How to kill a notebook screen

[DanceMan]

I connected an outboard dvd/cdrw burner via USB to my Acer P200mmx notebook and forgot to turn on on the power switch on the burner before I booted the notebook. When it booted the display had some lines shooting across vertically. Since that time the display has become progressively more corrupted in an intermittent manner, sometimes minor corruption, someitmes unusable, occasionally okay. Now the screen is blank, lit up by the backlight but blank. Through all of this the notebook delivers a normal display to an external CRT.
I suspected I might have damaged the invertor that powers the lcd screen by the excessive electrical load presented when the notebook powered up and attempted to power up the burner through the USB port as well. But in that case I should not be seeing the backlight.
It's also possible the two things are not related. The lappy has fallen 18" to the carpet a couple of times. But the problem first showed only when I booted with the burner connected unpowered.

[ThreeOnTheTree]

Sorry, man. Looks like that notebook had a good run, though!

[Leoslocks]

My Gateway P200mmx only supports USB 1.0 (Early model Intel usb chipset)

I could not get much for hardware that would work with the immature standard. Most hardware requires a USB 1.1 standard.

My lappy has been bounced from 34" height to the van floor several times also. A few broken pieces of plastic and cosmetic damage but still kicking.

[jimbo1763]

You might try re-seating the connection where the invertor plugs into the screen. I had to do that several times with my old Toshiba. Ultimately the invertor just died. Found a replacement on the web reasonably priced and put it in. Still kicking 18 months later.

[DanceMan]

I'm still puzzled as to precisely which part is defective. It isn't the gpu or video circuitry, because the output to crt is fine. It shouldn't be the invertor because the backlight is fine. Maybe it's the ribbon cable or connector between the base unit and the screen, assuming that carries no power for the backlight.

[Hoyle]

I would guess that the ribbon cable or the hinge mechanism. Those have always been a week point in laptops. These days designs tend to be pretty good, but back then there were a lot of competing alternatives... some of which didn't prove as durable as others. My IBM PS-Note 425c is still working (that's a 486 25Mhz, with an 8" color screen).

[DanceMan]

I would guess that the ribbon cable or the hinge mechanism. Those have always been a week point in laptops.

It's alive! (in Igor's voice) Occasionally the screen corruption will return, but changing the angle on the screen hinge can clear it up.

[Hoyle]

That's good... ought to be lots of life left in it. You're laptop isn't OLD until you can buy a video card with more onboard memory than your HDD.

MY IBM PC/Note 425c became OLD when the first 128MB video cards shipped....