2012-03-11

Fixing Dell Inspiron laptop's white blank screen at booting

The quick fix is very easy.
  1. Remove the battery and disconnect the power cord (from the laptop! not the wall outlet). 
  2. Press power button for a few second. 
  3. Connect the power cord. Press the power button to start and then dock the battery. 
Long story: I had this problem once when I was on travel! I had nothing but white blank screen, even after reboot. After googling around, I found out the solution above. This problem on Dell Inspiron laptops is widely acknowledged. So is the solution. I assume it is due to some software problem in BIOS. Pressing the power button without power cord and battery resets somethings.

If you still cannot solve the problem, contact Dell.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Thank you. This worked for me. Screen back to working order.

Anonymous said...

Omg I love you! Thank you sooo much!!! You are a life saver!

Anonymous said...

Yay! it worked for me.Thank you soooo much :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks. It took a couple of goes for it to work. But unfortunately for us it did it again when logged on a few minuets later.
Thanks for your help though.

lj said...

It Worked, thanks, wasted all sort of time before googling and finding your solution.

Anonymous said...

Sadly didnt work for me .. seems to hv done so for everyone else !

Anonymous said...

To be honest I never thought this would really works but it did. I'm so happy :) Thank you very much for your help!!

Jim Kelly said...

It works for me every now and then. The only thing that pressing the power button does without power is release all the energy stored in the capacitors. A good thing to do if you have a stubborn virus that seems to always come back after it's been cleaned.
My white screen has something to do with the power cord. With the battery out my computer will boot to a white screen unless I hold the connection in a pinch. What I mean is I will hold the input on my laptop in or put some pressure on it in one direction or the other and it will usually work. I have to hold it until it hs booted fully. I read somewhere that Dell replaced their screen under warranty and that worked to. I find it unacceptable that Dell hasn't posted a cause and repair for this problem.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a ton! It really worked and I hope, Dell must also provide this link on its troubleshooting references in order to resolve such kind of Laptop issues.

Thanks again!
Harish

Anonymous said...

When I put the battery back in, the screen went white again, but if I undocked the battery while leaving the power cord plugged into the laptop, I was able to reboot and log in. It's probably just time for a new computer, but at least I can back everything up now first! Thank you for the suggestion!

Anonymous said...

Perfect, followed your steps and it worked straight away.

Unknown said...

U r a star....god bless u with more ideas

Anonymous said...

How might this solution work or translate to the Dell Inspiron Duo, since it's virtually impossible to access the battery...thanks...

Anonymous said...

worked for me too

Anonymous said...

Whoo hoo! Thank you SO much!! Thankfully I saw this in my search results on page 1: "wasted all sort of time before googling and finding your solution"

Regardless, I just need to get all my stuff off of it & it can happen however many more times it wants! It's olllllllld anyway :)

Icecream said...

You saved me from my annoying laptop :) Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Idk how to Thank you but Broda I just love ya for this. It was a very good day going for me until I came across my laptop's white screen & I was not at all aware about how to get it back on its working condition. And I just googled, after watching a video on youtube & visiting 2-3 online forums I came across your blog. And in the first read I thought it surely would be totally useless but then I saw too many good comments I thought I should give it a try & when I just removed the battery, plugged in the charged & pressed the power button, I was like "WOWW"

Thank you so much. Keep up the good work (:

- Rithish

Anonymous said...

Thnaks a lot it worked.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a ton .. Works for now :)

Nandy said...

Hi all,

if still not solve with the above way on your laptop, try this one, pressing "D" button + power button at the same time. Just wait it until the white screen disappear

Anonymous said...

Thanks!

I have had the same problem with a new HP ProBook 4740s. Now the boot is clean, no white stripes.

Thank you again!

Kind Regards,
Zoda

Anonymous said...

Omg it worked!! Thanks!!

Nikhil said...

If that doesn't fix the problem then simply unplug the connectors on the video cable. Unplug and reconnect both ends of the cable (the mainboard and display panel connectors).Even if that doesn't solve the problem then you might have to go for replacement of the panel.

Nikhil said...

If that doesn't fix the problem then simply unplug the connectors on the video cable. Unplug and reconnect both ends of the cable (the mainboard and display panel connectors).Even if that doesn't solve the problem then you might have to go for replacement of the panel.

Anonymous said...

I have a straight vertical blank line, on my inspiron 1501 laptop screen, removed the power line & battery.
Still have the straight vertical blank line, on my screen...

nutan said...

Thank you so so much dear. I was totally dead when I found the same problem in my laptop And I was thinking to just format it and re-install the OS again or just to give my laptop to service center and will forget it for few days (too big thing for me as I am so much in love with it). But then I found your post and I thought huh how would it solve the problem but then I thought why not try before forgetting my laptop for few days AND wow!!! it worked perfectly this time. Thank you very much.

Unknown said...

Also, try this - shut lid for a few seconds & reopen.

If power settings are set to go to standby on lid shut, this should work. Works for me with Ubuntu 12.04 live dvd boot, these are default power settings.

Kind of a kludge, but going into & out of standby (suspend in windows?) seems to recover video.

See -http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-2128257.html

Zan Strausz

solimike said...

Initially impressed that the removal of battery and power-button trick seemed to work, but then screen blanked a few hours later and wouldn't reset trying the trick again.

As Nikhil says, I then dug deeper (YouTube has some good videos on getting access to the cable) and found that the plug into the motherboard had worked slightly loose. Since the motherboard plug is very close to the hinge, I think repeated flexing of the cable as the laptop is opened and closed can cause the plug to work loose.

Anyway, daughter now happy with laptop back working and dad has gained some much needed qudos! Thanks for the useful guidance that gave me confidence to dig in!

Anonymous said...

thanks, looks like its working

Anonymous said...

Wow, I was just about to open the computer and look for stuff when I saw your post. as someone has said, I didn't belive it would work..
But it does!
Thank you

Anonymous said...

Symptoms:
1. No beeps
2. White screen throughout
3. Was able to connect external monitor/LCD.
Many Solutions Tried but
'Power button+D' worked for me.
Thanks Nandy.

Anonymous said...

you rock forrest worked great!

Anonymous said...

Worked for me - amazing. Thanks very much.