Need Computer help

After I worked on my Animated short movie titled "Afroman for President" for the 2012 Presidential election for over a year, my computer screen went blank 2 days before. Needless to say I didn't get to show my movie in time, but I even planned to have a special screening for my fellow ATS comrads; neither of which I was able to accomplish. This story centers around a corrupt politician named Millicient whose slogan is "Vote for Me or Die!" because he has a genetically engineered monster named People Eater that will "EAT" the opposing political party at a debate on the Moon at a Moon colony called AKHB. The Political parties are the Heads and the Tails parties because Democrat and Republican are just two sides of the same coin in my opinion. I originally made this story as a comic book in response to the 2004 Election because I was upset that Bush won.

Anyway, If anyone out there knows a bit about computers, I could use some help. I'll go to a computer repair shop if necessary but I think this might just be a simple problem. When I turn the computer on the screen stays blank so I think it might just be a fuse issue.

Can anyone help?

hmm try you screen with something else like a laptop. also change the fuse.

reply to post by lostbook


Here's the fix for the clip from "Afroman for President" that won't work.

reply to post by lostbook


If the hard drive isn't spinning up, you may have a crashed drive. Try restarting with a bootable DVD or CD. If that works, recovering your files may become expensive. If the hard drive does boot up but nothing shows on your display, check to make sure your display is turned on and is connected properly. If it is, try a second display. It's possible the video card has died. It's also possible your power supply has failed -- this is more likely in cheap systems and in fully loaded expensive system. You really want a power supply that works at no more than somewhere between 50% and 70% of the max power rating.

If it is neither of these, your system may be seriously compromised or something else, possibly more serious has broken. In the future, keep mirroring your files to an external drive just in case the hard drive crashes. I never have just one copy of anything I put serious time into.

reply to post by definity


Thank you for your quick response. However, the screen in question is already part of a laptop. I'll try your fuse solution. How do I change the fuse. My computer is a Gateway that runs on XP; old I know!

reply to post by lostbook


On a laptop, make sure it isn't set to output to a secondary display only. This is usually controlled by one of the function keys (F4 or F5). Typically there are 3 settings: One setting is the main display only, one is shared with an external display and the last is the external display only.

Also, on a laptop, do check to see that your power light on the laptop is turned on.

reply to post by BayesLike


If the hard drive isn't spinning up, you may have a crashed drive. Try restarting with a bootable DVD or CD. If that works, recovering your files may become expensive. If the hard drive does boot up but noting shows on your display, check to make sure your display is turned on and is connected properly. If it is, try a second display. It's possible the video card has died.

In the future, keep mirroring your files to an external drive just in case the hard drive crashes. I never have just one copy of anything I put serious time into.

A crashed drive?! That's just what I was afraid of. How do I check to make sure the display is turned on and connected properly? What connectors do I need to use a second display?

Thanks

reply to post by BayesLike


Thank you for the tips!

reply to post by lostbook


Good luck. In any case, these days it is much easier to figure out what has gone wrong than it was when you had to decode the pixie lights on the console to find the address of the last executed instruction (in binary, of course).

reply to post by BayesLike


Thats the problem of today in a nutshell.

Years ago computers were boxes that scared the average person. Nerds were the only people who even mentioned computers, and if you were the odd one out in your family, you were treated as if you had a disease by everyone else. If they had anything to do with a computer, it was a cartridge system and all they did was play pitfall 2/

Your pixie lights etc, you knew how to work with. You know what does what, how it should beep and when that pight does not light up, something is wrong. Inside you go.

Now computers are everywhere, but no one knows what to do. The hard drive isn't moving on the screen. "That's the Mouse, mum.. the Hard drive is inside the box."

It's understandable I guess, I mean, I wouldn't know the first thing about fixing the engine in my car. I leave that to mechanics, who can charge me 20 times more than required, because they know I don't know.

It's just sad I guess, remembering when computing meant knowledge... instead of mundane necessity.

I sat on the train the other day into the city. every single person had their phone in front of them. Every single one.

You know, if we let ourselves become so reliant on these things and we have not one clue about how to fix them should they behave unusually, we really are setting ourselves up to be a clueless lot of savages when the world turns the power off on us.

Sorry OP, didn't mean to go off in your thread, and wasn't referring to you .. just the general state of things..

reply to post by lostbook


It could be your backlight inverter. The computer lights come on but the screen is blank/black with no flashing cursor?

Can you see any faint image on the screen?

The FN key plus f4 or f5 usually control a second screen output.

The inverters go and are cheap but you have to take the screen apart to replace it.

If the laptop is not too old getting the hard drive out and slaving it into a tower, if it's a SATA type drive, is pretty easy, u can then copy off the files. If it's an ide style drive you may need to get an external enclosure.


Cheers

reply to post by lostbook


Hi lost book you havent given much information to help solve your problem. There are several things that could be causing this problem... a crashed hard drive is NOT any of them

Is it just the screen that wont come on or is the whole thing not going? Do any lights come on at all?

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Yes, the power lights come on and the computer comes on because I can hear it come on. However, that's it; I hear it come on but nothing ever appears on the screen. You say that it's not a crash-whew! That's a relief! but now what could it be? Do you work on computers and are you in the DC area. Cause I'll pay you if you can fix it; I'll have to pay someone anyway.

reply to post by lostbook


Yes i do work on computers but im in the UK.

If it was just a crashed hard drive then you would see something on the screen that tells you. You would get a message like "NTLDR is Missing" or something along those lines.

Does it sound like the hard drive is spinning up at all? Do you get any bleeps or sounds from the speakers?

At this stage some of the most likley options are..

- Faulty RAM memory.

- Could be a damaged video card but a lot of the times if this happens the computer will bleep at you to let you know there is a problem.

- Broken laptop screen or lead to the laptop screen.

If it was me the first thing i would try is get a normal monitor and try to plug it into your laptop and see if anything comes up. Im assuming the screen that is unresponsive is the laptop screen? If so there is usually an output for a normal VGA monitor on the side or back of your laptop. Just plug in a normal monitor and see what happens.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


I definitely hear something; it sounds like fans but maybe it is the hard drive spinning. No messages pop up, just a blank screen.

reply to post by lostbook


Ok , thats good. Still at this time it could be screen , memory or video card. Unfortunately you cant really check the ram (memory) without changing it for some new ram and the same with the video card (thats assuming its not part of the motherboard in the first place).

You need to try to plug in a monitor to the VGA socket in the side or back of the computer to see if anything pops up on the monitor.

Out of all the possible problems i have suggested RAM is the easiest to fix as its cheap and just a case of swapping it out for new ram. Theres a small possibility that the lead to the laptop monitor has just come lose or is damaged.

Try the normal monitor first if you can. Maybe take it to a friends house that has a desktop PC if you dont have one yourself. Sorry to say that you might have to take this to be checked out by a computer shop.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Alright. I'll try to plug into another monitor and see what happens. I'll let you know if it works.

Thanks!

Maybe I can return the favor one day. After all we are an ATS family!