Need Laptop Help

[LittleD]

My sister used my brothers vista code on her computer and it got locked up, we sent it to a friend to have it wiped clean and repaired, new mother board and drivers and whatnot. Long story short i got it for Christmas and now the screen will go black at random times and i can't do anything unless i restart it.

What could be causing this, overheating?

[1cleantj]

check the control panel's power settings first and go from their

[grundlepunch]

My sister used my brothers vista code on her computer and it got locked up, we sent it to a friend to have it wiped clean and repaired, new mother board and drivers and whatnot. Long story short i got it for Christmas and now the screen will go black at random times and i can't do anything unless i restart it.

What could be causing this, overheating?

reading this paragraph of nonsense makes my head hurt.
why would a "locked up" vista code warrant a new mother board?
just say you pirateted the software and now the shit dont work.

oh and its hard to make any sort of prediction on whats up with the computer without looking at it physically

[LittleD]

i don't know exactly what was done on it, just know that everything had to be messed with.

[XJLI]

x2 on what dana said.

[BeachinXJ]

Is it a Dell? And was the work done at Geek Squad?

[grundlepunch]

if the motherboard was replaced, there is a possibility that the connector from the screen to the motherboard could be loose/not connected properly

or its over heating, bad video ect...

[LittleD]

it was worked on by a friend that does comp stuff for fedex, ill ask him to troubleshoot it

[BeachinXJ]

ok - since you didn't get the hint. lol.

What type of laptop is it?

[LittleD]

dell

[BeachinXJ]

Most likely - the guy didn't know what he was doing and broke the ribbon between the motherboard and monitor or the connector itself. Used to see that all the time.

Do you have an external monitor (CRT or LCD) you can plug in to see if it's the PC shutting off or if it's just the display turning off?

[LittleD]

yea, i have a monitor that my mom uses cause her screen is dead on hers, ill check tommarow

[BeachinXJ]

Cool - lemme know whatcha find

Depending on what you find, You may need to go into the event log to see what happens right before the screen goes off. If it's an overheat or hardware failure (not the screen) it will show something in the log as a critical error.

[LittleD]

it happens usually when im using it and it is sitting on top of a down comforter, could this be causing over heating. Also some times the thing will freeze, go black then come back on

[BeachinXJ]

You never want to use a laptop on a surface like that without something underneath it to keep the vents clear from the fabric.