laptop dilemma

Hey guys...

My laptop, which has my property software on it, has gone to god. Now it SUDDENLY went to god and caught me unawares (how many of you are nodding your head eh?) and I've not backed up for aaaaaaaagesssssssss.

Anyway, I think the laptop is firing up, but the screen stays ominously blank. I tried connecting an old monitor to the laptop, and when I switch it on, the second monitor gets the windows XP logo, then the second monitor goes blank as well.

Any computer gurus dare to make a clinical diagnosis based on the info above. I dont really care that its gone to god, its done its time (about 5 years hard labour!!) but I would like the opportunity to back up all the photos and documents that are on it...

Any advice?

Luvvit.
 
OK - Assuming you dont have a hard disk password, go and buy a cheap USB 3.5 inch Hard Disk Drive enclosure and take that and your laptop around to your friendly neighborhood computer dorks house.

If you dont have a hard disk password, it should be a snap to copy the contents of the hard drive to a spare drive and then move the data off to your new machine.
 
- pray that your laptop hard disk drive (HDD) is intact
- determine if it's IDE or SATA HDD
- get an external HDD enclosure (or dock) for it from your local PC shop (e.g. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=177_286)
- use the same to get the required data off the hard disk -- you will need another pc/laptop to read off the hard disk

alternately take the laptop to your local pc shop and they might be able to fix it / recover the data ?

good luck
 
Anyway, I think the laptop is firing up, but the screen stays ominously blank. I tried connecting an old monitor to the laptop, and when I switch it on, the second monitor gets the windows XP logo, then the second monitor goes blank as well.

Luvvit.

If you're seeing the XP Logo it may be worth trying to boot into VGA or Safe mode.

1. Restart your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.

2. Select an option when the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, and then press ENTER.

3. When the Boot menu appears again, and the words "Safe Mode" appear in blue at the bottom, select the installation that you want to start, and then press ENTER.

It sounds like your PC is failing to boot into the OS, which is a good sign as it means the HDD is in tact (for now at least).
 
Guys,

Thanks so much for your input. JoeC I was able to start the lappy in Safe mode and have happily transferred all my files across to my external hard drive. Your a legend, thanks so much.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all your help.

Luvvit.
 
Guys,

Thanks so much for your input. JoeC I was able to start the lappy in Safe mode and have happily transferred all my files across to my external hard drive. Your a legend, thanks so much.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all your help.

Luvvit.

Happy to hear it worked out ;)
 
Guys,

Thanks so much for your input. JoeC I was able to start the lappy in Safe mode and have happily transferred all my files across to my external hard drive. Your a legend, thanks so much.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all your help.

Luvvit.
a display settings change possibly
if there were a hardware fault, it would be more difficult to get the screen to display even in safe mode
how to reset display settings, I dunno, laptops are not quick fix repair friendly, it may be something ridiculous, a display mode not supported on the lcd.
the travelling laptop got connected to a projector thing through its external vga, and the settings changed to the max supported by the projector, and didnt change back when the projector was disconnected,
ended up taking it to a store to have it done
 
When I connect my laptop straight to the TV I get the same problem, need to put the resolution down or start in safemode.
 
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