on YouTube on the topic and did the work myself. It was easy. I had priced the work at a couple of local computer shops and I saved myself over $100. Good luck.

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I Had That
Sep 10, 2017 4:28PM PDT

Then I fixed all of the POWER settings (was also a difference between MY power settings and the default for the computer. Was a desktop, by the way. Not the same issue as yours. Also, especially with a laptop, if you upgraded the OS you need to make sure you get the latest drivers from the OEM manufacturer and NOT Microsoft generic. That is for both the display card AND the display itself. I have inherited Darlene's Samsung display and had to find the (analog) drivers for it.

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some more info?
Sep 10, 2017 4:00PM PDT

When you turn the computer on does the screen come on and then go black as it boots up or is it completely black at all times? Do you have a cursor on the black screen? If you do ctrl-alt-delete can you see the pop-up menu to start the task manager? If you push the Windows key can you see the pop-up menu. Have you tried booting into safe mode?

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Just a note..
Sep 22, 2017 9:19AM PDT

Windows 10 got rid of safemode as we know it, so now you have to do a 3 step shutdown process to force the recovery process to start. I'm sure someone here will mention that process, it is a pain in the patoot as far as I'm concerned. These new UEFI bios were a terrible idea for trying to tech a laptop; I don't care if they are supposed to be more secure or not.

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Safe Mode or Safe Boot?
Sep 22, 2017 11:40AM PDT

I think it's still there in Windows 10. At least if you go to sysconfig it's mentioned on the second tab but I don't know if its the same thing. Or not. Maybe try later.

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All I know is...
Sep 23, 2017 12:00AM PDT

Windows 10 has given me more headaches than I remember in more than than 15 years! Shocked

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check the cable first
Sep 11, 2017 8:34AM PDT

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this but HP is notorious for bad connections on their display flat cables.
If you remove the KBD you will see one of them but you probably need to remove the whole deck to get to the other one to remove and reinsert it. Maybe even to rub it lightly with an eraser to clean it.
I fixed a few that way.
However, with your issue it is more likely the backlight. Used to be you could replace a backlight, but mostly not today. I just replaced a Dell screen at a cost of about $60. + my labor. If you don't do it it may not be cost effective. Check youtube for directions for you specific laptop. Then decide if you can do it. Labor and markup on the parts would be weighed against the age and replacement cost of the laptop to determine if service shop repair is warranted.

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Look B4 You Leap
Sep 12, 2017 6:42AM PDT

Hi Edward

It appears that yours is a common problem among HP Pavilion Laptops. You’ve gotten a lot of good advice on the potential cause of the BSOD (B=Black rather than Blue Wink ). Suggested causes have been faulty Display, Battery, Heat build-up, Motherboard (itself or loose connection) which if the Motherboard replacing it pretty much resolves potential issues with the GPU and/or CPU. All can be singular or symptoms of another component (i.e. replace the display and still no joy because the actual faulty component was the Motherboard).

I had a Dell laptop that was still under warranty with In-Home Service. Long story short, I had to send the unit into Dell because they were unsure as to which component was the root cause_faulty Display, Power Supply, Motherboard (which covered the GPU and CPU). As it turned out it was a faulty Display and the other components checked-out OK. My point being that before you (Leap) to invest in a Display replacement you may want to (Look) take the unit to a repair shop and let them diagnose ($50-$75) the unit as to what component is the root cause of the problem. Then you can decide on one of two options:

1. Fix-it (DiY or let the repair shop handle it)
2. Don’t fix it - Remove the HD and buy a USB enclosure ($20-$30) to use it externally (PnP)

Granted going the diagnose route will cost you more if you decide to buy the necessary components to DiY fix-it. Most reputable repair shops will credit the diagnostic cost towards the repair. That said my research suggests that replacing the Display is not very expensive and pretty straight forward. Replacing the Motherboard while also not very expensive is on the other hand a labor intensive project; not for the faint of heart.

I did find one solution that appears to be Band-Aid fix (as the BSOD will probably re-occur at some point) but it does not involve any disassembly of your unit. Ironically it’s the three finger salute - CTRL/ALT + Delete. Here’s the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwWW1AigMCE

Fortunately, HP Laptops of your class appear to be generic in build. You may be able to find videos specific to your unit by typing in the model number (which you neglected in your post) for a more focused repair. Here are two more links:

Display Replacement: http://www.laptopscreen.com/

Motherboard Replacement:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=replace+motherboard+on+HP+pavilion+laptop&view=detail&mid=EA3953F1108811F61C8BEA3953F1108811F61C8B&FORM=VIRE

Before doing any of the above take the advice as suggested by others and if possible connect the unit to an external monitor and backup all your data. If you’ve done so already then you’re good-to-go!

Good luck and I hope you resolve your issue. Cheers!

Together Everyone Achieves More = TEAM

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Another possible simple solution...
Sep 22, 2017 9:26AM PDT

In your experience, has simply running the "recovery CD" fixed the problem? I know I always have my clients make a 4 Gb flash drive recovery "CD", for any such disasters. Trouble is, they always lose it, so I've never got to try one. I never matters how many times you tell them DON"T LOSE THIS! --- HA!

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Could be Interesting
Sep 22, 2017 11:42AM PDT

If you try to boot anything: recovery CD, MS-DOS, LINUX and, if the screen is out, you still can't do the recovery.

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Yeah, Isn't UFEI wonderful?
Sep 22, 2017 11:55PM PDT
Cool
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It's not Even That
Sep 23, 2017 12:08PM PDT

If you can't see what you are doing, booting from anything isn't practical (assume display circuit is broken).

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Yes..
Oct 7, 2017 11:30PM PDT

I think that was addressed by other comments here in this discussion.

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If it were me I'd shop for another one
Sep 15, 2017 6:23PM PDT

A lot of this depends on how expensive the laptop was and how old it is. If it has any age on it I would be looking around for another one. I've not had great luck with laptops and since I don't travel much I bought a mini tower which has worked great for a few years now..

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TEAM VIEWER could help in situations like this ...
Sep 15, 2017 6:33PM PDT

I have Team Viewer installed on all my machines - its free for personal use. I hardly ever use it - but when I do it's a life saver.

It's a remote control system - its great for helping relatives who are technical maladroits - BUT I've also had times when one of my computers has been "display challenged" and using another computer I could run it "headless" via Team Viewer and diagnose the issue and/or reconfigure it in advance to accept the solution --- like a new video card.

It is a cross OS tool too!! I have it on an XP machine, a couple of Windows 7 machines and on an android phone and tablet - ALL able to access and run each other!

This won't help you now - but once you get past this - you and others reading may want to consider this to be prepared for future "issues".

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Try Resetting the Bios
Sep 15, 2017 6:57PM PDT

Remove the battery, then press and hold down the power button for about 15 seconds.
Put the battery back in and see what happens.
It's the easiest first thing to try.

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Laptop Has Black Screen
Sep 15, 2017 7:28PM PDT

Like jw55, it is important to know more about your system and at what point does the screen turn black. However, I had a similar problem a few years back where my machine would show that it was booting up but then turn black. It turned out to be a bad graphics card and had it replaced. I don't recall what it cost although I do believe the repairs were around $120.

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I have same issue with HP Entertainment Laptop.
Sep 15, 2017 7:35PM PDT

My friend gave it to me because of it. He'd replaced it and moved on.
It also had an unrelated problem: a corrupted hard disk drive (HDD) partition table, which I mostly recovered to new HDD in spite of he had no backup of any kind. I couldn't get the recovery partition back. Before I could make a sector-by-sector image-copy, the old HDD failed completely. He couldn't even remember his Windows password (that's what he said) so I had to get past that as well.

Problem manifests itself thusly: When booting, the screen will either come on normally or it will not (black as you say). If it doesn't, it won't. If it does come on, it stays on and works fine. I connect a small TV with VGA when the laptop screen doesn't come on. VGA is necessary because I like to see verbose BIOS bootup screens and I use a power-on password.
I completely disassembled the computer and found nothing wrong. There are a lot of features and software on the Entertainment Laptop I like. One problem with the HP laptop is heat. It's like an oven inside and so it bakes the hard drives into premature failure.
I had to buy a new power supply, my friend said he couldn't find it. I replaced the CMOS battery, but I didn't try replacing the laptop battery. Of all the ideas discussed above, that sounds like the next thing you and I might try.
I put the thing on the shelf after the last time I ran Windows update and it would never boot into Windows again. I tried safe mode and it then says, "There was a problem with Windows Update." And there it locks up. I could remove the HDD and restore from previous backup. I have to remove the HDD anyway to recover a bunch of music CD's I ripped to it. It was a fun challenge to fix it, but it's probably time to send HP Entertainment PC to the computer graveyard. May it RIP.
I'll never buy any HP computer, because they would not provide OEM recovery disks, not for any price, not even an ISO download. And because they incorporate too many non-standard proprietary things.

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Take Responsibility
Sep 16, 2017 8:40AM PDT

HP and other laptops have come with a Recovery partition on the hard drive for several years now. Users are urged to make a full backup on discs or on a spare drive. This is a common feature and is widely known. During the last 3 years we have acquired a Lenovo Ideapad laptop and an Acer E5 laptop. Neither one came with Recovery discs, but both of them have a Recovery partition. I have also had the opportunity during the same period to help several friends in choosing or personalizing their new laptops and desktop PCs. All of them have Recovery partitions; none of them have Recovery discs. The world has, for the most part, moved on from supplying Recovery discs.

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Just a note..
Sep 22, 2017 9:06AM PDT

There was a time that laptops had the same CMOS battery that desktops did - but once I got into this same problem with a friend of mine's laptop, I found there was no longer this item on certain newer Toshiba laptops, and I assume none of them use them anymore. They probably use a capacitor for the same power requirements now, so unless you know exactly where this is on the motherboard, so you can test the cap, then you are out of luck if that is the problem.

It was quite a while ago, so I don't remember if I tried testing the screen or plugging the laptop into a monitor to make sure it was just a video screen problem; I'm pretty sure it showed all the signs of a failed power to the boot device hardware problem, but none of the Toshiba forums suggested the right fix at the time. We ended up giving up on it anyway, because the operating system was close to losing support anyway. Most of the time, it seems on Windows 10 it is a bios or battery problem anyway.

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Things to check
Sep 15, 2017 7:44PM PDT

Do you see anything at boot time
If you do it's probably a driver problem

Shine a light from the side is there any thing faint on the screen
If true it's probably a backlight problem

Try hooking up a external monitor older laptops use a vga connection more modern ones use a hdmi connection

If you're still having problems depending on how old and how much the repairs cost you probably should purchase a new laptop

If so you should remove the old hd and get a usb hd doc to copy the old data programs need to be reinstalled

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Troubleshooting black laptop screen
Sep 15, 2017 7:53PM PDT

Troubleshooting a black laptop screen is an interesting and potentially complex process.

If you have an external monitor to connect, see if it displays something. If so, you have narrowed the problem to (most likely) a loose cable connection inside the laptop or a laptop setting that defaults to display on an external monitor.

After that, remove the battery and see what happens.

After that, with the battery still out, disconnect the power adapter, then hold the power button down for 30 seconds to discharge the BIOS settings managed by the internal 3v CMOS battery,

If all else fails, take it to a professional repair person or company and get an estimate to repair. Insist on a small fee or none to do the estimate. Then decide if it is worth the repair.

You can remove the hard drive, usually with a small Philips head screwdriver (some models require way more work, like a near-total disassembly), then get an inexpensive SATA-to-USB adapter to connect the drive to your still-working laptop, and then copy the data.