How to Troubleshoot a Dell LCD Monitor

Dell LCDmonitors display the video as directed by a computer's video card. Like other LCD monitors, Dell LCD monitors suffer from issues such as blank screens, illegible text, dead pixels and poor picture quality. Many of these issues can be rectified by troubleshooting problems outside of the monitor, such as illegible text and poor picture quality. The other remaining issues are problems with possible physical or software settings in the operating system or video card settings.

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How to Solve Sleep Mode Problems on a Dell Computer

When Microsoft patched the power-saving features of Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista, certain Dell computers were affected by various issues where the computers would go into sleep mode and be unable to come out of it or error out and not go into sleep mode. Sometimes the computers would go into sleep mode and wake up only when a USB mouse was jostled. Pressing keys on the keyboard would not wake the computer because the keyboard would stop functioning.

Instructions

Windows XP Service Pack

1.      Open the Dellsupport page on your Internet browser. See the Resources section for a link. Make sure to have your seven-digit alphanumeric (letters and numbers) service tag. Place that information into the "Choose by Service Tag" option.

2.      Make sure that the option for the "Operating System" is correct.

3.      Go to "+Bios" and click on the "+" symbol. Click on "Download" at the far right, save and run the downloaded file.

4.      Restart your computer after installing the file.

5.      Test the "Power-saving" feature once you have rebooted.

If Section I Does Not Resolve the Issue

6.      Go to "Display Properties" by right-clicking in an open area on your desktop and left-clicking on "Properties." Click on the "Settings" tab.

7.      Check if the "Display" midway down is saying "Plug and Play Monitor on..." If it is not, go to the "Device Manager." Left-click on the "X" in the top right corner of the "Display Properties" menu.

8.      Go to "Start," left-click, and then open the "Control Panel" (or "Settings" and then "Control Panel" depending on your system is set up).

9.      Select "System," go to the "Hardware" tab, and left-click on it. Left-click on "Device Manager" about 1/3 of the way down that page.

10.  Look at "Monitors" and see a "+" symbol. Left-click on it once and see if it has an exclamation point,"!," with a yellow circle around it. If it does, right-click on the "Plug and Play Monitor" and left-click on "Update Driver."

11.  Choose "Yes, this time only" and then left-click on "Next." The wizard will update the monitor drivers automatically, if possible. Restart if necessary once updated.

12.  Test the"Sleep" mode again. The computer should go into sleep mode and then wake up successfully.
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Laptop Troubleshooting and Repair - Dell

Power Failure

If your laptop doesn't turn on when you hit the power button, the power system is a logical place to begin the troubleshooting process. The laptop power system can be viewed as three separate parts: The A/C adapter that gets plugged into a power outlet on one end and into the laptop on the other end, the laptop motherboard or power regulation daughter card that monitors and distributes power to the laptop components, and the battery. The vast majority of laptops manufactured these days can operate without the battery installed. In some cases, the manufacturers will suggest that you remove the battery and store it somewhere cool if using the laptop in one location for extended periods of time, as in weeks or months.

One of the oddities about troubleshooting laptop power failure as opposed to PC power failure is that the battery gives the laptop an independent power system for as long as the charge lasts. If the PC in your home is plugged into a bad power outlet or its power strip is accidentally switched off you'll quickly figure out why. But if the power strip gets turned off while you are operating your laptop, or a breaker trips, or the local power grid suffers a brown out, you might not even notice until the battery runs down. That's why it's important to not jump to conclusions about laptop battery failures, and to try charging the battery under different conditions before giving up and buying a new one. Just because the battery didn't charge while the laptop was plugged in doesn't mean the battery is bad.

Video Failure

Assuming that the video processor on the motherboard is working properly and sending the LCD instructions as to which colors to allow through in which screen points (pixels), the most common failure for laptop displays is a dead or intermittent inverter. When you can only see a very, very faint image of your operating system desktop on the screen, it means that the video system is working, but the LCD isn't getting any backlighting. The usual culprit if you don't have an LED backlight is the inverter, especially if you didn't note any strange tinting to the laptop display in recent operation, but it's not easy for the do-it-yourselfer to determine with 100% accuracy whether the failure is the CCFL lamp or the inverter.

Some display problems aren't difficult to troubleshoot at all. If you notice an inky stain slowly spreading across your LCD over days or weeks that you can't wipe off, the LCD itself is failing. Dead and stuck pixels often appear on LCDs over time causing point failures in the display. There's nothing you can do to fix them, so just tolerate them if possible. If the laptop is fairly new, the LCD may be under warranty and the manufacturer normally has a specification for how many dead pixels a LCD can accumulate before they have to repair it. Other physical problems that may require LCD replacement are cracks and chips on the surface. Horizontal or vertical lines or swathes of either a single color or dead pixels usually mean the LCD will have to be replaced.
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