Dell M4800 display backlight flashes once then turns off

[K4sum1]

Often times when I power my M4800 on, it flashes the backlight once, and I get no display. It seems to boot up as normal if I let it, just without display. If I keep restarting the laptop, eventually the backlight won't flash and the display works like normal. Does anyone know what would cause this?

[Reciever]

@MELOCODI Might have insight since you two share the same system : )

[Aaron44126]

First off, I'd reseat the display cable (probably won't fix anything but easy enough to try and there is the small potential that it is a stupid simple fix like that).  Another thing that you could try is to switch the setting for NVIDIA Optimus / graphics switching on or off and see if that changes the behavior, could give a hint as the display panel would be "attached" to the iGPU or the dGPU depending on the configuration there.

 

But assuming that changes nothing, next, I'd be worried about the display panel itself and start thinking about replacing it.

[K4sum1]

It seems to be more reliable with Optimus off, however brightness is broken. White pages flashbang me.

 

I probably should also give more detail with my tests.

 

I was using the laptop with Optimus, but I had a bug where my screen would sometimes get locked to 1024x768 if it turned off without sleeping. I ran DDU to remove the Intel drivers so I could try some new ones, and then it began. I got Intel drivers installed after a lot of reboots, but I can't seem to get into Windows without a black screen with drivers, meaning I'm basically locked using without Optimus I guess. I have tried rebooting without Optimus and it hasn't happened once so far.

[electrosoft]

18 hours ago, K4sum1 said:

Often times when I power my M4800 on, it flashes the backlight once, and I get no display. It seems to boot up as normal if I let it, just without display. If I keep restarting the laptop, eventually the backlight won't flash and the display works like normal. Does anyone know what would cause this?

 

Is this stock hardware or did you upgrade to the M2200M? Was it working fine with the hardware as presented but recently started having issues?

 

 

[K4sum1]

I upgraded to the M2200, I didn't test the stock GPU much.

[Aaron44126]

Funny because the issue occurs with Optimus turned on... if the GPU upgrade was causing an issue with the display panel, I would expect it to be more problematic with Optimus off.  (With my M6700 + M5000M, I basically had to keep Optimus on because of odd behaviors and stability issues that would occur if I did not.)

[MELOCODI]

Hmmm, that's weird, reminds me of my second monitor on my PC, but in that case it was related to capacitors going bad. Not sure about that to be honest, I don't have that issue on my M4800. Can't test Optimus off because I have an LA-9771P mobo so no eDP.

[raptorddd]

On 9/28/2023 at 7:05 PM, K4sum1 said:

It seems to be more reliable with Optimus off, however brightness is broken. White pages flashbang me.

 

I probably should also give more detail with my tests.

 

I was using the laptop with Optimus, but I had a bug where my screen would sometimes get locked to 1024x768 if it turned off without sleeping. I ran DDU to remove the Intel drivers so I could try some new ones, and then it began. I got Intel drivers installed after a lot of reboots, but I can't seem to get into Windows without a black screen with drivers, meaning I'm basically locked using without Optimus I guess. I have tried rebooting without Optimus and it hasn't happened once so far.

something similar happened to me on m4600 

i was testing optimus on and off in games. like oblivion off i get around 200fps but on i get around 94 fps. 

when i switch to on after a reboot it would show empty balck screen but i could hear it getting to the log on screen by the sound it has at log in.

 

i didnt even see the dell logo nor bios. nothing just a dark screen.

i dont know what fixed but . i took it apart and removed the display flex cable and re attached i also removed the nvidia gpu . if i remember correctly i turn it on only with the built in intel hd3000 gpu and got display visual . went ahead and installed the nvidia gpu and that made mine work..

 

[K4sum1]

I'll try a screen upgrade soon since I have the eDP model, that will be when I'll reseat the cable.