IBM Thinkpad blank screen

[thatoneguy14]

I own an IBM Thinkpad but I'm not sure the exact model #, and I am running Windows XP Pro. When I start it up, i get the battery light, and the light to the left of it, but the screen does absolutely nothing. If I try to open the disc drive, it blinks, but does not open and will continue to blink until I shut it off. Any ideas to why this is caused?

[forumdude123]

how old is it? if more than 3 years, then it may be a burn out in the screen, or some sort of bios/hardware failure.

did u install any new hardware?
did u install any bios updates?
how about windows updates?
what about programs?

[thatoneguy14]

i believe it is older than 3 years, and nothing new was added, nothing old was erased, it just suddenly shut down. If I were to take it to a computer repair shop could they fix the screen if it IS burned out, and how much would that average in cost?
Thanks for the help!

[forumdude123]

that will cost from 150.00-500.00 depending on the repairmen. My advice is to get a better pc, a $400 acer laptop, and use the old hard disk (or transfer the data via ghosting software). It's a whole lot better than spending a lot of money just for a screen on a laptop older than 3 years. Most older laptops' life span is 2-5 years average, and the better thing to do is replace it (while keeping your data) before everything else in it starts to die.