Help diagnose laptop video issue please...

[shea851]

Dell Inspiron 600m
Windows XP SP3 fresh install (and all windows updates)
Radeon 9000 video card

Been working on my sisters laptop for a few weeks now. I replaced the DC jack, hard drive (old one was failing), and the LCD inverter was replaced as an attempt to fix the current issue described below, but it did not fix the issue.

If I install video drivers the laptop LCD video goes out completely when the windows desktop tries to come up. At this point, I can use an external monitor just fine, videos, games, etc work flawlessly.

If I uninstall the video drivers or boot into safe mode, the laptop LCD video works perfectly. I've tried about a dozen different drivers, everything from ATI to Omega, and even older versions of each.

I've also tried looking in the BIOS options to see if there is some way to disable the systemboard's onboard video, in case there is some sort of conflict, but there was no option to do this. I also tried updating the BIOS. I've tried installing the drivers, then using an external monitor to set the resolution/refresh settings of the laptop LCD but it had no effect on it, and I tried fiddling with just about every setting in there.

So, how do I fix this

 

[shea851]

Anyone?

 

[Kumo]

Did you get the drivers from Dell, or from ATI?

Was the inverter board replacement a Dell OEM part, or third party? Recheck all connections?

As a more extreme option, try formatting and reinstalling the OS. Then install everything from scratch, starting with the latest drivers from ATI, and if those don't work, the latest drivers from Dell.

 

[shea851]

Thanks for the response.

I tried drivers from Dell and ATI, new and old versions. The inverter board was just bought off Ebay, I'm not sure if it was Dell OEM or what. Windows reinstall was already attempted, and before I did anything else, I messed with the video which still had the issue.

Is it possible this is a hardware issue, possibly with the video card? I've never seen a dead video card output to an external monitor but not it's own, working, LCD.