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Laptop screen/Keyboard

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by a former member

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Okay I hadn't messed with my laptop in a while I have a 600YGR Gateway I bought a while back for only 80 bucks. cheap yes. At first everything worked fine just the battery is dead, no use. Anyways the laptop started to turn on but the screen didn't, I done a lot of suggestions to it (holding power down, some boot info) but if I can't get the screen to turn on I can't get nowhere. but I plugged a vga cord in it and works fine on the tv But the screen won't appear til after windows load up. So must be the laptop screen right? That's not my only problem, My keyboard doesn't work at all! no keys except the power button and mouse pad area. I'm thinking from opening and closing the screen a bunch of times caused that problem (I opened and closed a lot of times during the time i tried to fix the screen to appear) So, Is there a way to fix the keyboard? I don't think it's a software issue. and I tried to open and take apart the laptop once but something holds the middle of the keyboard part down.

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by Former member

Clarifications

by robo_dev

There may be a screw under a label that's holding the keyboard down in the middle. Most laptops have three screws that hold the keyboard down.

But also the keyboard is connected to the motherboard by a ribbon cable, so if you were pulling up on the keyboard, you may have dislodged and/or destroyed the ribbon cable. If you're lucky, you can just re-seat the ribbon cable and the keyboard will work. If the ribbon cable is damaged, it's generally time for a new keyboard....sometimes you can do a temporary repair with conductive paint, but that seldom works well.

Screen:
Shine a bright flashlight on the screen and see if the image is there, but just not lit up. A common failure is the inverter module, which converts ~12V to about ~20K volts for the flourescent backlight of the display. Probably a $40 part, but disassembly is required.

It's also possible that the connection from the motherboard to the display has disconnected, just like the keyboard. There are two sets of connections, one ribbon cable for the signals (just like your monitor cable), and one bundle of wires for backlight power and so forth. The power wires tend to be shielded and seperate from the ribbon cable.

From the sound of it, I bet a lazy technician just slapped the broken laptop back together and did not bother to plug in the display or keyboard connectors.

by Former member

ok I see the screws to the keyboard when i opened the power button panel part. I just hadn't messed with it yet. As for the screen. I plugged in the a piece that was under the panel that was the connector for the monitor. The screen works! the only thing is it's not clear, just a bunch of color and vertical lines running through it. not only that but the screen only turns on once in a blue moon like. When I plugged the vga cable to make the screen appear on my tv, I left it on for about 15 minutes to do more search on what's happening and then my laptop just shuts off..? power cord not giving enough juice? It has done that a few times before too but I'm gonna check back on the keyboard fix now.

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