Monitor dead, can be replaced with laptop?

[Faust]

Last night my monitor suddenly went black, the blue led was still going though, so I don't think it's a power related thing.
It has happened to me before, once a couple of weeks ago, but restarting the computer solved it... not this time.

Is there anything I can do to try to fix it (without spending money)?

I'm typing from a laptop now - is there a way I can use the screen of the laptop as a monitor? There is a "plug" that fits the cable, I plugged it but nothing happened. So if it's possible, please tell me how!

Thank you all in advance

 

[Lambda_drive]

It sounds like the CCFL backlights went out in your monitor. CCFL stands for Cold cathode fluorescent lamps. They're basically long skinny tubes that are at the top and bottom of the LCD panel. They provide the light for your monitor. If the CCFL lights went out there's really not much you can do about it. Getting it fixed will probably be about $100, and buying replacement CCFL lights and installing them in yourself would cost about the same. Those lights aren't cheap.

Your monitor still works though, it's just that without a backlight the screen remains dark. A quick test to show you that the monitor still works is to turn the monitor on and then get a really bright light like a flashlight and shine the light up against the LCD and you should be able to see some sort of picture.

There's NO way to fix your monitor without spending some money. Instead of spending money fixing it, it'll be a better idea to buy a new monitor. Monitors these days aren't really made to last. If you actually open one up and look inside it you'll see that it's made really cheap and they intentionally make the insides really delicate. By doing that it saves them a lot of money in materials and it makes the monitor more prone to breaking. It also makes it a real pain if you ever have to open it and try to fix something. The LCD panel its self is actually pretty well made because it has to be but everything else is very cheaply made.

Also the VGA port on the back of your laptop is used as an output, not an input. What that means is that you can attach a monitor to your laptop and use that to view your laptop, but it doesn't work the other way around.

The only way to use your laptop screen to view your PC is by using remote desktop but that'll be kind of hard to do since you can't see anything on your monitor.

Basically what I'm trying to say is, Buy a new monitor.

 

[Slapshot136]

agree with Lambda_drive, but you could try putting your own light inside the monitor if you really NEED to try something without spending money and it should work more or less

 

[sqrage]

Hold up flashlight up to the monitor and see if there is still text. If there isn't then it's not the CFL. If there is then it is the CFL; it's still displaying the image, it's just not backlit.

Changing the CFL shouldn't be too hard, and as a matter of fact it might not even be dead. It could be that the connection came loose. This happened with my sister olddddd laptop and I repaired it a while ago. Just be careful not to crack the glass or anything when opening and reassembling the screen.