Alienware D900T

[ctvanover]

I have a friend who has an Alienware D900T laptop that powers up but the screen don't work. Someone told him that his video card was bad. I told him that I'd ask around. Anybody here have any ideas?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Doees he have a bad backlight? If you shine a flashlight on a 45* angle, can you see the desktop or anything?

Is it still under warranty?

 

[ctvanover]

He wants to sell it to me for $50, he says it's about 3 to 4 years old, he thinks. I don't know, is that a good deal on it? I'd hate to pay that much for something that I'm afraid might cost more than what it's worth to fix.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Try what i said above. Test it for a bad backlight.

 

[ctvanover]

If it's a bad backlight, is it expensive to fix?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Not at all, it's very straight forward. There are guides online about how to do this, especially for your specific model.

But test it before you buy it. If it's not the backlight, you could bee left with a dead laptop.

 

[carnageX]

If you wanna test to see if its the videocard as well, just plug in an external monitor into the laptop, and see if it displays on that. If it does... then you're golden and it's just needing a replacement screen (usually around $100).

 

[ctvanover]

He's gonna check it out as soon as he can but his daughter was having twins yesterday and I told to take his time. If it is a bad video card, is it hard to change or can it be changed?

 

[carnageX]

Depends. If it has a dedicated card in it, you would have to see if you could even find the same model of card that it has (usually can't put a different card in a laptop and expect it to even fit). If it's integrated... then it would be a whole new motherboard.

 

[ctvanover]

My friend said that he shined a light on the screen and really could'nt see anything. So he took it over to a friends house and hooked it up to a monitor and still nothing. I was afraid to chance it so I turned him down. Thanks for all of the help and suggestion!