LG R 500 laptop screen help

[Sealy]

The lappie is firing up, but the screen is totally black. Any ideas as to what's up?

 

[MadScientist]

Connect an external monitor to the VGA port. If you get a picture then the screen or inverter is bad. If you don't get a picture the video chip/video card or MB is bad.
From the LG R500 specs I'm assuming your laptop has discrete graphics, nVidia GeForce 8600M GS. If you are lucky and it's a separate video card you can replace it. If the video chip is soldered to the MB you will have to replace the MB.

Do a search for a repair manual.

 

[Sealy]

Connect an external monitor to the VGA port. If you get a picture then the screen or inverter is bad. If you don't get a picture the video chip/video card or MB is bad.
From the LG R500 specs I'm assuming your laptop has discrete graphics, nVidia GeForce 8600M GS. If you are lucky and it's a separate video card you can replace it. If the video chip is soldered to the MB you will have to replace the MB.

Do a search for a repair manual.

I hooked it up to a monitor and there was nothing. So I guess chip/card issue. It has nVidia yes. From a not very techie person...would replacing the MB be a waste of money for a 2 ish year old machine? I'll have to find out if it's a separate vid card cause I have no idea

Thanks for your reply

 

[MadScientist]

From the pic on fleabay it looks like the video chip is on the MB, so you would have to replace the MB. Not an easy task, even harder without a repair/service manual.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LG-R500-INTEL-Motherboard-Tested-laptop-/160459959438?pt=Motherboards&hash=item255c28ac8e#ht_1650wt_1139

 

[Sealy]

Well...since I'm not even sure how to get at the motherboard, I'm quite sure this is WAY over my head lol!

 

[MadScientist]

Don't know what you originally paid for it, but from it's specs it looks like a decent laptop. When it came out in late 2007 it was LG's top-of-the-line notebook in their R-series.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3941

You could purchase a used MB from fleabay and have a computer repair shop fix it, but the total repair cost may be greater than purchasing a new laptop; and since you would be providing the part the repair shop would most likely not provide any guarantee that it will work.

 

[Sealy]

Yes, I was thinking that too...it just sucks cause I was so proud of myself having replaced the HD in it in the summer with minimal cost, now this!

I was doing some reading, and one guy said he'd had the same issue and he was able to remove his card and put it back in or something...same machine, and that seemed to work. I suppose it couldn't hurt to open it up and take a look at it.