Isn’t it a bit dark?

OK picture the scene. It’s late, I’m sitting in my dining room with a little bit of the Black Eyed Peas on the stereo, working on a new article for the boys at Laptopical. It’s warm inside with a slight dusting of snow on the window lit by the street light outside…..All is well with the world – Then the screen goes blank.

We are not talking a so called “blue screen of death” this is as black as the night outside. My laptop is still whirring away, but no display. I take a deep breath and calm down, I hit Ctrl and S, the document is saved, I hit the power and the machine powers down. Turning it back on the familiar “Ta Da” tells me the notebook is on, but the less familiar black screen tells another story about the display.

“Don’t Phunk with my Heart” starts from the stereo, and I wonder if my screen is well and truly “Phunked” as well.

However, not to keep you in suspense too much, moving over to my ancient desktop I stumbled across a great little site after i googled “Samsung V25″ and “Screen problems”. According to repair4laptop.org this is quite a common fault with my trusty V25, and with a quick cable change the next day, my portable pal could express itself visually again.

Repair4laptop.com was founded by Werner Heuser, a respected figure in the world of linux. It is a veritable encyclopedia of information about laptop modding, and a useful guide to upgrading, and repairing your mobile gadget. It has clear instructions that are written in the main by users themselves, and so is constantly growing and evolving into an even handier tool every day.

Navigation of the 1000 modding guides and articles is a breeze, with 6 tabs on the top of every page that direct you to laptops, general hardware, wireless LAN, accessories, modding and how to’s/FAQ. Every tab will take you into a further subset of model names or specific hardware, notebook computers and their associated innards. It also has a useful sitemap that will take you on a virtual tour of what awaits you within its knowledgeable pages.

If your notebook is giving you trouble, take a look at this wealth of information, bookmark it and file it under just in case. If things ever go a little off track you will be glad you did.

By Henrik Stigell – Laptopical

Saturday, March 03, 2007