HP Pavilion DV2000 - Black Screen

[amjjawad]

Hi,

Lately, I have started a Real Life Campaign to Convert my neighbours from Windows to Linux. So far, 5 machines have been converted successfully.

I am trying to convert the 6th machine now and that machine is: HP Pavilion DV2000 - Intel Centrino, 3GB RAM (I guess) and it seems it has Windows Vista.

I was able to enter BIOS as I was trying to change the boot order to boot from a LiveUSB to wipe it and install Xubuntu 13.10 but suddenly, the machine is ON but NOTHING on the monitor. The colour of the monitor turns from black to gray so I know it works but there is nothing at all on the screen.

I took the RAMs out, I got the Beep. Inserted the RAM back in, turned it on, same.

My neighbour said his machine (DV2000) had Graphics Card problems and he took it to someone but it seems they didn't manage to fix it. He was about to get rid of it but he did read a post from me on a facebook group for our community/neighbourhood (where we live - me and my neighbour), that post was about Linux and I was offering my help to breathe new life into old machines so he became interested and decided not to get rid of that machine yet.

I am keen to wipe Windows and Install Xubuntu or any other variant of Ubuntu but I am not sure how to actually 'see' something on the monitor!

I connected it the laptop to my 32'' LCD but I got No Signal.

I do hope this machine is not yet dead/useless

Thank you!

[jboyette]

It certainly supports the suspicion of the graphics card having an issue. Since you can't use an external monitor, and the back light on the computer itself is coming on, (grey screen) it isn't the laptop itself, but the graphics card. I am afraid you have a brick. If you DID get Ubuntu installed, its impossible to say how long it would work. I suppose it dying now just saved you hours of useless troubleshooting future issues!

[amjjawad]

It certainly supports the suspicion of the graphics card having an issue. Since you can't use an external monitor, and the back light on the computer itself is coming on, (grey screen) it isn't the laptop itself, but the graphics card. I am afraid you have a brick. If you DID get Ubuntu installed, its impossible to say how long it would work. I suppose it dying now just saved you hours of useless troubleshooting future issues!

Hi,

I do suspect that and share the same opinion of yours. However, I refused to give up and thought to give it a go.

Odd enough, it was working and I was able to enter BIOS, etc. I have no idea why it stopped.

My neighbour said his laptop was overheating a lot and that caused the graphics card to stop working or cause problems. Maybe someone told him this information already.

Oh, by the way, it has Nvidia Graphics Card and not sure if it has both internet and external card or just the Nvidia as I didn't have much time to look deeper, it didn't even let me to do so.

[amjjawad]

Update:
I managed to see something on the screen.
I was able to enter BIOS, change the booting order.
I was able to boot from the LiveUSB of Xubuntu 12.04.3 and
I was on the Live Desktop

However, I can't see anything now and the desktop was frozen and even the mouse cursor was frozen but when it started to move again, I was unable to do anything.

[amjjawad]

I have tried so many times to at least see something on the monitor rather than the grey screen but so far, no success. I don't know what else do I need to try?

[fantab]

Is it only Ubuntu that you can't see on the monitor or nothing at all?
You said you are connecting the computer to your 32" screen, what happens on the original?
Have you tried the 'nomodeset' option?

[amjjawad]

Is it only Ubuntu that you can't see on the monitor or nothing at all?
You said you are connecting the computer to your 32" screen, what happens on the original?
Have you tried the 'nomodeset' option?

Hi, thanks for your post

Kindly read the first post, I couldn't yet install Linux because of the issue

As I explained, when I connected it to my 32" LCD TV, nothing happened, no signal.

I have explained everything on the previous posts

[fantab]

It could be RAM... I have this HP Laptop, where the Screen seems dead. I could hear the CPU fans and HDD and most importantly the LEDs keep blinking on the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys. The blinking of the LEDs, on investigation, turned out to be a code. Three Blinks and a Pause, it goes on until powered off. The code indicated that RAM was not working. I am yet to breathe life into it.

On my friend's laptop the BIOS would NOT boot. It turned out that the 'thermal paste' had dried up, causing heating issues, and eventually damaging the HDD.

A Bad Graphics card is also probable, as your neighbor already had both Graphics and heating issues.

The Point is it could be a hardware failure... pay attention to the beeps and flashing LEDs if any. Check on the Vendor's website for the listing of their codes and its meaning.
I don't think is a software issue at all.

My two cents...

[amjjawad]

It could be RAM... I have this HP Laptop, where the Screen seems dead. I could hear the CPU fans and HDD and most importantly the LEDs keep blinking on the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys. The blinking of the LEDs, on investigation, turned out to be a code. Three Blinks and a Pause, it goes on until powered off. The code indicated that RAM was not working. I am yet to breathe life into it.

On my friend's laptop the BIOS would NOT boot. It turned out that the 'thermal paste' had dried up, causing heating issues, and eventually damaging the HDD.

A Bad Graphics card is also probable, as your neighbor already had both Graphics and heating issues.

The Point is it could be a hardware failure... pay attention to the beeps and flashing LEDs if any. Check on the Vendor's website for the listing of their codes and its meaning.
I don't think is a software issue at all.

My two cents...

Hi,

As I explained on my first post, I took the RAM out and heard the beep, put it back in, heard nothing. When I was able to enter BIOS, I saw it is reading the 3GB RAM installed so I can tell the RAM is working just fine

As for Blinking, nothing at all.

Most likely, it is the Graphics Card.

[amjjawad]

Just a while ago, I gave that laptop yet another try but ... nothing at all
I think the overheating had damaged the graphics card (nvidia) or something else.

I have tried again to connect it to my 32" LCD but still no signal.

I told my neighbour about the status of the machine. He still thinks he can get something out of that machine and will take it to someone who knows about Hardware (fixing hardware issues is beyond my knowledge) but IMHO, I don't think it is worthy because he did that previously and that didn't help. So, it is up to him.