Stacey
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Running laptop with a broken screen through another monitor?Possible?
Difficult?
I broke the screen on my 5 week old laptop  and it's going off to be fixed tomorrow. They can't guarantee that it's all that's wrong with it and my insurance policy doesn't include data recovery. There's loads of photos on there of the new grandabby and I'd quite like to shift them somewhere else - the rest doesn't matter.
So, is it possible?
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Treacodactyl
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I've done it with my old laptops, they had a standard monitor connector at the back and you just plug it in.
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Stacey
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Oooh thanks, I'll have a look 
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toggle
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should be doable. 
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Hairyloon
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If it has the VGA socket (there is on most) then it is a piece of cake.
There might be a button (usually a combination of keys: on mine it is Fn + F4) to switch between screens, but I'd expect it to default to do both.
If there is no VGA socket, then your safest bet is to pull out the hard drive (and I'd do this anyway before sending it away for repair).
You can either put it in another machine to retrieve the data, or you can convert it to an external drive (albeit temporarily) for not much money.
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Stacey
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It's not having it for some reason 
I'll just have to take my chances
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stumbling goat
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are there no specialist pc engineers you can go to before you submit your laptop?
kj
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Hairyloon
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| Stacey wrote: | | It's not having it for some reason |
Does it have a monitor socket?
What is/isn't it doing?
Does it look/sound normal apart from lack of screen?
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Stacey
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| stumbling goat wrote: | are there no specialist pc engineers you can go to before you submit your laptop?
kj |
I live in West Cornwall
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Stacey
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| Hairyloon wrote: | | Stacey wrote: | | It's not having it for some reason |
Does it have a monitor socket?
What is/isn't it doing?
Does it look/sound normal apart from lack of screen? |
It has a monitor socket but the monitor doesn't switch on. The power light goes green for a moment and then goes orange (standby I assume) It stays blank all the time. The laptop seems normal apart from the smashed screen but it's hard to tell really
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toggle
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if you are really desperate, you can hoik out the hard drive, stick it in another machine/external or internal cradle to read it. fatshit had all the kit i would ahve needed to do it.
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stumbling goat
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| Stacey wrote: | | stumbling goat wrote: | are there no specialist pc engineers you can go to before you submit your laptop?
kj |
I live in West Cornwall |
sorry, i have friends in callington and they do say it's not like the civilised world. 
kd
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Treacodactyl
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| Stacey wrote: | | It has a monitor socket but the monitor doesn't switch on. The power light goes green for a moment and then goes orange (standby I assume) It stays blank all the time. The laptop seems normal apart from the smashed screen but it's hard to tell really |
Have you tried connecting the monitor when the laptop is turned off and then powering it up? Try opening and shutting the screen and pressing a few keys such as ESC.
| toggle wrote: | | if you are really desperate, you can hoik out the hard drive, stick it in another machine/external or internal cradle to read it. fatshit had all the kit i would ahve needed to do it. |
Yep, they only cost about £10 although it can be a bit fiddly to use. I've rescued a few laptops with it.
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toggle
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yep.
thing that worries me is the comment 'smashed screen' this suggests there may be damage not visible. that could include a buggered hd. if i still had the kit i'd give it a go though.
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Treacodactyl
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I assume the screen is visibly damaged but it could be something has come lose inside and needs to be connected up before you can get it to run off a monitor. Laptop HDs are pretty robust, although I don't know what happened to the laptop to damage the screen...
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Hairyloon
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| Stacey wrote: | | It has a monitor socket but the monitor doesn't switch on. The power light goes green for a moment and then goes orange (standby I assume) It stays blank all the time. |
You know it to be a good monitor? (eliminate the obvious).
You may have to switch it to an external monitor. Look on the keyboard (probably top row) see if there is a picture of a screen (use some imagination) on any of the keys... or a bit of an extreme idea, you could RTFM.
If you don't retrieve your data, be very clear with your repair people, some will reinstall the OS as a standard practice (on the assumption that regular backups are also standard practice). You may be better to pull out the drive, then put it back when you get the machine back.
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Stacey
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I'll try a different monitor. I did wonder whether it might be that it's not good.
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