I have a windows vista computer hp and I can turn my laptop on and hear it running but the screen is completely black. I have tried turning it on and off. I have also tried taking the battery out and cleaning it but the screen still remains blank. Does anyone know any special commands or tricks that I can use to turn my laptop screen back on? Thank you please help!!

hi,and welcome to daniweb.
wish i knew ,my wifes laptop did the same thing and i cant find the cause ,and i took it totally apart to try and find the problem .i have seen many laptops do this in my years of repairing [self taught so not to techinal ] computer, and for the most part i think its caused by over heated chips on the motherboard and cost more to fix than they are worth

The problem is not the software (you can't just run any command to fix it), it is the hardware, so contact with HP, so you will know how much will it cost to fix it.

I had the similar problem few days ago. Try this
Take your ram out and insert an another ram from an working laptop, if it works then ther's a problem with the ram. I had two rams of 2gb each out which one was corrupted and that was causing problem..
Goodluck.

Now, this is gonna be a bummer. I currently have an HP Laptop sitting around useless at home. It's sad to have it laying around and not able to use it because it's still pretty new being an Intel i5. This seems to be a common issue with HP Laptops. They almost always overheat and results in burned-out chips, Display Chips to be exact. I had it repaired earlier this year and only lasted for almost 2 months and then it broke down completely. I asked a local tech (HP certified shop) how much it would cost to get it fixed and as caperjack mentioned, it's gonna cost more to get it fixed making it not worth the time and money. Still try the to check with HP though and see if there's anything they can offer you.

Mine just turns on with the power light also on and the fan running (low-speed) but no display.

HP's suffer from GPU failure more than any other make. This means that the graphics chip on the motherboard has a problem. A vast majority of the time it is caused by a broken solder joint under the GPU itself. Most HP's will work again after being reflowed. This kind of repair should only ever be undertaken by a professional. On average we reflow and repair 10 to 50 HP's a week with around a %90 success rate. A badly done reflow can do a lot more damage than good so DO NO NOT ATTEMPT IT YOURSELF, instead, seek a professional who has a known good track record for reflowing.

you may also have a driver issues related to VGA

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.