Your backlight went out. An LCD has a lightbulb behind the screen (on many laptops, you can see the light itself if you look from the side, just between the bezel and screen. This is almost always covered by warranty, but a 5150 is way too old to be covered. You might be able to get a scrapped one with a functional screen off eBay. Otherwise, Gateway will probably still repair it, but they'll probably charge in the neighborhood of $300. Check with them before you lose all hope, though. Perhaps there are generic LCD backlights you can buy and install, too. I have no real idea about that. Sorry I don't have better news for you. John > -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Josh Trutwin > Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 12:52 PM > To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > Subject: [TCLUG] [OT] Laptop LCD Problems > > > I have a laptop that is running Linux but I d not think this > is a linux problem. Yesterday I powered off my old Gateway > 5150 and today when I powered it back on, the LCD screen is > EXTREMEMELY dark, almost completely black, but if you look > very closely you can barely see the boot messages and the GDM > login prompt when it comes up and I can SSH in. If I plug it > into a monitor it looks fine too. No matter what I try I > cannot get the brightness back to an even readable level. > This occurs right from the BIOS messages so it has to be a > hardware issue. > > Anyone have any suggestions? (Yes, I tried the brightness > function keys) > > Anyone know of a good repair shop otherwise? I don't want to > junk this thing as I spent so much time getting it just the > way I like it. > > Thx, > > Josh _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list