You could also connect a monitor to the laptop, that should  work regardless of the built in screen, ruling out a backlight issue, other screen problem, etc.
Paul Hachmeyer
.
> In a message dated 10/15/2011 10:11:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> 
> I  have two Dell Latitude D630 laptops running Vista Business and one
> D620 running XP. All three were in my to be scrapped  pile  because I 
> couldn't get a video image either on the laptop or on an  external 
> monitor. Maybe I'd get an image one out of 10 tries (turn  on) if at all.
> It appears the backlight is on, and the computer  seems to be running. 
> I have tried all the things I can think of,  including replacing 
> memory, HDD and with and without battery. I gave  them one last chance 
> before parting them out and lo and behold, now  they seem to work reliably.
> Sure looks like a GPU chip, but I would  expect them to die completely. 
> Maybe they were just tired and needed  a rest!
> Any ideas of what's going on?

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