Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

inkdinky · 2012-01-02 22:06:51

I have an old Dell Inspiron 2200.
I have had no problems with the display until about a week ago.
I installed lm_sensors and acpi bc I wanted to play with looking at the cpu temperature etc.
After installing the packages I would occastionally experience that the laptop screen would go dark after a few minutes of operation. If it went past ~10 minutes without this happening then it wouldn't happen.
To clarify: the screen was still on and I could faintly see what was on the screen but this was at night w all lights off. It was as if I had used the function key to set the display brightness to one notch above zero. Attempting to use the Fn+Up/Down keys did not change the display brightness. Regardless I never could turn the brightness down to this level before (even under Windows).
I then attempted to troubleshoot.
I first removed acpi (lm_sensors had been immediately removed after install as it wasn't what I wanted).
This then brought me to my current predicament.
After removing the acpi package, the BIOS screen will display but after it is done the entire screen goes black. I can hear the computer continuing the boot procedure but no display is sent to the screen.
I've tried a couple of things that I saw on the forums to solve the problem but to no avail:
a)reinstall acpi (currently not installed)
b)reinstall xf86-video-intel and add i915 to grub/menu.lst. this didn't fix so I kept intel but removed the i915 line from menu.lst
c)isntall xf86-video-fbdev : I did this because when I would ssh in it would try to start up icewm and it would give the error :(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
d)add vga=773 to the kernel line (currently removed)
e) set /sys/class/backlight/[intel|dell]_backlight/brightness to the max setting with an echo command in rc.local
f)play around w kms as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel
g) setting nomodeset in the kernel line gives me : (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory and the external monitor doesn't get anything displayed on it
I can ssh in and connecting an external monitor to the VGA port gives me a display on the external screen. The laptop screen is black but if I hit a key I get the really dark screen on the laptop display as well. (Seems like the display is going into power saving mode.)
I think the problem is related to acpi because I never had any problems until I installed that package.
Any ideas?

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
$uname -mrs
Linux 3.1.6-1-ARCH i686

There is no /etc/xorg.conf
$less /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
10-evdev.conf 10-quirks.conf 10-synaptics.conf 50-wacom.conf <--these all seem input related due to name and contents. I can post if desired.

I wish I could reinstall but the screen is blank when I try to go into the BIOS settings to change boot order.

/dev/zero · 2012-01-02 22:32:23

When I stfw for this problem, the responses I see seem to indicate it's a problem with the hardware. Eg, maybe your screen has died, or maybe one of the cables inside your laptop has come detached.

inkdinky · 2012-01-02 22:46:59

Thanks for the response, however I did perform as much of a hardware check as I could.
I opened the laptop and popped and reseated the cable from the mobo to the screen.
Also when I boot I see the BIOS screen. Once it is done w the bios then the screen blanks.
Also when the powersaving features of the laptop stop sending a signal and then I reawaken the display by hitting a key, the screen on the laptop turns on, but just to the really low barely noticeable level.

inkdinky · 2012-01-02 22:50:07

Can someone check and see what their /sys/class/backlight/[vendor]/bl_power file contains?

/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/bl_power (END)
-132776320

/sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight/bl_power (END)
0

These are the values I have in my two bl_power files.

/dev/zero · 2012-01-02 22:57:12

inkdinky wrote:

Can someone check and see what their /sys/class/backlight/[vendor]/bl_power file contains?
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/bl_power (END)
-132776320
/sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight/bl_power (END)
0
These are the values I have in my two bl_power files.

$ find -L /sys/class/backlight -maxdepth 2 -type f -print -exec cat {} \; 2> /dev/zero
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/uevent
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/bl_power
-133386624
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
976
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/actual_brightness
976
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness
976
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/type
raw

inkdinky · 2012-01-02 23:50:44

Any other thoughts?

inkdinky · 2012-01-03 19:09:19

Just as an update, I further feel that the hardware is not at fault due to the fact that the screen shows the boot screen when booting a liveCD of Linux Mint 12. But after that initial boot screen the the screen blanks out. In a way this is exactly what is happening when booting Arch. Doesn't this indicate a problem with software? Along those lines what is the difference in the video settings at boot up/bios and those after that which are failing? Either way the external monitor works fine for Arch and for the Live CD.

Awebb · 2012-01-03 20:21:28

Go to your bios settings and see if you (or anything else) changed any relevant settings. If Arch and Mint started to behave that way out of nowhere, it must be an issue with the hardware or firmware. Try downloading a much older ISO of whatever Distro you successfully used in the past. If it doesn't work either, it's not a software problem.

Have you tried booting it with ACPI=off and noapic?

inkdinky · 2012-01-04 01:19:23

Setting noapic and acpi=off as kernel args didn't do the trick.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-02 22:06:51

Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#2 2012-01-02 22:32:23

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#3 2012-01-02 22:46:59

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#4 2012-01-02 22:50:07

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#5 2012-01-02 22:57:12

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#6 2012-01-02 23:50:44

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#7 2012-01-03 19:09:19

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#8 2012-01-03 20:21:28

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

#9 2012-01-04 01:19:23

Re: Black/blank screen after bios screen. Can ssh in.

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